YESTERDAY IN HISTORY, 14 OCTOBER (1939) The German submarine U-47 under the command of Günther Prien succeeded in penetrating the Royal Navys primary base at Scapa Flow. Although most of the Home Fleet was not at the base at the time, U-47 managed to find a target, the battleship HMS Royal Oak. The torpedoes struck the British warship, causing severe flooding. Taking on a list of 15 degrees, her open portholes were submerged, worsening the flooding and increasing the list to 45 degrees; Royal Oak sank within 15 minutes with the loss of over 800 men. The audacious attack on the battleship Royal Oak by U-47 at the base at Scapa Flow has to go down as one of the legendary stories in naval history, both for the significance of the events and the way in which the feat was accomplished. The raid on Scapa Flow was one of those moments that will always be highlighted in the annals of warfare, a testament to the skill, craft and bravery of all of those involved. The raid was one of the defining moments of the war, in that it shook to British high command into realising that they were not so invincible after all - which in turn was to lead to the beginning of a more concerted effort to combat the U-boat threat. U-47 went missing on 7 March 1941, and there is no official record of what happened to U-47 or her 45 crewmen, although a variety of possibilities exist, including mines, a mechanical failure, a victim of her own torpedoes, or possibly a later attack that did not confirm any claims by the corvette team of HMS Camellia and HMS Arbutus.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 08:17:02 +0000
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