For almost 35 years, U 47 and its crew were considered lost after it was discovered in 1991 that the original post-war loss report was demonstrably false. The commander of U 47, Lieutenant Commander Günther Prien, was undoubtedly the most famous German submarine officer during the Second World War. After his spectacular raid on the British naval base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands and the sinking of the battleship HMS Royal Oak, he was the first member of the German Navy to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the highest German medal for bravery at the time, on 18 October 1939. Thanks to the propaganda coverage of this outstanding success in the German weekly newsreels and all print media in the German Reich, Prien soon became a model soldier and the most famous face of the Kriegsmarine. Thanks to intensive research, it has now been possible to clarify the fate of the boat and its crew. To this end, the publication compiles for the first time a detailed account of U 47's last combat mission based on available German and English sources. The result is operational history at its best. In addition, the complicated handling of the loss of U 47 on the German and Allied sides is also discussed. Thanks to the evaluation of Günther Prien's personnel file, which was believed to be lost, the civilian and military curriculum vitae of this outstanding officer is also published in full for the first time in the appendix.
