UNTERSEEBOOT 47 (1938)

'Unterseeboot 47' (''U-47'') was a German type VII B U-Boat (submarine). She was laid down on February 25 1937 at Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel and went into service on December 17 1938. [1]
''U-47'' became famous when, on October 14 1939, under the command of Günther Prien, she managed to enter the base of the British home fleet at Scapa Flow through a hole in the defence line, and sank the battleship HMS ''Royal Oak''.
''U-47'' carried out ten combat patrols and spent a total of 238 days at sea. She sank 30 enemy merchant ships (164,953 tons) and damaged eight more. She did lose a sailor, Heinrich Mantyk, overboard on September 5 1940.
U-47 had a displacement of 761 metric tons, 865 tons submerged. She was powered by two 1400 PS (1 MW) diesel engines and two 375 PS (280 kW) electric motors. Her speed was 17 knots (31 km/h) on the surface and 7.6 knots (14 km/h) submerged. Her underwater armament consisted of four torpedo tubes in the bow and one in the stern. The deck artillery consisted of an 88 mm gun and a 20 mm anti-aircraft automatic cannon. The vessel's range was 6500 nautical miles (12,000 km).

Contents

Fate

Raiding career

Crew

External links

Fate

''U-47'' went missing on March 7 1941 and she was once thought to have been sunk by the British destroyer HMS ''Wolverine'' west of Ireland, but it turned out that the ship attacked there was actually the ''U-A'', part of the Foreign U-Boats corp. To date, there is no official record of what happened to the ''U-47'' or her 45 crewmen, though a variety of possibilities exist, including mines, a mechanical failure, a victim of her own torpedoes, or possibly a later attack that didn't confirm any kills - by the corvette team of HMS ''Camellia'' and HMS ''Arbutus''.
Many years later, in September 2002, one of the unexploded torpedoes that the U-47 had fired off-course during the attack on HMS ''Royal Oak'' rose to the surface from its resting place at the bottom. The unexploded torpedo, minus its warhead, gradually drifted towards the shore, where it was spotted by a crewman aboard the Norwegian tanker ''Petrotrym''. A Royal Navy tugboat intercepted the torpedo, and after identifying it as belonging to the U-47 63 years earlier, EOD personnel detonated it a mile from shore.

Raiding career

Date	Ship	Nationality	Tonnage	Fate
5 September 1939	SS ''Bosnia''	Belgian	2,407	Sunk
6 September 1939	SS ''Rio Claro''	British	4,086	Sunk
7 September 1939	SS ''Gartavon''	British	1,777	Sunk
14 October 1939	HMS ''Royal Oak''	British	29,150	Sunk
5 December 1939	SS ''Novasota''	British	8,795	Sunk
6 December 1939	MV ''Britta''	Norwegian	6,214	Sunk
7 December 1939	MV ''Tajandoen''	Dutch	8,159	Sunk
25 March 1940	SS ''Britta''	Danish	1,146	Sunk
14 June 1940	SS ''Balmoralwood''	British	5,834	Sunk
21 June 1940	SS ''San Fernando''	British	13,056	Sunk
24 June 1940	SS ''Cathrine''	Panamanian	1,885	Sunk
27 June 1940	SS ''Lenda''	Norwegian	4,005	Sunk
27 June 1940	SS ''Leticia''	Dutch	2,580	Sunk
29 June 1940	SS ''Empire Toucan''	British	4,421	Sunk
30 June 1940	SS ''Georgios Kyriakides''	Greek	4,201	Sunk
2 July 1940	SS ''Arandora Star''	British	15,501	Sunk
2 September 1940	SS ''Ville de Mons''	Belgian	7,463	Sunk
4 September 1940	SS ''Titan''	British	9,035	Sunk
7 September 1940	SS ''Neptunian''	British	5,155	Sunk
7 September 1940	SS ''Jose de Larrinaga''	British	5,303	Sunk
7 September 1940	SS ''Gro''	Norwegian	4,211	Sunk
9 September 1940	SS ''Possidon''	Greek	3,840	Sunk
21 September 1940	SS ''Elmbank''	British	5,156	Damaged
19 October 1940	SS ''Bilderdijk''	Dutch	6,856	Sunk
19 October 1940	MV ''Shirak''	Belgian	6,023	Damaged
19 October 1940	SS ''Wandby''	British	4,947	Sunk
20 October 1940	SS ''La Estancia''	British	5,185	Sunk
20 October 1940	SS ''Whitford Point''	British	5,026	Sunk
20 October 1940	MV ''Athelmonarch''	British	8,995	Damaged
2 December 1940	SS ''Ville d'Arlon''	Belgian	7,555	Sunk
2 December 1940	MV ''Conch''	British	8,376	Damaged
26 February 1941	SS ''Kasongo''	Belgian	5,254	Sunk
26 February 1941	MV ''Diala''	British	8,106	Damaged
26 February 1941	MV ''Rydboholm''	Swedish	3,197	Sunk
26 February 1941	MV ''Borgland''	Norwegian	3,636	Sunk
28 February 1941	SS ''Holmlea''	British	4,233	Sunk

Crew

The crewlist of those presumed dead, aboard the U-47 during her fated North Atlantic patrol in the spring of 1941
Commander:

★ Günther Prien, Korvettenkapitän
Officers:

★ 1st Watch Officer: Erich Sander, Oberleutnant

★ 2nd Watch Officer: Martin Stephan, Leutnant

★ Lead Engineer: Hans Bothmann, Oberleutnant

★ Helmsman: Hans Sammann, Obersteuermann

★ Guest: Karl-Eglof Freiherr von Schnurbein, Korvettenkapitän
Crew:

★ Heinrich Biermann, Obergefreiter

★ Karl Bilstein, Gefreiter

★ Gustav Böhm, Stabsmaschinist

★ Karl Brand, Matrose

★ Friedrich Engelmann, Matrose

★ Dietmar Frings, Fähnrich

★ Heinz Göseke, Gefreiter

★ Karl-Heinz Gundlach, Matrose

★ Willy Hass, Obergefreiter

★ Heinrich Heinz, Matrose

★ Heinrich Hentrop, Matrose

★ Gerhard Heyer, Obergefreiter

★ Franz Hirtl, Obergefreiter

★ M. Hönemann, Obermaschinist

★ Gerhard Hötzer, Obergefreiter

★ Willi Jahnkow, Gefreiter

★ Heinz Kläbisch, Gefreiter

★ Ewald Küsel, Gefreiter

★ Paul Leidig, Obergefreiter

★ Andreas Lösch, Obergefreiter

★ Hans Löhr, Obergefreiter

★ Gottfried Notsch, Obergefreiter

★ Iwan Oldekop, Fähnrich z. See

★ Helmut Pauss, Obergefreiter

★ Josef Reimann, Matrose

★ Emil Renken, Obergefreiter

★ August Ronshausen, Oberbootsmannmaat

★ H. Rutschmann, Matrose

★ K. Schnarchendorf, Matrose

★ Hans Scholz, Gefreiter

★ Heinz Schweitzer, Obergefreiter

★ Karl Steinhagen, Matrose

★ Peter Thewes, Matrose

★ Max Thomsen, Obergrefreiter

★ Freidrich Weiser, Obergefreiter

★ Gustav Werder, Obermaschinist

★ Bruno Wiensczyk, Obergefreiter

★ Fritz Zapf, Gefeiter

★ Albert Zöller, Obergrefreiter

External links

★ u47.org

★ http://ubootwaffe.net/ops/boat.cgi?boat=47