German submarine U-47 (1938)

For other ships with the same name, see German submarine U-47.

October 1939. U-47 returns to port after sinking HMS Royal Oak. The battlecruiser Scharnhorst is seen in the background.
History
Nazi Germany
Name	U-47
Ordered	November 21, 1936
Builder	Germaniawerft, Kiel
Yard number	582
Laid down	February 27, 1937
Launched	October 29, 1938
Commissioned	December 17, 1938
Fate	Disappeared March 7, 1941 in the North Atlantic near the Rockall Bank and Trough. 45 dead.
General characteristics
Type	VIIB
Displacement	761 metric tons (749 long tons) 865 metric tons (851 long tons) submerged
Propulsion	2 x 1400 PS (1 MW) diesel engines 2 x 375 PS (280 kW) electric motors
Speed	17 knots (31 km/h) surfaced 7.6 knots (14.1 km/h) submerged
Range	6,500 nautical miles (12,000 km)
Crew	47
Armament	4 x bow torpedo tubes, 1 x stern torpedo tube 88 mm gun, Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
Service record
Part of:	Kriegsmarine 7. Unterseebootsflottille
Identification codes:	M 18 837
Commanders:	Günther Prien
Operations:	10 patrols
Victories:	30 ships sunk for a total of 162,769 GRT 1 warship sunk for a total of 29,150 tons 8 ships damaged for a total of 62,751 GRT

U-47 or Unterseeboot 47 was a German Type VIIB submarine of the Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on February 25, 1937 at Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel and went into service on December 17, 1938.

Service history

Conning tower art

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 crewman, Heinrich Mantyk, who went overboard on September 5, 1940.

U-47 went missing on March 7, 1941 and 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 corps. 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 did not confirm any kills, by the corvette team of HMS Camellia and HMS Arbutus.

Sinking of HMS Royal Oak

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, which was in Scapa Flow in a largely unprepared state, although World War II had recently begun.

A model of Günther Prien's U-47, German WWII Type VII diesel-electric hunter

U-47's first two salvos did nothing more than sever an anchor chain. After reloading the bow tubes the last salvo of three torpedoes struck the Royal Oak 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; she sank within 15 minutes with the loss of over 800 men.

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

File:CrewofU-47.jpg

The crew of the U-47

U-47 had a crew of 47 officers and men during her fated North Atlantic patrol in the spring of 1941, all of whom are presumed dead.

External links

• u47.org
• U-Boat Operations