Hello to all
; something more..........the truth is I could not resist the temptation to write about Prien, so be patient....
The KrvKpt Günther Prien and U-47.
Günther Prien was born on January 16, 1908 in Osterfeld, Thüringen and died at age 33 in the North Atlantic on March 8, 1941.
The only command of KrvKpt Günther Prien was the U-47, which led from being put into service until the end.
He joined the Kriegsmarine in January
1933, was transferred to the submarine force in October 1935. Patrolled the Spanish waters in 1938 during the civil war aboard U-26 (Kptlt Hartmann).
Hartmann and Prien aboard the U-26……………
In December 1938 he received his own command, the U-47 which became famous when on October 14, 1939 managed to get into the naval base of Scapa Flow and sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak.
His finest hour, receiving the greetings of the crew of the Scharnhorst.
The team's feat: Dönitz the manager and Prien the executor............
William Shirer commented:
The place where the German submarine sank the British battleship Royal Oak was none other than the center of Scapa Flow, the largest naval base in Britain! It sounds incredible. A submarine commander of World War I said tonight that the Germans tried twice to enter with a submarine in Scapa Flow during the last war, but both attempts failed and the submarines were lost.
Prien and Dr Dietrich.
Captain Prien, commander of the submarine, arrived at our press conference in the afternoon at the Ministry of Propaganda, followed by his crew - boys of eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Prien is thirty, clean-cut, cocky, a fanatical Nazi, and capable, obviously. Presented by Hitler's press chief, Dr. Dietrich, who cursed the British and called Churchill a liar. Prien told us a little how he did it. He said he had struggled to penetrate beyond the boom protecting the bay. I have the impression, though he said nothing to justify it, he should have followed a British ship, perhaps a minesweeper, en route to the base. British negligence must have been something terrible. *
* Shirer, William L. : Berlin Diary 1934 – 1941
Sources:
http://uboat.net/men/aces
http://www.german-uboats.com/
Mein Weg Nach Scapa Flow.
Prien Greift an.
Cheers. Raúl M
.
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