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118-580: Other major G7e-versions that saw operational service during the war, were the first acoustic homing torpedo G7es(TIV) Falke and its improved successor G7es(TV) Zaunkönig . The G7e(TII) went in service with German U-boat fleets in 1936. Its existence was virtually unknown to the British until fragments of one torpedo were recovered following the sinking of the Royal Oak in October 1939. The advantages of

236-407: A crane to recover a seaplane . Royal Oak was extensively refitted between 1922 and 1924, when her anti-aircraft defences were upgraded by replacing the original three-inch AA guns with a pair of QF four-inch (102 mm) Mk V AA guns. A 30-foot (9.1 m) rangefinder was fitted in 'B' turret and a simple high-angle rangefinder was added above the bridge. Underwater protection improved by

354-577: A German agent living in Orkney in the guise of a Swiss watchmaker named Albert Oertel; following the attack, 'Oertel' supposedly escaped in the submarine B-06 to Germany. This account of events originated as an article by the journalist Curt Riess in the 16 May 1942 issue of the American magazine Saturday Evening Post and was later embellished by other authors. Post-war searches through German and Orcadian archives have failed to find any evidence for

472-469: A coup in the fictional South American republic of Bianco. The Royal Navy saw the film as a recruitment opportunity and provided warships and extras. Royal Oak portrays a rebel battleship El Mirante , whose commander forces a British captain (played by Robert Douglas ) into choosing between his lover and his duty. The film was poorly received by critics, but gained some redemption through its dramatic scenes of naval action. In 1938, Royal Oak returned to

590-669: A few days survivors' leave by the navy, and then assigned to ships and roles elsewhere. Prien did not survive the war: he and U-47 were lost on 7 March 1941, possibly as a result of an attack by the British destroyer HMS  Wolverine . News of the loss was kept secret by the Nazi government for ten weeks. Several U-47 crew from the Royal Oak mission did survive, having been transferred to other vessels. Some of them subsequently met with their former enemies from Royal Oak and forged friendships with them. The HMS Royal Oak Association holds an Act of Remembrance annually at Portsmouth,

708-496: A hit on Wiesbaden aft with her third salvo. In return, Royal Oak was straddled by a German salvo at 18:33 but was undamaged. German torpedo boats attempted to reach Wiesbaden shortly after 19:00, and at 19:07, Royal Oak ' s secondary guns opened fire on them, believing they were instead trying to launch a torpedo attack. By 19:15, Royal Oak ' s gunners had observed the German battlecruiser squadron and opened fire at

826-581: A journalist, Paul Weymar, following some brief interviews with Prien in March and April 1940, the manuscript was edited by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (the German high command) and the Reich Ministry of Propaganda . It was intended as an adventure story for boys. When Prien received a copy of the book, he angrily made numerous corrections to the text, and when an English translation of the book

944-639: A lookout on the bridge spotted Royal Oak lying approximately 4,400 yards (4,000 m) to the north, correctly identifying her as a battleship of the Revenge class . Mostly hidden behind her was a second ship, only the bow of which was visible to U-47 . Prien mistook her to be a battlecruiser of the Renown class , German intelligence later labelling her Repulse . She was in fact the First World War seaplane tender Pegasus . At 00:58 U-47 fired

1062-407: A maximum surface speed of 17.7 knots (32.8 km/h; 20.4 mph) and a maximum submerged speed of 7.6 knots (14.1 km/h; 8.7 mph). When submerged, the boat could operate for 80 nautical miles (150 km; 92 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph); when surfaced, she could travel 8,500 nautical miles (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). U-221

1180-491: A normal straight-running torpedo for the first 400 m (440 yd) of its run, after which its acoustic sensors became active and searched for a target. The sensitive sound-sensing equipment in Falke required the torpedo be as quiet as possible, hence it ran at only 37 km/h (20 kn); in addition, the firing U-boat was forced to stop its motors. Falke was intended to home on merchant targets, however, so its slow speed

1298-609: A notorious incident which the contemporary press dubbed the "Royal Oak Mutiny". What began as a simple dispute between Rear-Admiral Bernard Collard and Royal Oak 's two senior officers, Captain Kenneth Dewar and Commander Henry Daniel  [ Wikidata ] , over the band at the ship's wardroom dance, descended into a bitter personal feud that spanned several months. Dewar and Daniel accused Collard of "vindictive fault-finding" and openly humiliating and insulting them before their crew; in return, Collard countercharged

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1416-694: A plan to attack Scapa Flow by submarine within days of the outbreak of war. Its goal would be twofold: first, displacing the Home Fleet from Scapa Flow would slacken the British North Sea blockade and grant Germany greater freedom to attack the Atlantic convoys; second, the blow would be a symbolic act of vengeance, striking at the same location where the German High Seas Fleet had scuttled itself following Germany's defeat in

1534-599: A prominent anti-noise campaign, conducted through the Daily Mail , for whom he worked as correspondent - but this was unsuccessful and, after a number of other jobs, his health deteriorated and he died in South Africa in 1955. Of the three, only Dewar escaped with his career, albeit a damaged one: he remained in the Royal Navy, but in a series of more minor commands. His promotion to rear-admiral took place in

1652-443: A range of 7,000 nautical miles (12,964 km; 8,055 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (18.5 km/h; 11.5 mph). Her crew numbered 909 officers and ratings in 1916. The Revenge class was equipped with eight breech-loading (BL) 15-inch (381 mm) Mk I guns in four twin gun turrets , in two superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure , designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. Twelve of

1770-487: A salvo of three torpedoes from its bow tubes, a fourth lodging in its tube. Two failed to find a target, but a single torpedo struck the bow of Royal Oak at 01:04, shaking the ship and waking the crew. There was little visible damage, but the starboard anchor chain had been severed, clattering noisily down through its slips. Initially, it was suspected that there had been an explosion in the ship's forward inflammable store, used to store materials such as kerosene. Mindful of

1888-529: A salvo of three torpedoes, all at Royal Oak . This time he was successful. At 01:16, all three struck the battleship in quick succession amidships and detonated. The explosions blew a hole in the armoured deck, destroying the Stokers', Boys' and Marines ' messes and causing a loss of electrical power. Cordite from a magazine ignited and the ensuing fireball passed rapidly through the ship's internal spaces. Royal Oak quickly listed to 15°, sufficient to push

2006-464: A series of countermeasures were installed during the early years of the First World War. Blockships were sunk at critical points; and floating booms deployed to block the three widest channels, operated by tugboats to allow the passage of friendly shipping. It was considered possible, but highly unlikely, that a U-boat commander might attempt to race through undetected before the boom was closed. Two submarines unsuccessfully attempted infiltration during

2124-432: A total of 2,800 to 3,200 metric horsepower (2,060 to 2,350 kW; 2,760 to 3,160 shp) for use while surfaced, two AEG GU 460/8–27 double-acting electric motors producing a total of 750 metric horsepower (550 kW; 740 shp) for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two 1.23 m (4 ft) propellers . The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to 230 metres (750 ft). The submarine had

2242-476: A useful addition to Scapa's otherwise scanty air defences. Scapa Flow made a near-ideal anchorage. Situated at the centre of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland, the natural harbour, large enough to contain the entire Grand Fleet, was surrounded by a ring of islands separated by shallow channels subject to fast-racing tides . That U-boats still posed a threat had long been realised, and

2360-631: Is commemorated in an annual ceremony in which Royal Navy divers place the White Ensign underwater at her stern. German submarine U-221 German submarine U-221 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany 's Kriegsmarine during World War II . Ordered on 15 August 1940 from the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel , she was laid down on 16 June 1941 as yard number 651, launched on 14 March 1942 and commissioned on 9 May 1942 under

2478-684: The English Channel in preparation for another 30-month tour of the Mediterranean, for which her crew were issued tropical uniforms. As hostilities loomed, the battleship was instead dispatched north to Scapa Flow , and was at anchor there when war was declared on 3 September. The next few weeks of the Phoney War proved uneventful, but in October 1939 Royal Oak joined the search for the Gneisenau , which had been ordered into

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2596-789: The Home Fleet and was made flagship of the Second Battle Squadron based in Portsmouth . On 24 November 1938, she returned the body of the British-born Queen Maud of Norway , who had died in London, to Oslo for a state funeral, accompanied by her husband King Haakon VII . Paying off in December 1938, Royal Oak was recommissioned the following June, and in 1939 embarked on a short training cruise in

2714-699: The Iron Cross First Class, and each man of the crew the Iron Cross Second Class. Hitler sent his personal plane to bring the crew to Berlin , where he further invested Prien with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . This decoration, made for the first time to a German submarine officer, later became the customary decoration for successful U-boat commanders. Dönitz was rewarded by promotion from Commodore to Rear-Admiral and

2832-478: The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . Before the sinking of Royal Oak , the Royal Navy had considered the naval base at Scapa Flow impregnable to submarine attack, but U-47 ' s raid demonstrated that the German navy was capable of bringing the war to British home waters. The shock resulted in rapid changes to dockland security and the construction of the Churchill Barriers around Scapa Flow, with

2950-577: The Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 . In clear water conditions, the upturned hull can be seen reaching to within 5 m of the surface. The brass letters that formed Royal Oak ' s name were removed as a keepsake by a recreational diver in the 1970s. They were returned almost twenty years later, and are now displayed in the Scapa Flow visitor centre in Lyness. Royal Oak ' s loss

3068-606: The Royal Oak's home port, on the Saturday nearest to 13 October; originally at the Naval Memorial at Southsea , but in later years at St Ann's Church, Portsmouth Naval Base . At the service on 9 October 2019, eighty years after the sinking, a memorial stone was unveiled in the church by Anne, Princess Royal , the Commodore-in-Chief of HMNB Portsmouth. Some one hundred and fifty relatives and descendants of

3186-543: The AA guns with twin mounts for the QF 4-inch Mark XVI gun and adding a pair of octuple mounts for two-pounder Mk VIII "pom-pom" guns to sponsons abreast the funnel. Two positions for "pom-pom" anti-aircraft directors were added on new platforms abreast and below the fire-control director in the spotting top. A HACS Mk III director replaced the Mk I in the spotting top and another replaced

3304-594: The British did not protest to the Republicans, deeming the incident "an act of God ". In May 1937, she and HMS  Forester escorted SS Habana , an ocean liner carrying thousands of Basque child refugees , to the Southampton Docks . In July, as the war in northern Spain flared up, Royal Oak , along with her sister HMS  Resolution rescued the steamer Gordonia when Spanish Nationalist warships attempted to capture her off Santander . She

3422-690: The British merchantman Southern Empress when that vessel was torpedoed and sunk on 14 October 1942. U-221 departed Kristiansand on 3 September 1942 having moved to the Norwegian port a day earlier. Her route took her through the gap between Iceland and the Faroe Islands . She claimed her first victim, Fagersten , about 500 nmi (930 km; 580 mi) east of the Belle Isle Strait , in Newfoundland on 13 October. In

3540-478: The First World War. Dönitz hand-picked Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien for the task, scheduling the raid for the night of 13/14 October 1939, when the tides would be high and the night moonless. Dönitz was aided by high-quality photographs from a reconnaissance overflight by Siegfried Knemeyer (who received his first Iron Cross for the mission), which revealed the weaknesses of the defences and an abundance of targets. He directed Prien to enter Scapa Flow from

3658-543: The First World War: on 23 November 1914 U-18 was rammed twice before running aground with the capture of her crew, and UB-116 was detected by hydrophone and destroyed with the loss of all hands on 28 October 1918. Scapa Flow provided the main anchorage for the British Grand Fleet throughout most of the First World War, but in the interwar period this passed to Rosyth , further south in

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3776-640: The Firth of Forth. Scapa Flow was reactivated with the advent of the Second World War, becoming a base for the British Home Fleet . Its natural and artificial defences, while still strong, were recognised as in need of improvement, and in the early weeks of the war were in the process of being strengthened by the provision of additional blockships. Kriegsmarine Commander of Submarines ( Befehlshaber der U-Boote ) Karl Dönitz devised

3894-686: The G7e in contrast to the G7a wet-heater steam-driven torpedo rested in its simplicity and cheapness of manufacture (half the cost), as well as being virtually silent and leaving almost no visible trail of air bubbles to alert ships that they were under attack. However, in all other respects, the TII was less reliable and performed unpredictably compared to the G7a(TI), with shorter range of 5,000 m (5,500 yd) and slower speed at 56 km/h (30 kn). Additionally,

4012-597: The German Navy, after much prodding by German U-boat Command ( BdU ), invested resources into correcting the TII's flaws. Gradually, it improved, and by the end of the Norwegian Campaign problems with the contact exploder and depth-keeping gear had been mostly solved, with significant strides made in improving the magnetic proximity feature. At the same time, the TII's range was increased from 5,000 to 7,500 m (5,500 to 8,200 yd). By that time, however,

4130-805: The German homing torpedo. HMS Royal Oak (08) HMS Royal Oak was one of five Revenge -class battleships built for the Royal Navy during the First World War . Completed in 1916, the ship first saw combat at the Battle of Jutland as part of the Grand Fleet . In peacetime, she served in the Atlantic , Home and Mediterranean fleets, more than once coming under accidental attack. Royal Oak drew worldwide attention in 1928 when her senior officers were controversially court-martialled , an event that brought considerable embarrassment to what

4248-501: The Grand Fleet in an attempt to engage in a decisive battle. Both sides withdrew after their opponents' submarines inflicted losses in the action of 19 August 1916 : the British cruisers Nottingham and Falmouth were both torpedoed and sunk by German U-boats , and the German battleship SMS  Westfalen was damaged by the British submarine E23 . After returning to port, Jellicoe issued an order that prohibited risking

4366-763: The Grand Fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training manoeuvres, and while they were away von Reuter issued the order to scuttle the High Seas Fleet . The peacetime reorganisation of the Royal Navy assigned Royal Oak to the Second Battle Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet . Modernised by a 1922–24 refit, she was transferred in 1926 to the Mediterranean Fleet , based in Grand Harbour , Malta. In early 1928, this duty saw

4484-745: The Mark 24 occurred on 14 May 1943, when a PBY -5 from VP-84 sank U-640 with the new weapon. Most sources indicate that the Germans' first combat success with the Zaunkönig (GNAT) did not occur until September 1943. While the Allies became aware in September 1943 that the Germans had brought GNAT into operational service, it was not until the capture of U-505 in June 1944 that they obtained reliable data on

4602-542: The North Sea as a diversion for the commerce-raiding heavy cruisers Deutschland and Admiral Graf Spee . The search was ultimately fruitless, particularly for Royal Oak , whose top speed, by then less than 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), was inadequate to keep up with the rest of the fleet. On 12 October, Royal Oak returned to the defences of Scapa Flow in poor shape, battered by North Atlantic storms. Many of her Carley Floats had been smashed and several of

4720-428: The TII also proved to be unreliable; the British battleship HMS Nelson managed to survive almost certain destruction when three torpedoes from U-56 struck on her keel, two broke upon hitting and the other failed to explode. These technical defects led to the circumstance that attacks on at least one battleship , seven heavy cruisers , seven destroyers and some cargo ships were not successful. Nevertheless,

4838-565: The TII was already being phased out of production. Improvements in the design of the G7e(TII) were incorporated into the production of the next model of electric torpedo for Germany's U-boat fleet. Introduced in 1942, the TIII represented a vast improvement over the early TII. The faulty exploders from the TII were scrapped in favor of a new design. The TIII had a range of 7,500 m (8,200 yd) and could achieve 56 km/h (30 kn). With

G7e torpedo - Misplaced Pages Continue

4956-528: The United States Navy's standard Mark 14 anti-submarine and anti-ship torpedo . The magnetic influence exploder, designed to allow the torpedo to run under the keel of a ship and detonate, breaking the ship's back, was inconsistent and would often detonate prematurely, or not at all. This led the BdU to order that all G7e(TII) torpedoes be fired only for contact detonation. However, the contact pistol of

5074-434: The actual sinking of Royal Oak and the resulting loss of life, which having been in port and in calm water was thought to be "very heavy". The report concluded that the main cause was due to an unusually high number of men having been below the main armoured deck because they had been sent to air defence stations. Their escape was slowed because of the number of watertight doors which were closed. The question of "deadlights"

5192-410: The added advantage of being topped by roads running between the islands. The wreck of Royal Oak , a designated war grave , lies almost upside down in 100 feet (30 m) of water with her hull 16 feet (4.9 m) beneath the surface. In an annual ceremony marking the loss of the ship, Royal Navy divers place a White Ensign underwater at her stern. Unauthorised divers are prohibited from approaching

5310-406: The addition of anti-torpedo bulges . They were designed to reduce the effect of torpedo detonations and improve stability at the cost of widening the ship's beam by over 13 feet (4.0 m). They increased her beam to 102 feet 1 inch (31.1 m), reduced her draught to 29 feet 6 inches (9 m), increased her metacentric height to 6.3 feet (1.9 m) at deep load, and all

5428-411: The anchorage appeared to be almost empty; unknown to him, Forbes's order to disperse the fleet had removed some of the biggest targets. U-47 had been heading directly towards four warships, including the newly commissioned light cruiser Belfast , anchored off Flotta and Hoy 4 nautical miles (7.4 kilometres; 4.6 miles) distant, but Prien gave no indication he had seen them. On the reverse course,

5546-423: The batteries of these torpedoes needed to be preheated to a temperature of 30 °C (86 °F) to operate with maximum speed and range, though generally this was not a problem since U-boats had the element of surprise and often had the advantage of firing the first shot. Poor range and speed were not the TII's only problems. Both the contact and magnetic detonators were unreliable, major flaws that also afflicted

5664-571: The battle, Royal Oak had fired 38 rounds from her main battery and 84 rounds from her secondary guns. Following the battle, Royal Oak was reassigned to the First Battle Squadron . On 18 August, the Germans again sortied, this time to bombard Sunderland ; Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer , the German fleet commander, hoped to draw out the British battlecruisers and destroy them. British signals intelligence decrypted German wireless transmissions, allowing Jellicoe enough time to deploy

5782-415: The boat to sink two more ships on 18 March; Canadian Star and Walter Q. Gresham were added to her list of 'kills'. U-221 only sank one ship on this patrol, Sandanger ; the survivors had a remarkable escape. Occupying the only intact lifeboat, they found themselves in an area of low pressure created by the ship's burning fuel cargo. The flames were split in two by strong winds which also kept them above

5900-556: The boats, Trojer surfaced and took the ship's 4th Engineer prisoner, but on March 21, the man, during an exercise period, jumped overboard and was lost. The boat sank Tucurina on the tenth, southeast of Cape Farewell , ( Greenland ). In the same attack, the U-boat sank Andrea F. Luckenbach and damaged SS  Lawton B. Evans (probably due to a dud torpedo). Retribution was swift; the convoy's escorts from HX 228 caused some damage to U-221 . Repairs were carried out at sea, enabling

6018-503: The bow or the stern. Above this was a strake of armour 6 inches thick that extended between 'A' and 'X' barbettes. Transverse bulkheads 4 to 6 inches thick ran at an angle from the ends of the thickest part of the waterline belt to 'A' and 'Y' barbettes. The gun turrets were protected by 11 to 13 inches (279 to 330 mm) of KC armour, except for the turret roofs which were 4.75–5 inches (121–127 mm) thick. The barbettes ranged in thickness from 6–10 inches (152–254 mm) above

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6136-456: The cause of the sinking, suspecting either an on-board explosion or aerial attack. Once it was realised that a submarine attack was the most likely explanation, steps were rapidly made to seal the anchorage, but U-47 had already escaped and was on its way back to Germany. The BBC released news of the sinking by late morning on 14 October, and its broadcasts were received by the German listening services and by U-47 itself. Divers sent down on

6254-406: The changes to her equipment increased her crew to a total of 1,188. Despite the bulges she was able to reach a speed of 21.75 knots (40.28 km/h; 25.03 mph). A brief refit in early 1927 saw the addition of two more four-inch AA guns and the removal of the six-inch guns from the shelter deck. About 1931, a High-Angle Control System (HACS) Mk I director replaced the high-angle rangefinder on

6372-459: The circumstances under which the anchorage had been penetrated. In the meantime, the Home Fleet was ordered to remain at safer ports until security issues at Scapa could be addressed. Churchill was obliged to respond to questions in the House as to why Royal Oak had had aboard so many boys, most of whom died. He defended the Royal Navy tradition of sending boys aged 15 to 17 to sea, but the practice

6490-437: The command of Kapitänleutnant Hans-Hartwig Trojer . A member of twelve wolfpacks , she sank a total of Twenty one ships for a total of 69,589  gross register tons  (GRT) and 759 tons in five patrols. In addition, she damaged one ship with a total tonnage of 7,197 GRT. German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines . U-221 had a displacement of 769 tonnes (757 long tons) when at

6608-426: The compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in March 1917. A torpedo-control director with a 15-foot rangefinder was mounted at the aft end of the superstructure. The ship's waterline belt consisted of Krupp cemented armour (KC) that was 13 inches (330 mm) thick between 'A' and 'Y' barbettes and thinned to 4 to 6 inches (100 to 150 millimetres) towards the ship's ends, but did not reach either

6726-605: The concerns of the King , who summoned First Lord of the Admiralty William Bridgeman for an explanation. For their letters of complaint, Dewar and Daniel were controversially charged with writing "subversive documents". In a pair of highly publicised courts-martial held aboard HMS Eagle at Gibraltar, both were found guilty and severely reprimanded, leading Daniel to resign from the Navy. Collard himself

6844-633: The conduct of their superiors. During the Spanish Civil War , Royal Oak was tasked with conducting non-intervention patrols around the Iberian Peninsula . On such a patrol and steaming 30 nautical miles (56 km; 35 mi) east of Gibraltar on 2 February 1937, she came under aerial attack by three aircraft of the Republican forces. They dropped three bombs (two of which exploded) within 3  cables (550 m) of

6962-485: The crew were in attendance. Kenneth Toop, who survived the sinking while serving as a boy, first class, on Royal Oak , served as the Association's honorary secretary for fifteen years. The last remaining survivor of Royal Oak , Arthur Smith, died on 11 December 2016. Serving as a 17-year-old boy, first class, he had been on watch on the bridge when the ship was struck and jumped from the sinking vessel, swimming in

7080-413: The disaster condemned the defences at Scapa Flow, and censured Sir Wilfred French , Admiral Commanding, Orkneys and Shetlands , for their unprepared state. French was placed on the retired list, despite having warned the previous year of Scapa Flow's deficient anti-submarine defences, and volunteering to bring a small ship or submarine himself past the blockships to prove his point. On Churchill's orders,

7198-412: The east via Kirk Sound, passing to the north of Lamb Holm , a small, low-lying island between Burray and Mainland . Prien initially mistook the more southerly Skerry Sound for the chosen route, and his sudden realisation that U-47 was heading for the shallow blocked passage forced him to order a rapid turn to the northeast. On the surface, and illuminated by a bright display of the aurora borealis ,

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7316-510: The eastern approaches to Scapa Flow were sealed with concrete causeways linking Lamb Holm, Glimps Holm , Burray and South Ronaldsay to Mainland . Constructed largely by Italian prisoners of war, the Churchill Barriers , as they became known, were essentially complete by September 1944, and were opened officially just after VE Day in May 1945. In a second report, the Board of Inquiry considered

7434-412: The existence of Oertel, Wehring or a submarine named B-06 , and the story is now held to be wholly fictitious. In 1959, the Orkneys' preeminent watchmaker, Mr E. W. Hourton, informed "with the utmost assurance" the editor of The Orkney Herald that in his lifetime there had never been a watchmaker named Oertel in Kirkwall nor anyone resembling such a person. Orkney's chief librarian, in a 1983 letter to

7552-411: The fleet flagship over the exact location and course of the German fleet; without this information, Jellicoe could not bring his fleet to action. At 21:30, the Grand Fleet began to reorganise into its night-time cruising formation. Early on the morning of 1 June, the Grand Fleet combed the area, looking for damaged German ships, but after spending several hours searching, they found none. In the course of

7670-469: The fleet in the southern half of the North Sea due to the overwhelming risk from mines and U-boats. In late 1917, the Germans began using destroyers and light cruisers to raid the British convoys to Norway; this forced the British to deploy capital ships to protect the convoys. In April 1918, the German fleet sortied in an attempt to catch one of the isolated British squadrons, though the convoy had already passed safely. The Grand Fleet sortied too late to catch

7788-455: The fourteen BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk XII guns were mounted in casemates along the broadside of the vessel amidships ; the remaining pair were mounted on the shelter deck and were protected by gun shields . Their anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of two quick-firing (QF) 3-inch (76 mm) 20 cwt Mk I guns. The ships were fitted with four submerged 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes , two on each broadside. Royal Oak

7906-490: The harbour, he was responsible for rescuing almost all the survivors, an act for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross , the only military award made by the British in connection with the disaster. Pegasus had sent a message by signal lamp to the port signal station about five minutes after the sinking, saying "General. Send all boats", and half an hour later " Royal Oak is sinking after several internal explosions". The British were initially confused as to

8024-484: The historian Nigel West , suggested that the name Albert Oertel was likely a pun on the well-known Albert Hotel in Kirkwall . In the immediate aftermath of the sinking, Royal Oak ' s survivors were billeted in the towns and villages of Orkney. A funeral parade for the dead took place at Lyness on Hoy on 16 October; many of the surviving crew, having lost all their own clothing on the ship, attended in borrowed boiler suits and gym shoes. They were generally granted

8142-406: The improved design the TIII complemented the G7a(TI) wet-heater torpedo, which was only used at night for the rest of the war (it remained the only torpedo used by surface ships though), and the TIII was used for day-attacks. Using the TIII's perfected proximity feature, U-boat captains could effectively fire under the keel of a ship and break the back of their targets with a single torpedo, increasing

8260-418: The introduction of Falke , U-boats could remain more deeply submerged and fire at convoys with nothing to give away their position but the noise of their screws. Rather than aiming with a periscope, the torpedo could be roughly aimed at a sound contact as detected by a U-boat's hydrophones, and the homing mechanism could be trusted to find the target without the need for precise aiming. Falke worked much like

8378-464: The largest ever such loss in a single Royal Navy action. The tender Daisy 2 , skippered by John Gatt, had been tied up for the night to Royal Oak ' s port side. As the sinking battleship began to list to starboard, Gatt ordered Daisy 2 to be cut loose, his vessel becoming briefly caught on Royal Oak ' s rising anti-torpedo bulge and lifted from the sea before freeing herself. Many of Royal Oak ' s crew who had managed to jump from

8496-417: The leading vessel, SMS  Derfflinger . The gunners overestimated the range initially, but by 19:20 had found the correct distance and scored a pair of hits aft, which did not inflict serious damage. Derfflinger then disappeared in the haze, so Royal Oak shifted fire to the next battlecruiser, SMS  Seydlitz . She scored a hit at 19:27 before Seydlitz too was lost in the mist. While Royal Oak

8614-423: The men's heads by only a few feet as they rowed clear of the location. U-221 left St. Nazaire for the last time on 20 September 1943. On the 27th she was attacked by a Handley Page Halifax of No. 58 Squadron RAF with eight depth charges southwest of Ireland. The U-boat was seen to sink by the stern but the aircraft was also hit, forcing the pilot to ditch about three miles from the encounter. Two gunners from

8732-639: The morning after the explosion discovered remnants of a German torpedo, confirming the means of attack. On 17 October, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill officially announced the loss of Royal Oak to the House of Commons , first conceding that the raid had been "a remarkable exploit of professional skill and daring", but then declaring that the loss would not materially affect the naval balance of power. An Admiralty board of inquiry convened between 18 and 24 October to establish

8850-434: The open starboard-side portholes below the waterline. She soon rolled further onto her side to 45°, hanging there for several minutes before disappearing beneath the surface at 01:29, 13 minutes after Prien's second strike. 835 men died with the ship or died later of their wounds. The dead included Rear-Admiral Henry Blagrove , commander of the Second Battle Squadron . 134 of the dead were boy seamen , not yet 18 years old,

8968-508: The operation. The Admiralty ordered Admiral John Jellicoe , commander of the Grand Fleet ;– totalling 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers – to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. The initial action was fought primarily by the British and German battlecruiser formations in the afternoon, but by 18:00 the Grand Fleet approached the scene. Fifteen minutes later, Jellicoe gave

9086-426: The order to turn and deploy the fleet for action. The German cruiser SMS  Wiesbaden had become disabled by British shellfire, and both sides concentrated in the area, the Germans trying to protect their cruiser and the British attempting to sink her. At 18:29, Royal Oak opened fire on the German cruiser, firing four salvoes from her main guns in quick succession, along with her secondary battery. She scored

9204-465: The outcome of which was to remove all three men from their posts and send them back to England. The Board sat on the eve of a major naval exercise, which Keyes was obliged to postpone, causing rumours to fly around the fleet that the Royal Oak had experienced a mutiny . The story was picked up by the press worldwide, which described what became known as " the Royal Oak affair " with some hyperbole. Public attention reached such proportions as to raise

9322-470: The outdated ship—the first of five Royal Navy battleships and battlecruisers sunk in the Second World War—did little to affect the numerical superiority enjoyed by the British navy and its Allies , but it had a considerable effect on wartime morale. The raid made an immediate celebrity and war hero of the U-boat commander, Günther Prien , who became the first German submarine officer to be awarded

9440-506: The outset of submarine warfare, submariners had dreamed of being able to aim and fire torpedoes without surfacing or using a periscope. The periscope gives away the location of a submarine, and a hull-penetrating periscope greatly weakens a submarine's pressure hull and limits the depths to which it can dive. U-boats also had to come to very shallow depths to use their periscopes, generally about 15 m (50 ft), leaving them greatly exposed to bombing, depth charging, and even gunfire. With

9558-408: The overall effectiveness of the U-boat fleet. The TIII was also issued with program steering FaT ( Flächenabsuchender Torpedo ) - - G7e(TIII Fat II) - and LuT ( Lagenunabhängiger Torpedo ) - G7e(TIII Lut II) - pattern running systems for convoy attacks. Though many opportunities had been missed due to the defects of the TII torpedo, with the new TIII U-boats were deadlier than ever. The TIV Model

9676-597: The retreating Germans, although the battlecruiser SMS  Moltke was torpedoed and badly damaged by the submarine HMS  E42 . On 5 November 1918, in the final week of the First World War, Royal Oak was anchored off Burntisland in the Firth of Forth accompanied by the seaplane tender Campania and the light battlecruiser Glorious . A sudden Force 10 squall caused Campania to drag her anchor , collide with Royal Oak and then with Glorious . Both capital ships suffered only minor damage, but Campania

9794-522: The same attack, she sank Ashworth and Senta . There were no survivors from either vessel. The next day two more ships fell to the torpedoes of the German U-boat. The Susana went down in six minutes northeast of St. Johns ; Southern Empress was sent to the bottom, taking a deck cargo of ten landing craft with her. U-221 docked in St Nazaire on 22 October. The boat's second foray

9912-509: The ships were redesigned to employ oil-fired boilers that increased the power of the engines by 9,000 shaft horsepower (6,700 kW) over the original specification. Royal Oak had a length overall of 620 feet 7 inches (189.2 m), a beam of 88 feet 6 inches (27 m) and a deep draught of 33 feet 7 inches (10.2 m). She had a designed displacement of 27,790 long tons (28,240 t) and displaced 31,130 long tons (31,630 t) at deep load . She

10030-600: The sinking ship were dressed in little more than their nightclothes and were unprepared for the chilling water. A thick layer of fuel oil coated the surface, filling men's lungs and stomachs and hampering their efforts to swim. Of those who attempted the half-mile (800 m) swim to the nearest shore, only a handful survived. Royal Oak ' s port side pinnace was manoeuvred away from the sinking ship and paddled away using wooden boards as there had been insufficient time to raise steam. The boat became overladen and capsized 300 metres from Royal Oak , throwing those on deck into

10148-499: The smaller-calibre guns rendered inoperable through flooding. The mission had underlined the obsolescence of the 25-year-old warship. Concerned that a recent overflight by German reconnaissance aircraft heralded an imminent air attack upon Scapa Flow, Admiral of the Home Fleet Charles Forbes ordered most of the fleet to disperse to safer ports. Royal Oak remained behind, her anti-aircraft guns still deemed

10266-411: The spotting top. Two years later, the aft pair of torpedo tubes were removed. The ship received a final refit between 1934 and 1936, when her deck armour was increased to 5 inches (13 cm) over the magazines and to 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) over the engine rooms. In addition to a general modernisation of the ship's systems, her anti-aircraft defences were strengthened by replacing the single mounts of

10384-627: The starboard bow, causing no damage. The British chargé d'affaires protested about the incident to the Republican Government, which admitted its error and apologised for the attack. Later that same month, while stationed off Valencia on 23 February 1937 during an aerial bombardment by the Nationalists , she was accidentally struck by an anti-aircraft shell fired from a Republican position. Five men were injured, including Royal Oak ' s captain, T. B. Drew. On this occasion

10502-520: The submarine threaded between the sunken blockships Seriano and Numidian , grounding itself temporarily on a cable strung from Seriano . It was briefly caught in the headlights of a taxi onshore, but the driver raised no alarm. On entering the harbour proper at 00:27 on 14 October, Prien entered a triumphant Wir sind in Scapa Flow!!! in the log and set a south-westerly course for several kilometres before reversing direction. To his surprise,

10620-462: The surface and 871 tonnes (857 long tons) while submerged. She had a total length of 67.10 m (220 ft 2 in), a pressure hull length of 50.50 m (165 ft 8 in), a beam of 6.20 m (20 ft 4 in), a height of 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in), and a draught of 4.74 m (15 ft 7 in). The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing

10738-429: The torpedo director aft. A pair of quadruple mounts for Vickers .50 machine guns were added abreast the conning tower. The mainmast was reconstructed as a tripod to support the weight of a radio-direction finding office and a second High-Angle Control Station. The forward pair of submerged torpedo tubes were removed and four experimental 21-inch torpedo tubes were added above water forward of 'A' turret. Royal Oak

10856-517: The two with failing to follow orders and treating him "worse than a midshipman". When Dewar and Daniel wrote letters of complaint to Collard's superior, Vice-Admiral John Kelly , he immediately passed them on to the Commander-in-Chief Admiral Sir Roger Keyes . On realising that the relationship between the two and their flag admiral had irretrievably broken down, Keyes hurriedly convened a Board of Enquiry,

10974-424: The unexplained explosion that had destroyed HMS  Vanguard at Scapa Flow in 1917, an announcement was made over Royal Oak ' s tannoy system to check the magazine temperatures, but many sailors returned to their hammocks, unaware the ship was under attack. Prien turned his submarine and attempted another shot via his stern tube, but this too missed. Reloading his bow tubes, he doubled back and fired

11092-457: The upper deck, but were only 4 to 6 inches thick below it. The Revenge -class ships had multiple armoured decks that ranged from 1 to 4 inches (25 to 102 mm) in thickness. The main conning tower had 13 inches of armour on the sides with a 3-inch roof. The torpedo director in the rear superstructure had 6 inches of armour protecting it. After the Battle of Jutland, 1 inch of high-tensile steel

11210-474: The water and trapping those below. Gatt switched the lights of Daisy 2 on and he and his crew managed to pull 386 men from the water, including Royal Oak ' s commander, Captain William Benn. The rescue efforts continued for another two and a half hours until nearly 4:00 am, when Gatt abandoned the search for more survivors and took those he had to Pegasus . Aided by boats from Pegasus and

11328-447: The wreck under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 . The Revenge -class ships were designed as slightly smaller, slower, and more heavily protected versions of the preceding Queen Elizabeth -class battleships. As an economy measure they were intended to revert to the previous practice of using both fuel oil and coal, but First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher rescinded the decision for coal in October 1914. While under construction

11446-513: The wrong direction until he was picked up by a boat and transferred to the Daisy 2 . Despite the relatively shallow water in which she sank, the majority of bodies could not be recovered from Royal Oak . Marked by a buoy at 58°55′44″N 2°59′09″W  /  58.92889°N 2.98583°W  / 58.92889; -2.98583 , the wreck has been designated a war grave and all diving or other unauthorised forms of exploration are prohibited under

11564-576: The year following the court martial, after which he was forcibly retired. The scandal proved an embarrassment to the reputation of the Royal Navy, then the world's largest, and it was satirised at home and abroad through editorials, cartoons, and even a comic jazz oratorio composed by Erwin Schulhoff . One consequence of the damaging affair was an undertaking from the Admiralty to review the means by which naval officers might bring complaints against

11682-436: Was laid down at Devonport Royal Dockyard on 15 January 1914. She was launched on 17 November, and after fitting-out was commissioned on 1 May 1916 at a final cost of £ 2,468,269. Named after the Royal Oak in which Charles II hid following his defeat at the 1651 Battle of Worcester , she was the eighth vessel to bear the name Royal Oak , replacing a pre-dreadnought scrapped in 1914. Upon completion Royal Oak

11800-406: Was added to the main deck over the magazines and additional anti-flash equipment was installed in the magazines. The ship was fitted with flying-off platforms , mounted on the roofs of 'B' and 'X' turrets, in 1918; from which fighters and reconnaissance aircraft could launch. In 1934 the platforms were removed from the turrets and a catapult was installed on the roof of 'X' turret, along with

11918-450: Was also considered; these were ventilated metal plates that replaced the glass panes in the scuttles or portholes when ships were in port, allowing the wartime blackout to be observed. It was thought that water flooding through these had hastened the initial heeling over, but having the ventilators closed would not have saved the ship. In the years that followed, a rumour circulated that Prien had been guided into Scapa by Alfred Wehring,

12036-943: Was assigned to the Third Division of the Fourth Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet , under the command of Captain Crawford Maclachlan . In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet, composed of 16 dreadnoughts, 6 pre-dreadnoughts, 6 light cruisers, and 31 torpedo boats, departed the Jade early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Rear-Admiral Franz von Hipper 's five battlecruisers and supporting cruisers and torpedo boats. The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of

12154-435: Was attacking the battlecruisers, a German torpedo boat flotilla launched an attack on the British battleline. Royal Oak ' s secondary guns were the first to open fire, at 19:16, followed quickly by the rest of the British ships. Following the German destroyer attack, the High Seas Fleet disengaged, and Royal Oak and the rest of the Grand Fleet saw no further action in the battle. This was, in part, due to confusion aboard

12272-438: Was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with 15-foot (4.6 m) rangefinders . One was mounted above the conning tower , protected by an armoured hood, and the other was in the spotting top above the tripod foremast . Each turret was also fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. The main armament could also be controlled by 'X' turret. The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of

12390-463: Was criticised for the excesses of his conduct by the press and in Parliament, and on being denounced by Bridgeman as "unfitted to hold further high command", was forcibly retired from service. He retreated to private life and never spoke publicly of the incident again. On the retired list, he was promoted from Rear- to Vice-Admiral on 1 April 1931. Daniel attempted a career in journalist - notably

12508-534: Was faster and better able to home onto the sound of fast moving warships as well as merchant traffic. Though its period of operational service was brief, Falke was a proof of concept for the acoustic homing torpedo. Its introduction occurred only two months before the U.S. Navy achieved its initial combat success with the Mark 24 FIDO "mine." FIDO was not a mine, but a passive, acoustic-homing torpedo designed for use by long-range patrol aircraft. The initial success with

12626-440: Was fitted with five 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen torpedoes , one 8.8 cm (3.46 in) SK C/35 naval gun , 220 rounds, and a 2 cm (0.79 in) C/30 anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty. U-221 is also credited with the destruction of ten allied landing craft (nine LCMs and one LCT ) that were lost aboard

12744-486: Was generally discontinued shortly after the disaster, and under 18-year-olds served on active warships in only the most exceptional circumstances. The Nazi Propaganda Ministry was quick to capitalise on the successful raid, and radio broadcasts by the popular journalist Hans Fritzsche displayed the triumph felt throughout Germany. Prien and his crew reached Wilhelmshaven at 11:44 on 17 October and were immediately greeted as heroes, learning that Prien had been awarded

12862-508: Was holed by her initial collision with Royal Oak . The ship's engine rooms flooded, and she settled by the stern and sank five hours later, without loss of life. Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, the Allies interned most of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow. The fleet rendezvoused with the British light cruiser Cardiff , which led the ships to the Allied fleet that

12980-459: Was made Flag Officer of U-boats. Prien was nicknamed "The Bull of Scapa Flow" and his crew decorated U-47 ' s conning tower with a snorting bull mascot, later adopted as the emblem of the 7th U-boat Flotilla . He found himself in demand for radio and newspaper interviews, and his 'autobiography' was published the following year, titled Mein Weg nach Scapa Flow . Ghost-written for him by

13098-466: Was not a great hindrance. Only known to have been fired in action by three U-boats, U-221 , U-603 and U-758 , although regarded as successful, resulting in the sinking of several merchants, and its performance rated satisfactory, Falke was rapidly phased out of service. It was replaced by the G7es(TV) " Zaunkönig " (referred to by the Allies as GNAT , for German Navy Acoustic Torpedo), which

13216-487: Was one of anti-climax and tragedy. Although she scoured the Atlantic west of Ireland, she failed to find any targets. On 8 December U-221 and U-254 collided in heavy fog, resulting in the loss of the latter boat. U-221 was badly damaged. Unable to dive, Oberleutnant zur See Trojer aborted the patrol and returned to St. Nazaire. Her third sortie was more fruitful. The Jamaica was destroyed on 7 March 1943. This ship took just two minutes to sink. As survivors took to

13334-427: Was powered by two sets of Parsons steam turbines , each driving two shafts, using steam from 18 Yarrow boilers . The turbines were rated at 40,000 shaft horsepower (30,000 kW) and intended to reach a maximum speed of 23 knots (42.6 km/h; 26.5 mph). During her sea trials on 22 May 1916, the ship reached a top speed of only 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) from 40,360 shp (30,100 kW). She had

13452-481: Was published in 1955, Weymar wrote a letter of protest to the British publisher saying that the "demonstrably false" account should not have been published out of context and he donated his royalties to charity. The Admiralty Board of Inquiry's president was Admiral Reginald Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax , assisted by Admiral Robert Raikes and Captain Gerard Muirhead-Gould . Their official report into

13570-537: Was the adjunct of the earlier TIII model in nearly every way. The TIV was not an ordinary straight-running torpedo, it ran at 37 km/h (20 kn) for 7,500 m (8,200 yd) and was the world's first operational acoustic homing torpedo, since it was introduced in March 1943, the same month and year as the American Mk-24 "Mine" acoustic homing torpedo. Early in 1933 Germany started development and testing of acoustic homing mechanisms for torpedoes. From

13688-625: Was then the world's largest navy. Attempts to modernise Royal Oak throughout her 25-year career could not fix her fundamental lack of speed and, by the start of the Second World War , she was no longer suitable for front-line duty. On 14 October 1939, Royal Oak was anchored at Scapa Flow in Orkney , Scotland, when she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-47 . Of Royal Oak ' s complement of 1,234 men and boys, 835 were killed that night or died later of their wounds. The loss of

13806-469: Was to escort the Germans to Scapa Flow. The fleet consisted of 370 British, American, and French warships. The High Seas Fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations that ultimately produced the Treaty of Versailles . Konteradmiral Ludwig von Reuter believed the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June 1919, which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty. That morning,

13924-462: Was unable on 14 July to prevent the seizure of the British freighter Molton by the Nationalist cruiser Almirante Cervera while trying to enter Santander. The merchantmen had been engaged in the evacuation of refugees. This same period saw Royal Oak star alongside fourteen other Royal Navy vessels in the 1937 British film melodrama Our Fighting Navy , the plot of which centres around

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