scapa flow submarine attack

The path of attack and escape taken by U-47 in the daring attack of Scapa Flow. The wreckage of the remaining seven ships of the German fleet (and some other sites such as the blockships) has become increasingly popular as a venue for recreational scuba divers, and is regularly listed in dive magazines and internet forums among the top dive sites in the UK, Europe, and even the world. No one considered a U-boat attack. Following the German defeat, 74 ships of the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet were interned in Gutter Sound at Scapa Flow pending a decision on their future in the peace Treaty of Versailles. Scapa Flow has a shallow sandy bottom not deeper than 60 metres (200 ft) and most of it is about 30 m (100 ft) deep; it is one of the great natural harbours and anchorages of the world, with sufficient space to hold a number of navies. Also, some large items from many of the ship hulls that were raised (such as the main gun turrets, which fell away from the ships as they capsized) were never salvaged, and still exist on the seabed in close proximity to the impact craters created by the scuttled ships. In 1922, the Admiralty invited tenders from interested parties for the salvage of the sunken ships, although at the time few believed that it would be possible to raise the deeper wrecks. On 14 October 1939, under the command of Günther Prien, U-47  penetrated Scapa Flow and sank the WWI–era battleship HMS Royal Ark anchored in Scapa Bay. At 1.25am, tubes one and two had been loaded. [7], Primarily because of its great distance from German airfields, Scapa Flow was again selected as the main British naval base during the Second World War. Its sheltered waters have played an important role in travel, trade and conflict throughout the centuries. Defence against air attack was inadequate and blockships sunk to stop U-boats from penetrating had largely collapsed. The blasts set off a series of raging fires which ignited the cordite magazine, causing it to go off with a fiery orange blast right up through the decks. Scapa Flow attack on the HMS Royal Oak, by the U 47 of Captain Günther Prien. Divers must first obtain a permit from the Island Harbour Authorities, which is available through diving shops and centres. [citation needed]. The strong defences built during WWI had fallen into disrepair. U-47 approached the British base a little after midnight through the narrow approaches of Kirk Sound, the most easterly of the three entrances to Scapa Flow. Water gushed in below decks, uncontrollable raging fires on the upper decks, and chaos throughout while survivors clambered to get out through the port side. Whilst the fleet spent almost the first year of the war patrolling the west coast of the British Isles, their base at Scapa was defensively reinforced, beginning with over sixty blockships sunk in the many entrance channels between the southern islands to enable the use of submarine nets and booms. After waiting for the bulk of the British fleet to leave on exercises, he gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. Since the scuttling of the German fleet after World War I, its wrecks and their marine habitats form an internationally acclaimed diving location. Nine German sailors died on one of these ships when British forces opened fire as they attempted to scuttle the ship, reputedly the last casualties of the war. In 1904, in response to the build-up of the German Kaiserliche Marine's High Seas Fleet, Britain decided that a northern base was needed to control the entrances to the North Sea, as part of a revised policy of 'distant' rather than 'close' blockade. In the first few years after the war, there was abundant scrap metal as a result of the huge quantities of leftover tanks, artillery and ordnance. By using this website we assume that you agree with this. Additional sites of interest include the destroyer SMS V83, which was raised and used by Cox as a working boat during his salvage operations, particularly on SMS Hindenburg, then later abandoned; the Churchill blockships, such as the Tabarka, the Gobernador Bories, and the Doyle in Burra Sound; the U-boat SM UB-116; and the trawler James Barrie. By 1939, Cox and Metal Industries Ltd. (the company that he had sold out to in 1932) had successfully raised 45 of the 52 scuttled ships. As was recalled by a survivor, “The chap standing alongside me, all he had on was a singlet and a pair of pants and when this flame struck, he went up like a match. All three found its target within ten seconds of each other, blowing three holes amidships on her starboard side. As was recalled by a survivor, “The chap standing alongside me, all he had on was a singlet and a pair of pants and when this flame struck, he went up like a match. Primarily because of its great distance from German airfields, Scapa Flow was again selected as the main British naval base during WWII. The ship was attacked by a German submarine in Orkney's Scapa Flow in 1939, killing 835 crew - including 134 boys. Diving provides a substantial amount of trade and income for the local economy. I was burnt on the hands, the face, the back of the neck and all my hair had gone”. Coordinates: 58°54′N 3°03′W / 58.900°N 3.050°W / 58.900; -3.050. Only four days later they attacked convoy OB-290 and sank four ships totalling 16,310 tons. [8], The strong defences built during the First World War had fallen into disrepair. Edging into a closer position, he fired all three torpedoes at the Royal Oak – which he mistakenly identified as unharmed. Having aroused from their bunks, the men saw water gushing over like a fountain onto the forward upper deck. The Scapa Flow Visitor Centre is at Lyness on Hoy (from Háey meaning high island) the second largest of Orkney. According to the latter, King Haakon IV of Norway anchored his fleet, including the flagship Kroussden that could carry nearly 300 men, on 5 August 1263 at St Margaret's Hope, where he saw an eclipse of the sun before he sailed south to the Battle of Largs. The Harbour Authority area of Scapa Flow in Orkney has been measured as part of a wider consultation in ballast water management in 2013, and it has been accurately calculated that Scapa Flow is 324.5 square kilometres (125.3 sq mi) in area and that this area contains just under 1 billion cubic metres of water. The Scapa Flow attack was only his second patrol of the war. Never raised, they have been salvaged incrementally: armour plate blasted away and non-ferrous metals removed. The proposed raid was scheduled for the night of October 13-14, 1939, when the tides would be high and the night moonless. This Emden should not be confused with her predecessor, destroyed in the Battle of Cocos on 9 November 1914 by the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney. The jammed tube four was now serviced and ready to go. The attack badly damaged an old base ship, the decommissioned battleship HMS Iron Duke, which was then beached at Ore Bay by a tug. En route back to Norway Haakon anchored some of his fleet in Scapa Flow for the winter, but he died that December whilst staying at the Bishop's Palace in Kirkwall. Cox endured bad luck and frequent fierce storms which often ruined his work, swamping and re-sinking ships which had just been raised. Divers are permitted to enter the wrecks, but not to retrieve artefacts located within 100 metres of any wreck. The last, the massive Derfflinger, was raised from a record depth of 45 metres just before work was suspended with the start of the Second World War, before being towed to Rosyth where it was broken up in 1946. These ships posed a severe hazard to navigation, and small boats, trawlers and drifters, moving around the Flow regularly became snagged on them with the rise and fall of the tides. The world's first ship-to-ship transfer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) took place in Scapa Flow in 2007. The sexuality of the German Soldiers in WW2. HMS Royal Oak, a dreadnought battleship of the Royal Sovereign class was a veteran of World War One. Launch torpedoes….. Torpedoes one, two and three away….. By 12.55am, U-47 had closed in to a position 3,500 yards from the battleship. Of the 1,400-man crew, 833 were lost. The second torpedo blew a 30-foot (9.1 m) hole in the Royal Oak, which flooded and quickly capsized. Museum of Communication, 131 High Street, Burntisland. The wreck is now a protected war grave. [13], Three days after the submarine attack, four Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 1/30 led by group commander Hauptmann Fritz Doench raided Scapa Flow on 17 October in one of the first bombing attacks on Britain during the war. U-47 left Lorient (France) for her tenth patrol on 20 February 1941. The path of attack and escape taken by U-47 in the daring attack of Scapa Flow. In this fashion the submerged hulls were made into air-tight chambers and raised with compressed air, still inverted, back to the surface.

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