Author : Alexandre Korganoff
Publisher : Crecy
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 11,35 MB
Release : 2022-02-21
Category : History
ISBN : 1800350082
On the night of 13/14 October 1939, the German commander of U-boat U-47, Günther Prien, steered past the sunken block ships and chains which inadequately protected the British naval base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. The U-Boat sank the old British World War I battleship HMS Royal Oak and then escaped into the North Sea. The loss of the Royal Oak was insignificant in naval terms though over 800 men perished with her, however this was a bitter blow to British moral.
Author : Angus Konstam
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 66 pages
File Size : 38,59 MB
Release : 2013-02-20
Category : History
ISBN : 1849080828
A strategically important natural harbor in the Orkney Islands, Scapa Flow served as Britain's main fleet anchorage during World Wars I and II. In 1914 and again in 1939, the British began building a comprehensive defensive network by fortifying the entrances to Scapa Flow, and then extended these defenses to cover most of Orkney. By 1940, it had become an island fortress, the largest integrated defensive network of its kind in Europe, manned by as many as 50,000 Commonwealth troops. Backed by newly commissioned artwork, naval historian Angus Konstam tells the story of this mighty naval fortress, many pieces of which can still be seen on the island today.
Author : Angus Konstam
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 157 pages
File Size : 46,64 MB
Release : 2015-10-20
Category : History
ISBN : 1472808924
At the outset of World War II, Scapa Flow was supposed to be the safe home base of the British Navy – nothing could penetrate the defences of this bastion. So how, in the dead of night, was Gunther Prien's U-47 able to slip through the line of protective warships to sink the mighty Royal Oak? This book provides the answer with an account of one of the most daring naval raids in history. Drawing on the latest underwater archaeological research, this study explains how Prien and his crew navigated the North Sea and Kirk Sound to land a devastating blow to the British. It reveals the level of disrepair that Scapa Flow had fallen into, and delves into the conspiracy theories surrounding the event, including an alleged cover-up by the then First Sea Lord, Winston Churchill.
Author : H.J. Weaver
Publisher : Birlinn
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 39,68 MB
Release : 2012-09-28
Category : History
ISBN : 085790518X
"The place where the German U-boat sank the British battleship Royal Oak was none other than the middle of Scapa Flow, Britain's greatest naval base! It sounds incredible..." - William L Shirer, journalist, 18 October 1939 Sinking the battleship HMS Royal Oak in the Royal Navy's home anchorage, with the loss of more than 800 of her crew, was Germany's first shattering blow against Britain in the 1939-45 war. Within six weeks the long-standing German dream of breaching the defences of Scapa Flow had been achieved. After years of misinformation, propaganda and conspiracy theories, this meticulously researched book reveals what really happened.
Author : Campbell McCutcheon
Publisher : Amberley Publishing Limited
Page : 146 pages
File Size : 21,36 MB
Release : 2013-12-15
Category : Transportation
ISBN : 1445633981
A new look at the naval base at Scapa Flow, Orkney, and the ships that have used it and still remain today.
Author : Malcolm Brown
Publisher : The History Press
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 50,52 MB
Release : 2019-07-22
Category : History
ISBN : 0750992794
Scapa Flow in the Orkneys would be the forbidding destination for many thousands of service personnel and civilians in both World Wars and the location of dramatic incidents such as the loss of the Hampshire with Kitchener on board in 1916, the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet in 1919 and the sinking of the Royal Oak at anchor by U-boat U-47 at the beginning of the Second World War. It was a vital start-point for both naval wars and these memories capture all the suffering, loss and glory experienced by those who were there.
Author : Arthur J Marder
Publisher : Seaforth Publishing
Page : 473 pages
File Size : 47,37 MB
Release : 2014-06-13
Category : History
ISBN : 1848322038
The five volumes that constitute Arthur Marder's From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow represented arguably the finest contribution to the literature of naval history since Alfred Mahan. A J P Taylor wrote that 'his naval history has a unique fascination. To unrivalled mastery of sources he adds a gift of simple narrative . . . He is beyond praise, as he is beyond cavil.' The five volumes were subtitled The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era, 19041919 and they are still, despite recent major contributions from Robert Massie and Andrew Gordan, regarded by many as the definitive history of naval events leading up to and including the Great War. This last volume describes the Royal Navy's final triumph. The convoy system brought rewards and the US Navy arrived in European waters. The striking 1918 raid on Zeebrugge was a big morale booster, and in November 1918 Beatty received the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet. In June the following year the Germand scuttled their fleet at Scapa Flow and so came to an end a major era in naval history. A new introduction by Barry Gough, the distinguished Canadian maritime and naval historian, assesses the importance of Marder's work and anchors it firmly amongst the great naval narrative histories of this era. This new paperback edition will bring a truly great work to a new generation of historians and general readers.
Author : Craig L. Symonds
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 793 pages
File Size : 29,62 MB
Release : 2018
Category : History
ISBN : 0190243678
Craig L. Symonds' World War II at Sea offers a definitive naval history of the Second World War presenting the chronology of the naval war, from The London Conference of 1930 to the surrender in Tokyo Bay in 1945, on a global scale for the first time.
Author : W.S. Hewison
Publisher : Birlinn Ltd
Page : 394 pages
File Size : 38,91 MB
Release : 2020-05-07
Category : History
ISBN : 1788852699
Known by mariners since Viking times as a safe anchorage in notoriously savage waters, Scapa Flow is the seaway that runs between the Orkney mainland and the island of Hoy. As the northern base of the Royal Navy and Allied fleets in two world wars, it witnessed some of the most seminal events in modern naval history. It was from here that The Grand Fleet set off in 1916 to do battle at Jutland; it was from that Lord Kitchener sailed to his death aboard the Hampshire; it was here that the surrendered German fleet was scuttled in May 1919; and it was here that 800 sailors lost their lives in October 1939 when HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed by a German submarine. The late W.S. Hewison's book is the ultimate history of this remarkable place. In addition to the military story, he also tells about the impact war had on the native island community as their remote archipelago was transformed into the hub of Britain's naval war machine.
Author : Rod Macdonald
Publisher : Trafalgar Square Publishing
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 40,93 MB
Release : 1998
Category : History
ISBN :
Macdonald uses a mixture of historical narrative of the scuttling and subsequent salvage to tell the dramatic events at the end of World War I. He also includes details of advances in diving techniques which now allow access to deeper wrecks.
