Word: prien
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Hero Prien, 31, is a onetime Hamburg-America Line cabin boy who entered the Navy in 1933, saw service in Spain. On the third, fourth and seventh days of World War II he sank the British merchantmen Bosnia, Rio Claro and Gartavon respectively. Adolf Hitler received him and his men at the Chancellery, hung on Prien the Ritter Cross (oversized Iron Cross), the highest German military decoration today. Crowds outside yelled: "Prien, the deed was wonderful!" That night the heroes were regaled at the Wintergarten (vaudeville) where Goebbels presented them each with a book of news clippings and the audience...
...Prien's story was that he had "wormed and twisted" his way into Scapa Flow on the surface (mines and nets are 30 ft. down) on a night when there was "the most extraordinary display of Northern Lights I have seen in 15 years at sea." He said: "I was lying in very close to shore and several cars passed. One stopped for a moment, then turned about and rushed back at full speed. . . . These people must have seen me-nobody else could have in the shadow of the shore line...
Members of Prien's crew seemed to be suppressing amusement as he continued what sounded like a set recitation: "The British ships could not be seen distinctly, but one could determine the location by dimmed lanterns at the anchoring buoys. Repulse was partly covered by Royal Oak. Nevertheless her two forward turrets protruded. So I first aimed in their direction, then sent a second torpedo into the very heart of Royal Oak, then another, and another. I saw distinctly how water first spurted high before Repulse and then was followed by high red flames...
Searchlights of other ships immediately scraped the sky, said Prien, looking for airplanes. At first the British could not believe a U-boat had penetrated Scapa Flow. Then they swept the water, and depth charges thudded everywhere. But no light, no charge found Prien's raider and he wriggled out of the harbor as he had come, after executing perfectly a feat to rank with Stephen Decatur's burning of the frigate Philadelphia in Tripoli (1804), William Barker Cushing's torpedoing of the Albemarle in Plymouth, N. C. (1864), Commander M. E. Nasmith's penetration...
Fiercely, repeatedly the British denied their Repulse was hit. Seaman Vincent Marchant, who managed to get overside from Royal Oak and swim ashore through the tons of oil which cloyed and dragged down others, tended to corroborate Prien's 30-second version as against the Admiralty's 2O-minute one. Marchant's story seemed to refute Prien's belief that he hit Repulse. Marchant told of four hits on Royal Oak. After the first explosion, he just had time to get from his hammock to the deck. Then followed the second, third and fourth blasts. Evidently...