Günther Prien
On November 3, 1940 the U-47 departed Lorient for her ninth war patrol, again deploying to the North West Approaches. On November 8, 1940 at 1:47 p.m., the U-47 damaged the Portuguese 1,595-ton Gonçalo Velho with 88-mm deck-gun fire but did not sink the target. Almost a month then went by before Prien located convoy HX-90 and sunk his teeth into it. On December 2, 1940 he damaged the British 4,393-ton Penrose with 88-mm deck-gun fire; again the ship did not sink. The same day at 4:09 a.m., the U-47 sank the Belgian 7,555-ton Ville d’Arlon. Minutes later at 5:25 a.m., the U-47 torpedoed and damaged the British tanker 8,376-ton Conch, carrying 11,214 tons of fuel oil from Trinidad to Clyde, Scotland (She was sunk three days later by Otto Kretschmer in the U-99.) Prien and the U-47 returned on December 6, 1940 to Lorient. For this patrol the U-47 remained on the surface for 5,267 sea-miles, while submerging for an additional 132 sea-miles. (Dönitz’s Crews: Germany’s U-Boat Sailors in World War II)
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Friedrich Paulus
On November 3, 1942 Generalfeldmarschall Maximilian von Weichs of Army Group B told General der Panzertruppe Friedrich Paulus, commander of the Sixth Army: “The general situation requires that the battles around Stalingrad be ended soon.” The Sixth Army headquarters was located at Golubinskaya. (Stalingrad: The Death of the German Sixth Army on the Volga, 1942-1943)