Book description
Sinking the battleship HMS Royal Oak in the Royal Navy's home
anchorage, with the loss of more than 800 of her crew, was Germany's
first shattering blow against Britain in the 1939-45 war. Within six
weeks the long-standing German dream of breaching the defences of
Scapa Flow had been achieved. Germany claimed the sinking for the
submarine U-47, commanded by Lt. Gunther Prien. Prien and his crew
became instant folk heroes, lauded, interviewed and exploited to
extract the maximum glory from their deed. A few months later, Prien's
autobiography, "Mein Weg Nach Scapa Flow", was published and
sold an astonishing 750,000 copies. However, there are also Royal Oak
survivors who, while accepting that their ship was torpedoed, say:
'Prien and his crew can't ever have seen the inside of Scapa Flow
because Prien's story is almost totally at variance with the
truth.'Four books and dozens of articles have been written on what is
now generally accepted as one of the greatest submarine exploits of
all time. Yet nobody has managed to sift fact from falsehood and
reconcile the apparently irreconcilable German and British stories.
The author has interviewed Royal Oak survivors, members of U-47's 1939
crew, Lt. Prien's widow and members of the firm which published his
autobiography. His quest for the truth led through England, Northern
Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Orkney, Norway, West Berlin, Cologne,
Freiburg and even distant Amman. He has patiently investigated every
point of controversy until he was able to set down a documented,
definitive account of the Royal Oak naval disaster. It was previously
published by Cressrelles Ltd.
