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Kriegsmarine Korvettenkapitän Günther Prien
 Born on January 16, 1908, Osterfeld, Thüringen. Günther Prien joined the Reichsmarine in January 1931 after sailing some years on trade ships. After a year on the light cruiser Königsberg, he transferred in October 1935 to the U-boat force.
Receiving command and commissioning the U-47 in December 1938. Oberleutnant Günther Prien became famous for his October 14, 1939 sinking of the British battleship HMS Royal Oak in the heavily defended British North Fleet main harbor at Scapa Flow-first U-boat commander to win the Knights Cross.
During his career as a U-boat captain, lasting some 27 months, Prien proved that he was one of the best German commanders of World War II. Throughout the courseof his ten war patrols with U-47, a Type VIIB U-boat, he was credited with sinking 31 ships for a total of 191,918tons and damaging 8 more for a total of 62,751tons.
Korvettenkapitän Günther Prien was awarded with four decorations including the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves.
U-47 left the U-boat base at St. Nazaire, France, for her tenth patrol on February 20, 1941; four days later they attacked convoy OB-290 and sank four ships. The last radio contact with U-47 was in the morning of March 7.
Günther Prien was killed when his U-boat was lost with all hands (45 men) on 7 or 8 March, 1941.
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