Knights Cross

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:30 pm

Hi Karl.

Thanks for the Information.

Its amazing that after firing Prien spent nearly 20 minutes re-loading his tubes in Scapa Flow.

I bet it was the longest 20 minutes of his life

miro777 · Post by **miro777** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 2:05 pm

hey....
yes its a good point....
but if u look at the development of anti U-boot weapons after 1942, u quickly see that even aces like Prien would have been powerless...
his tally would not have improved too much...

Germany took a too bbig task to handle...
so many things could have been done better....
GZ, U-boots, etc

miro

RF · Post by RF » Fri Oct 20, 2006 2:11 pm

miro777 wrote:hey....
yes its a good point....
but if u look at the development of anti U-boot weapons after 1942, u quickly see that even aces like Prien would have been powerless...
his tally would not have improved too much...

Germany took a too bbig task to handle...

miro

Not necessarily. Look at the career of Luth and perhaps Timm....

I think Prien would have used his experience to survive these diffiulties, but we shall never know for sure.

miro777 · Post by **miro777** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 2:47 pm

hey....
yes good point...
and yes, we will never know....
it is actually really depressing to read about how the submarine war turned literally 180 degrees in favor of the British

adios
miro

RF · Post by RF » Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:35 am

miro777 wrote:hey....
yes good point...
and yes, we will never know....
it is actually really depressing to read about how the submarine war turned literally 180 degrees in favor of the British :wink:

adios
miro

In late 1944/early 1945 it started to turn back in the Germans favour, but too little, too late to influence the course of the war.

Captain Morgan · Post by **Captain Morgan** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 10:01 am

Gary wrote:Hi Miro.

I'm not knocking Prien.
He did pull off a brave and daring act.
He deserved a Knights Cross

But I'm trying to say that the Knights CRoss could also be won for success rather than just Valour unlike the British VC or the US medal of honour.

For operation "SOURCE" the X-craft raid on the Tirpitz they awarded 2 VC's to the 2 commanders of the X-craft that were successful. Since the final craft was destroyed in the fjord and it was never known if it successfully attacked its commander did NOT get the VC because there was no proof he was successful. He definitely had as much valor as the others. So success was part of the decision as to who would get the VC.

If Prien had been a USN or RN officer he would have received the MOH or the VC. The USN awarded several Medal of Honors to submarine Commanders during WWII.