Prien joined the Handelsflotte (German merchant marine) in mid-1923 to ease the financial burden on his family. After his parents separated, Prien moved with his mother and siblings to Leipzig where she eked out a living selling peasant lace. There he attended the Katharineum, a humanistic secondary school. At the age of five, Prien had been living with relatives, the notary Carl Hahn and his wife, in Lübeck. Prien was one of three children of a judge and completed his basic education. Under Prien's command, the submarine U-47 was credited with sinking over 30 Allied ships totalling about 200,000 gross register tons (GRT), along with the British battleship HMS Royal Oak at anchor in the Home Fleet's anchorage in Scapa Flow. It was Germany's highest military decoration at the time of its presentation to Prien. He was the first U-boat commander to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and the first member of the Kriegsmarine to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany. Günther Prien (16 January 1908 – presumed 8 March 1941) was a German U-boat commander during World War II. Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
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