The Bull of Scapa Flow

On August 19th, 1939—just days before Hitler’s invasion of Poland, newly-minted U-boat captain Gunther Prien departed a German sub base at Kiel on his first war patrol aboard U-47, a Type VIIB U-boat carrying 14 torpedoes, an 8.8-centimeter naval gun, a 2-centimeter anti-aircraft gun and 33 tons of additional fuel in external tanks, which gave U-47 a range of 2,800 miles. At first, Prien circumnavigated the British Isles on a reconnaissance mission, until Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared war on Germany on September 3rd, 1939.

First Blood

Two days later, Prien and his crew of four officers and 43 men entered the Bay of Biscay, sending the SS Bosnia, Rio Carlo, and Gardevan to their watery graves over the course of a few short days. Returning home to Germany for a well-deserved rest, Kriegsmarine commander Admiral Karl Dönitz summoned Prien to his office, tasking the young captain with a potential suicide mission involving an attack on Britain’s most important Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow, tucked inside the Orkney Island off the northern coast of Scotland, which had been used as a safe harbor as far back as the Vikings.

A Tricky Approach

Departing on October 8th, 1939, Prien cautiously approached Scapa Flow through a series of treacherously narrow and shallow channels with fast racing tides, avoiding block ships and floating booms that the British had put in place after WW1. When Prien and his men finally entered Scapa Flow, they quickly realized that the British had dispersed their fleet after the outbreak of war, and after several patrolling warships proved out of range for U-47’s torpedoes, Prien shot four torpedoes at the HMS Royal Oak, each failing to find their mark. Reloading yet again, his second salvo of three torpedoes decimated the Royal oak, taking the lives of 833 men, including Rear Admiral Henry Blagrove.

A National Hero

Returning home to a hero’s welcome, including a personal reception by Dönitz and Hitler himself, Prien became the first U-Boat commander to be awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. Nicknamed “The Bull of Scapa Flow” for his gutsy incursion and escape from the notorious British port, Prien and his U-47 would go on to sink 30 Allied ships worth 200,000 tons, until she mysteriously disappeared on her tenth patron in March of 1941, never to be seen again. While some historians believe U-47 was sunk on March 7th by HMS Wolverine off the west coast of Ireland, others believe she was lost due to mechanical failure, a mine encounter or a malfunctioning torpedo, making the Bull of Scapa Flow, a long-remembered legend among German submariners.