On Sunday the 8th of October 1939, Kapitanleutnant Gunther Prien and the crew of U47 sailed out of Keil canal and headed for the British Naval base of Scapa flow in the Orkneys. His mission was to attack that ever was in there, a job which two German submarines tried and failed to do in WWI.

H.M.S Royal Oak returned to Scapa flow on the 11th of October from her patrol of the Fair isles looking for the German heavy cruiser Gneisenau, she entered Scapa and took her usual position in the north west corner.

U47 entered Scapa flow via Kirk sound, just after midnight of the 14th.

Kirk sound had three sunken blockships, the Minich, Thames & Soriano placed to make it impassable to submarines, also various chains and ropes were across the gaps between the wrecks. But a survey of the sound months before the war found there to be gaps, especially a ft. gap south of the Thames. So two other ships were to be sunk in order to fill them. Also the Scapa defences consisted of six drifters to keep look out & drop depth charges, on the night of 13-14th only two were in operation.

U47 made her way to the main fleet anchorage but failed to see the heavy cruisers Belfast & Caledon, and the light cruisers Delhi & Columbo. So Prien turned back and spotted that he thought were the the Royal Oak and mistakenly the Repulse, she was in fact the old sea plane carrier Pegasus.

prien's log states: Two battleships are lying there, further inshore destroyers at anchor. Cruisers not to be seen, attack on two fat fellows. distance 3,000 meters. estimated depth 7.5 meters. impact firing 0116hr (time queried in pencil, 0058 suggested, names of Repulse & Royal Oak added in pencil) one shot at northern ship, two at southern. after a good 3 1/2 minutes, a torpedo detonates on the northern ship , of the other two nothing is to be seen. about 0121 (time queried in pencil, 0102 suggested) shot from stern tubes.

The explosion in the above log did in fact hit Royal Oak, in the bow at 0104, the explosion was felt differently all over the ship, crew were blown out of their hammocks and the anchor chains run out. of the crew that got up to investigate including the captain William Benn, were told that is was an internal explosion from the CO2 bottles in the refrigeration plant in the bows, many went back to sleep.

Twelve minutes later at 0116, U47 fired three more torpedoes. Royal Oak immediately took a 20 degree list to port, she capsized and sank thirteen minutes later at 0129, with the loss of 833 lives, including the 2nd battle squadron commander Rear Admiral Blagrove.

U47 made her way out the same way she came in, and at 0215 was in open waters.

The first Signals were sent to the Admiralty in London at 0200 stated that Royal Oak had sunk due to a series of explosions. it was only after the thirteenth signal at 0746 that they realized that she had been sunk by a torpedo. parts of the type G7e No 2874 German electrical torpedo were found along side the wreck, by divers sent down at 0641.

Two days later the Germans attacked Scapa flow by aircraft the only ship in was the old Dreadnought, H.M.S. Iron Duke, now the headquarters of the Admiral commanding Orkneys & Shetlands. She was hit and had to be beached.

Before the attacks on Royal Oak and Iron duke the defences at Scapa flow consisted of sixteen AA guns and searchlights that only pointed out to sea.

after the inquiry on the Sinking of Royal Oak, eighty heavy & fifty three light AA guns, and one hundred & eight searchlights were in place, alas all too late for 833 sailors and marines.

This account was sourced from the following books

Nightmare at Scapa Flow. by H.J.Weaver. Cressrelles publishing. isbn 0- 85956 025- 2

&

Engage the enemy more closely (the Royal Navy in the second world war) by Correlli Barnett. Hodder & Stoughton. isbn 0- 340 33901- 2