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Born	16 Jan 1908		Osterfeld, Thüringen
Died	7 Mar 1941	(33)	North Atlantic

Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien

Ranks 16 Jan 1933 Offiziersanwärter 1 Mar 1933 Fähnrich zur See 1 Jan 1935 Oberfähnrich zur See 1 Apr 1935 Leutnant zur See 1 Jan 1937 Oberleutnant zur See 1 Feb 1939 Kapitänleutnant 1 Mar 1941 Korvettenkapitän Decorations 25 Sep 1939 Iron Cross 2nd Class 17 Oct 1939 Iron Cross 1st Class 18 Oct 1939 Knights Cross 20 Oct 1940 Knights Cross with Oak Leaves

Günther Prien joined the Reichsmarine in January 1931 after sailing some years on trade ships. After a year on the light cruiser Königsberg, he transferred in October 1935 to the U-boat force. In 1938 he was on U-26 under Kptlt. Hartmann patrolling in Spanish waters during the Civil War.

With his own boat U-47 he became famous for his 14 October, 1939 sinking of the British battleship HMS Royal Oak in the heavily defended British North Fleet main harbor at Scapa Flow. Churchill himself wrote about this outstanding feat of arms of a German U-boat commander. Prien was the first U-boat commander to win the Knights Cross.

Günther Prien was described after Scapa Flow by a US journalist:

Berlin, October 18

The place where the German U-boat sank the British battleship Royal Oak was none other than the middle of Scapa Flow, Britain's greatest naval base! It sounds incredible. A World War submarine commander told me tonight that the Germans tried twice to get a U-boat into Scapa Flow during the last war, but both attempts failed and the submarines were lost.

Günther Prien during the press conference on 18 October.

Captain Prien, commander of the submarine, came tripping into our afternoon press conference at the Propaganda Ministry this afternoon, followed by his crew - boys of eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Prien is thirty, clean-cut, cocky, a fanatical Nazi, and obviously capable. Introduced by Hitler's press chief, Dr. Dietrich, who kept cursing the English and calling Churchill a liar, Prien told us little of how he did it. He said he had no trouble getting past the boom protecting the bay. I got the impression, though he said nothing to justify it, that he must have followed a British craft, perhaps a minesweeper, into the base. British negligence must have been something terrific. *

Prien welcomes another U-boat to base. Behind him is Otto Kretschmer.

During the next 18 months Prien proved that he was one of the best German commanders. On his sixth patrol in June 1940 he sank eight ships with a total of 51,483 tons. In convoy battles Prien often was the first who found the convoys and vectored in other boats.

For example, he took part in the convoy battle against HX-79, which he discovered and shadowed. U-47 brought in the other boats and sank four ships.

Admiral Dönitz suggested to Prien at that time that Prien should transfer to a training unit, but Prien decided to remain on his boat.

The death of Günther Prien

U-47 left Lorient (France) for her tenth patrol on 20 February, 1941. Just four days later they attacked convoy OB-290 and sank four ships with a total of 16,310 tons. The last radio message from U-47 was received in the morning of 7 March.

Günther Prien was killed when U-47 was lost with all hands (45 men) on 7 or 8 March, 1941.

Günther Prien went aboard for his last patrol on 20 February, 1941.

This incident is now being questioned, as the traditional credit for U-47's sinking has always been attributed to the British destroyer HMS Wolverine, but new data suggests that the destroyer was actually attacking Eckermann's UA which had to withdraw from the battle with heavy damage.

It is now speculated that U-47 was hit by one of her own circling torpedoes. (Two US submarines in the Pacific are also believed to have been lost to the same sort of equipment failure.)

* Shirer, William L. : Berlin Diary 1934 - 1941.

Sources

Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

About ranks and decorations
Ranks shown in italics are our database inserts based on the rank dates of his crew comrades. The officers of each crew would normally have progressed through the lower ranks at the same rate.

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