Nightmare at Scapa Flow

The sinking of the battleship HMS Royal Oak at Scapa Flow on 14 October 1939, with the loss of more than 800 lives, was Germany's first shattering blow against Britain in the Second World War. The crew of the U-boat responsible for the attack became instant heroes in Germany, and the commander of U-47, Kapitanleutnant Gunther Prien, wrote an account of the mission in his best-selling autobiography published a few months after.

From the beginning there was huge controversy about the events surrounding the sinking, with survivors maintaining that Prien's account was almost totally inaccurate. In a painstaking search for the truth, H.J. Weaver travelled across Europe and beyond to interview survivors and witnesses, investigating every detail in order to set down the definitive account of what actually happened that fateful night.