| Re: Scapa Flow |
EasyNews, UseNet made Ea .. |
| ::darkshadows:: (bat@cave.org) |
2009/04/15 07:57 |
On 15 Apr 2009 05:52:19 GMT, WingedMessenger <Boy@FlyingHigh.com>
wrote:
>"::darkshadows::" <bat@cave.org> wrote in
>news:kvlau4hh9phuu12bf6017vnf0n6kptvid1@4ax.com:
>
>>
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>> With which of the British armed forces is Scapa Flow most associated?
>>
>> Royal Navy
>> Army
>> Royal Air Force
>> Special Forces
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>> ANSWER:
>>
>> Royal Navy
>>
>>
>> I guessed right!!!
>> darkshadows
>>
>> ~~~~~
>>
>
>OH, so now you have learned to read LOL.
>
>Mercury.
Scapa Flow is a sheltered open lagoon, encircled by the Orkney
islands. It contains some of the most interesting wrecks in the world.
For years it was the main anchorage of the British Royal Navy, and has
many relics left of British naval history. In June 1919, the interned
German navy scuttled most of its High Seas Fleet to prevent them from
falling into Allied hands. Despite subsequent salvage, 8 of them
remain and provide excellent wrecks for interested sports divers.
Scapa Flow was the designated anchorage of the British Royal Navy's
Grand Fleet during the First World War. A natural expanse of sea,
Scapa Flow was enclosed by the Orkney Islands in Scotland and was
capable of holding the Grand Fleet several times over.
When war began Scapa Flow was essentially undefended against the
threat of German U-boat attacks. With the Grand Fleet newly relocated
to the area from Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham high priority was
therefore given to securing the area against German assault, the more
so once it was discovered that a German submarine had managed to enter
the Flow in November 1914.
Thus initial defences were constructed with the sinking of some 21
blockships and the deployment of anti-submarine indicator nets laid at
various depths and intended to entangle enemy submarines. Work
continued with the laying of defensive minefields and, further
supported by gun batteries, Scapa Flow was declared a safe base for
the fleet in 1915.
Nevertheless the Grand Fleet occasionally put to sea after scares
emerged reporting the presence of German submarines in the area. Grand
Fleet commander Sir John Jellicoe later admitted that he lived in
constant fear of the potential damage U-boats could wreak upon the
Grand Fleet were they to enter Scapa Flow undetected.
It was from Scapa Flow that the Grand Fleet put to sea at the end of
May 1916 to engage the German High Seas Fleet in what was to comprise
the last great fleet action between two of the world's great naval
powers at Jutland.
A tactical victory for Germany (which sunk more shipping) the British
claimed the longer term success, since Kaiser Wilhelm II, shocked at
the risk he had run of a German naval defeat with its inevitable
disastrous consequences, thereafter barred his fleet from again
engaging the British in fleet action.
dmiral Sir John JellicoeA matter of days after the action at Jutland,
in June 1916 Lord Kitchener, the war minister and hero of Khartoum,
visited Scapa Flow en route to Russia on a diplomatic mission. He and
his staff subsequently boarded HMS Hampshire and put to sea through
Hoy Sound.
It then became clear that the defensive blockships had failed in their
aim, for a German U-boat had successfully crossed the Flow and having
reached Birsay further north, laid a mine. It was this mine which
struck HMS Hampshire on 5 June. Kitchener was killed, stunning the
nation.
With the armistice in November 1918 74 ships of the German Navy were
instructed to proceed to Scapa Flow to surrender to the British. For
some six months the German vessels remained at anchor, food and other
supplies from Germany meanwhile running low.
When the local German commander, Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, read
details of the Allies' peace terms in The Times newspaper in June
1919, he resolved to scuttle the German fleet when the Grand Fleet
were next out performing exercises.
This he proceeded to do on 21 June, with 66 ships in all destroyed,
the event spectated by a party of schoolchildren who had travelled to
see the ships at Scapa Flow. Upon his eventual return to Germany von
Reuter was regarded as a national hero, the saviour of the honour of
the German Navy.
In 1919 Scapa Flow lost its status as the fleet's main base to Rosyth
in the Firth of Forth; it was however restored with the arrival of
renewed war in 1939.
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