U-Boat Commander

by Gunther Prien

The Royal Oak was one of the mightest battleships of the Britisn Navy. When it was sent to the bottom in 1940, the shock was felt throughout Britain. The Royal Oak lay inside the great naval base of Scapa Flow. Who could have slipped through those inpregnable defences? More incredible, who could have got away afterwards? The man who crowned his career with this tremendous exploit tells his own story. Trained on the old windjammers, with the sea in his veins, he became Germany's naval hero, who destroyed more Allied shipping than any other U-Boat captain.

155 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published November 1, 1969

Reviews

[Neil Aplin · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read this as a schoolboy. I remember reading it when I was at prep school where I was from the age of 8 to 13, so it would have been one of the first non-child books I read! I went through a phase of reading U-boat books - no idea why, or how it started. But recently listened to a series of Atlantic war podcasts and Prien was mentioned many times as one of the German ace U-boat captains and I still had the book on my bookshelf, so decided to read again, something I rarely do. Apart from the fascinating story, I was surprised at the many references to all sorts of things that I would have had no idea idea about as a boy!, but now I understand. Fascinating!

I know he is German and the 'enemy' in WW2, but a great hero, and showed a sense of humanity - was wonderful to revisit his story after half a century!!