German submarine U - 47 ( 1938 ) The German submarine " U - 47 " was a Type VIIB U - boat of the Nazi German " Kriegsmarine " during World War II . She was laid down on 25 February 1937 at Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel as ' werk ' 582 and went into service on 17 December 1938 under the command of Günther Prien . During " U - 47 " s career , she sank a total of 31 enemy vessels and damaged eight more . She is also noted for the sinking of the British battleship HMS " Royal Oak " on 14 October 1939 . " U - 47 " ranks as one of the most successful German U - boats of World War II . Service history . " U - 47 " carried out ten combat patrols and spent a total of 238 days at sea . She sank 30 enemy ships ( totalling 164 , 953 tons ) and damaged eight more . Prior to her disappearance in March 1941 , " U - 47 " lost one crewman , Heinrich Mantyk , who fell overboard on 5 September 1940 . First patrol . " U - 47 " was assigned to the 7th U - boat Flotilla on 17 December 1938 , ( the day she was commissioned ) . She was an operational boat in the 7th Flotilla for her entire career . " U - 47 " was sent to sea in a pre - emptive move before war broke out in September 1939 , this move would enable her to engage enemy vessels as soon as the war began . She left for her first war patrol on 19 August 1939 ( two weeks before the commencement of hostilities ) , from the port of Kiel . During her first patrol , she circumnavigated the British Isles and entered the Bay of Biscay . It was here that " U - 47 " sank her first three ships , the SS " Bosnia " on 5 September , the SS " Rio Carlo " on 6 September and the SS " Gartavon " on 7 September 1939 . Second patrol and the sinking of HMS " Royal Oak " . On 8 October 1939 , " U - 47 " began her second patrol . On 14 October 1939 ( six days after leaving port ) , she succeeded in penetrating the Royal Navy ' s 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 " . Once she had spotted " Royal Oak " , she opened fire with her torpedoes . Her first two salvos did nothing more than sever an anchor chain . After reloading the bow tubes the last salvo of three 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 . Following the victory , Prien received the nickname " Der Stier von Scapa Flow " ( " " The Bull of Scapa Flow " " ) ; the emblem of a snorting bull was then painted on the conning tower of " U - 47 " and the image soon became the emblem of the entire 7th U - boat Flotilla . Prien was awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross , the first sailor of a U - boat and the second member of the " Kriegsmarine " to receive this decoration . The rest of the crew members were awarded the Iron Cross . Two other " U - 47 " crew members also earned the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross later on during World War II : the chief engineer ( " Leitender Ingenieur " ) Johann - Friedrich Wessels and 1st watch officer ( " I . Wachoffizier " ) Engelbert Endrass . Many years later , in September 2002 , one of the unexploded torpedoes that " U - 47 " had fired during the attack on " Royal Oak " rose to the surface from its resting place on 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 having belonged to " U - 47 " 63 years earlier , EOD ( explosive ordnance disposal ) personnel discarded it a mile from shore . Third patrol . Following a lavish celebration in Berlin for the sinking of HMS " Royal Oak " in which the crew members of " U - 47 " were received by Adolf Hitler and decorated , the boat returned to sea on 16 November 1939 . Once the U - boat had left Kiel on 16 November , she headed out into the North Sea . After traveling around the British Isles into the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel , " U - 47 " sank a further three vessels , the " Navasota " on 5 December , the Norwegian steamer MV " Britta " on 6 December and the " Tajandoen " on 7 December . Following the sinking of the " Navasota " , British destroyers briefly fired depth charges at the U - boat but she managed to safely evade the attack without any damage . Fourth patrol . " U - 47 " left the port of Wilhelmshaven and began her fourth patrol on 11 March 1940 . For 19 days , she roamed the North Sea in search of any Allied convoys . However , she only managed to torpedo the Danish steam merchantman " Britta " north of Scotland on 25 March . Following the sinking of the " Britta " , " U - 47 " returned to Wilhelmshaven on 29 March . Fifth patrol . " U - 47 " < nowiki > ' s < / nowiki > fifth patrol was her first one that resulted in no ships sunk . She left Wilhelmshaven on 3 April 1940 , and headed once again out into the North Sea . While she did not sink any Allied vessels on her fifth patrol , around 19 April , she fired a torpedo aimed at the British Battleship HMS " Warspite " but the torpedo missed its target or failed to detonate upon impact . Several nearby destroyers attempted to sink the U - boat using depth charges . " U - 47 " managed to escape . Sixth patrol . " U - 47 " < nowiki > ' s < / nowiki > sixth patrol was much more successful . Having left Kiel on 3 June 1940 , she ventured out into the North Sea and operated off the southern coast of Ireland . The first ship to fall victim to the U - boat on her sixth patrol was the British vessel , the " Balmoralwood " < nowiki > ; < / nowiki > which was sunk on 14 June . Within less than a month , the boat sank a further seven vessels , the " San Fernando " on the 21st , the " Cathrine " on the 24th , the " Lenda " and the " Leticia " on the 27th , the " Empire Toucan " on the 29th , the " Georgios Kyriakides " on the 30th , and the on 2 July . The German submarine returned to Kiel on 6 July after 34 days at sea and eight enemy vessels sunk . Seventh patrol . " U - 47 " s seventh patrol consisted of her travelling north of the British Isles and into the North Atlantic , south of Iceland . During a period of 30 days , she sank a total of six enemy vessels and damaged another . " U - 47 " < nowiki > ' s < / nowiki > first victory during her seventh patrol was the sinking of the Belgian passenger ship " Ville de Mons " on 2 September 1940 . This was followed by the sinking of a British vessel , the " Titan " , on 4 September and the " Gro " , " José de Larrinaga " , and " Neptunian " on the 7th . On the 9th , " U - 47 " sank the Greek merchant ship " Possidon " , and on 21 September she damaged the British merchant ship " Elmbank " . Following these victories , on the 25th , " U - 47 " entered the French port of Lorient , which was now under German control following the decisive Battle of France . Eighth patrol . " U - 47 " < nowiki > ' s < / nowiki > eighth patrol began on 14 October 1940 when she left her home port of Lorient . While her eighth patrol lasted ten days , she sank four enemy vessels and damaged a further two in only two days . On 19 October , " U - 47 " damaged the British vessel " Shirak " and sank the " Uganda " and the " Wandby " , both of which were British registered . The next day , the U - boat damaged the British vessel " Athelmonarch " and sank the " La Estancia " as well as the " Whitford Point " . She returned to port three days later on the 23rd . Ninth patrol . " U - 47 " left her home port of Lorient on 3 November 1940 and moved out into the North Atlantic in search of Allied convoys . During her ninth patrol , she damaged three ships , the " Gonçalo Velho " , the " Conch " and the " Dunsley " and sank another , the " Ville d´Arlon " . " U - 47 " returned to Lorient for the last time on 6 December . Disappearance . " U - 47 " went missing on 7 March 1941 and was believed to have been sunk by the British destroyer west of Ireland , when the submarine was attacked by " Wolverine " and . The British ships took turns covering each other ' s ASDIC blind spots and dropping patterns of depth charges until " U - 47 " rose almost to the surface before sinking and then exploded with an orange flash visible from the surface , but it seems likely that the boat attacked there was , part of the foreign U - Boat corps . To date , 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 and . " U - 47 " had a crew of 47 officers and men during her last North Atlantic patrol in early 1941 , all of whom were presumed to have died . Summary of raiding career . During her service in the " Kriegsmarine " , " U - 47 " sank 30 commercial ships for and one warship of 29 , 150 tons ; she also damaged eight commercial ships for and one warship of 10 , 035 tons .