Günther Prien (16 January 1908 – presumed 8 March 1941) was a German U-boat commander during World War II. He was the first U-boat commander to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and the first member of the Kriegsmarine to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany. It was Germany's highest military decoration at the time of its presentation to Prien.
Under Prien's command, the submarine was credited with sinking over 30 Allied ships totalling about , along with the British battleship at anchor in the Home Fleet's anchorage in Scapa Flow. Prien died when U-47 was lost on 8 March 1941.
Early life and career Prien was one of three children of a judge and completed his basic education. At the age of five, Prien had been living with relatives, the notary Carl Hahn and his wife, in Lübeck. There he attended the Katharineum, a humanistic secondary school. After his parents separated, Prien moved with his mother and siblings to Leipzig where she eked out a living selling peasant lace. Prien joined the Handelsflotte (German merchant marine) in mid-1923 to ease the financial burden on his family. He applied to and joined the Finkenwerder–Hamburg Seaman's School. After eight years of work and study as a seaman, rising from cabin boy on a sailing ship, Prien passed the required examinations and became the fourth officer on a passenger liner, the . Prien learned telegraphy, ship handling, leadership, and laws of the sea. In 1931 he became first mate and attended school for a commission. Prien received his sea master's certificate in January 1932.
Unable to find work due to the severe contraction of the German shipping industry during the Great Depression, he was forced to turn to the Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst ('Voluntary Labour Service', FAD). He earned a living dredging fields and digging ditches. Prien joined the Nazi Party in May 1932, but had to resign his membership upon joining the navy prior to Hitler's ascent to power. His membership in the party cemented Prien's image as a Nazi supporter, though his actions have been described as career advancing opportunism rather than genuine political conviction; one author wrote "it is hard to determine his politics." However, Donald Macintyre described Prien as "the most Nazified U-boat captain", "an ardent ruthless Nazi".article, p. 32 onwards, in issue 4, of War Monthly, Marshall Cavendish 1974 Prien applied to the Reichsmarine in January 1933 when he found the navy was offering officer-candidate programs for merchant marine officers. He was integrated into the Reichsmarine as a member of "Crew 31" (the incoming class of 1931), but had the age and experience of a 1926 class.
Prien received his military basic training in the 2nd company in the 2nd department of the standing ship division of the Baltic Sea in Stralsund (16 January 1933 – 31 March 1933).2nd company—2. Kompanie2nd department—II. Abteilungstanding ship division—Schiffsstammdivision During this time he advanced in rank to Fähnrich zur See (naval cadet) on 1 March. He then attended the main cadet course at the Naval Academy Mürwik and various weapons courses for cadets at Kiel (1 April 1933 – 30 September 1934).main cadet course—Hauptlehrgang für Fähnricheweapons course for cadets—Waffenlehrgang für Fähnriche From 1 October 1934 to 30 September 1935, Prien served as watch and division officer on the light cruiser Königsberg. On this assignment, he was promoted to Oberfähnrich zur See (senior midshipman) on 1 January 1935 and to Leutnant zur See (acting sub-lieutenant) on 1 April 1935. Prien then joined the U-boat training force. Prien attended the U-boat school in Kiel from 1 October 1935 to 30 April 1936. His training included a specialized U-boat torpedo course which was held on .
On 11 May 1936, Prien was appointed first Watch Officer on , serving under the command of Werner Hartmann after forming a bond at the training school. At Hartmann's request Prien was assigned to his submarine, which served in the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Prien rose steadily in rank, from midshipman in 1933 to Oberleutnant zur See (sub-lieutenant) on 1 January 1937. On 1 October 1937, Prien was ordered to the Germaniawerft, the shipbuilding works in Kiel, for construction training of the new Type VIIB . He commissioned U-47 on 17 December 1938 which was part of the Wegener Flotilla. Prien was promoted to Kapitänleutnant (Captain lieutenant) on 1 February 1939.
Prien married Ingeborg in 1939; the couple had two children. Ingeborg Prien later married an Oberstleutnant in the Bundeswehr and changed her name to Inge Sturm-Prien.
World War II World War II commenced during Prien's first patrol in U-47, following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Prien had departed Kiel on 19 August for a patrol lasting 28 days. On 5 September, he sank the British Bosnia of , the second ship of the war to be sunk by a U-boat. The prize regulations were in force at the time, so Prien was obliged to stop the ship. After identifying her as British he surfaced alongside her and fired a warning shot from the deck gun. The ship turned away to escape and it took six hits and a fire in her hold full of sulphur to bring it to a stop. Prien asked a passing neutral Norwegian ship to take the crew. The damaged ship was finished with a torpedo. His boat sank two British vessels, Rio Claro of on the 6th, and Gartavon of on the 7th. The sinkings were notable for Prien's use of the deck gun, which was rare. U-47 returned to Kiel on 15 September having sunk a total tonnage of . Prien was recalled by Dönitz to prevent all boats returning simultaneously leaving none on patrol.
Second patrol: Scapa Flow On 1 October 1939, Karl Dönitz became a Konteradmiral (rear admiral) and "Commander of the Submarines" (Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote, BdU). Dönitz had been encouraged in operations against warships by the sinking of aircraft carrier Courageous in September 1939. On 28 September 1939 he said, "it is not true Britain possesses the means to eliminate the U-boat menace." Dönitz was busy convincing Hitler of the need for 300 operational boats to achieve decisive success against Britain. Dönitz was attracted to the prospect of attacking the Royal Navy anchorage at Scapa Flow at the outbreak of war, to win a victory for his command. In World War I, two German submarines had tried and failed. Undaunted he ordered German submarine U-16 to reconnoitre the region and requested Luftwaffe reconnaissance. From the air and sea reports Dönitz concluded that there was an 18-yard gap in the northeast entrance, between blockships sunk to bar the gap from Lamb Holm and the mainland. Dönitz selected Prien and U-47 for the task. Prien was his favourite, and according to Dönitz "possessed all the personal qualities and professional abilities required."
Prien left port to navigate the shallow North Sea on 8 October and did not brief his crew until mid-mission. He avoided all shipping and sat on the sea bed in daylight if possible. Prien approached Orkney in the evening of the 14 October. He surfaced four hours sailing time from the anchorage. While surfaced Prien observed the aurora borealis, which exposed the German submarine. In a post-patrol account Prien remarked it was "disgustingly light" and that – in his words – "the whole bay is lit up". At 22:00 the Orkney navigation lights came on for thirty minutes which allowed Prien to fix his position. His watch officers spotted a merchant ship and Prien dived to avoid it, but shadowed the vessel and carried out a practice attack. Despite the presence of the lights he could not see the ship through the periscope. With visibility poor while submerged he decided to carry out the attack on the surface.
Prien pressed on and passed through the narrow entrance to the sound. He selected the wrong channel—between Lamb Holm and Burray—recognising the mistake in time. He disregarded Dönitz's idea to pass south of the two blockships and instead sailed between the centre and northern block ship. The tide allowed the entry to be made rapidly. Prien and his crew were temporarily snared, or ran aground. Only by reversing at maximum revolutions did the U-boat free itself. U-47 entered the Flow at 00:27. Prien and his watch officers found the anchorage to be empty. Eventually they spotted "two battleships", in reality, just one; . The other was the seaplane tender Pegasus. Prien began the attack at 00:55 and concluded it at 01:28. He fired seven torpedoes, some of which failed or ran widely off target. Nevertheless, the battleship was struck by several of the second salvo and sank in 13 minutes. The sinking killed 835 of her crew, including Rear Admiral Henry Blagrove, commander of the 2nd Battle Squadron. At 02:15 U-47 exited the Flow and ordered flank speed to escape. He logged in the war diary, "a pity that only one was destroyed." Prien thought he had damaged the Repulse lying behind Royal Oak, but it was not present—the Pegasus was not hit. In the U-boat's war diary at 02:15 he wrote, "I still have five torpedoes for any merchant targets that come our way."
He returned to Germany on 17 October to instant fame. Prien and his crew were flown to Berlin aboard Hitler's personal aircraft. At the Reich Chancellery the following day, Hitler awarded Prien the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (). For Dönitz, the operation was a personal triumph. U-boat production did not increase immediately, but he had succeeded in securing Hitler's attention. Nazi propaganda exploited the success and gloated over damaged British morale. The Home Fleet did not return to Scapa Flow until March 1940, until the entry points were closed and air defences improved. The fleet was moved to Loch Ewe, but on the way the battleship Nelson was damaged by a mine laid by U-31.
Purportedly Prien did not enjoy being a propaganda tool, but he cooperated with the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, and conferenced with Joseph Goebbels. The conference was unique in that it was the first time the Nazis showcased an individual military success. American journalist William L. Shirer met Prien but was not impressed by his lack of humility and wrote of Prien that he appeared "cocky" and a "fanatical Nazi." The story that Prien had simply followed a ship into the harbour was rightly disbelieved; Prien said nothing of his route in. Prien wrote a book of his experiences during the war, Mein Weg Nach Scapa Flow (My way to Scapa Flow), released in the autumn, 1940. One historian wrote, "for a story of potentially high propaganda value, it is told with striking restraint." The media compensated for this apparent modesty. The Illustrierter Beobachter lionised Prien. It provided plenty of images of Prien, his crew and Hitler, exalting him as a hero. These sentiments were picked up and spread throughout Germany by other state-controlled media outlets.
Prien received the nickname Der Stier von Scapa Flow ("The Bull of Scapa Flow"); the emblem of a snorting bull was painted on the conning tower of U-47 and soon became the emblem of the entire 7th U-boat Flotilla. The reason, given by 1st watch officer Engelbert Endrass for this, was the sight of Prien's demeanour as U-47 entered Scapa Flow, "his frowning face and hunched shoulders reminded him of a bull in a ring." All U-boats had their number removed from the conning tower in wartime, and commanding officers often applied their own motifs. Two members of the Scapa Flow crew earned the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II: the chief engineer (Leitender Ingenieur) Johann-Friedrich Wessels and 1st watch officer (I. Wachoffizier) Engelbert Endrass.