Question, who was nicknamed the "bull of scapa flow" ?

Fritziii

Guenter Prien

He is the chap who navigated through tight spot in the reef and sunken ships used to block the harbor Scapa Flow which was supposible unbreechable to sink the HMS Royal Oak. He was later honered by Hitler and I believe he got an Knights Cross or something on those lines.

Fritzii,

Here is so more detailed info:

Günther Prien
Born 16 Jan, 1908 Osterfeld, Thüringen
Died 7 Mar, 1941 North Atlantic.

The Admiral of U-boat´s, Dönitz, handpicked him for the Scapaflow mission. Unfortunatelly, a few days before Prien entered into the heavily guarded bay, the Royal Navy Aircraft carriers had left, leaving less targets for the U-boat commander.

The "Knights Cross or something" that Adam mentions, was actually the first Knights Cross of the 1939 Iron Cross ever awarded by Hitler. The attached photo is taken during the award ceremony.

I have in my collection a hand signed U-boat postcard, signed on front by Prien and with his writing on back to a fan. The postcard bears the feldpost number M 18 837 for his U-boat, the U-47, dated 2 months before he sank. The fate of his boat is still unclear.

More info: http://uboat.net/men/prien.htm

and even a website dedicated to him and his boat:

http://www.u47.org/

Hope this helps. Why are you interested in him? The snorting bull emblem was used on more U-boats in Priens Flottilla.

Regards

Hinrik

Great site, that is one thing I have always been interested in was the unterseeboot.

Here is my latest U-boat item, a 10,5 cm shell from the later war boat´s deck gun. U-boat items are fun to collect, but be careful, so many fakes out there.

Regards

Hinrik

Hanhart Stopwatch, used to time torpedo inpact time.

KM eagle on back