Picto Diary - 21 September 2019 - Scapa Flow (Orkney Part 2)

Above: St. Mary's (Italian) Church. Scapa Flow. Orkney Islands. Scotland. 21 September 2019.

Out and about in Orkney

Italian soldiers, taken prisoner by the British in North Africa, were brought to Scapa Flow to construct the Churchill Barriers (see below). The Italian prisoners were treated quite humanely... in contrast, say, to the way the Japanese treated British POWs in Malaya. The Italians had the run of the island. Where were they gonna go? They petitioned British authorities to build a Catholic Church. Permission was granted. British authorities provided the Italian prisoners with two Nissin Huts for the interior of the church. The prisoners designed and built an outside facade. The church is kept up and maintained to this day. A mass is held in the church once a month for each of four months during tourist season. The mass is performed by the Catholic priest resident in Kirkwell, capital of the Orkney Islands.

Above: Scapa Flow and Churchill Barriers. Orkney Islands. Scotland. 21 September 2019.

Out and about in Orkney.

Bishop looks out over Churchill Barrier Number 2 at Scapa Flow, a 100 plus square mile natural, protected harbor located in the Orkney Islands. 21 September 2019.

Image is shot by TIMDT from the Italian Church.

Most of the British WWI fleet, The Grand Fleet, was harbored at Scapa Flow for the duration of WWI.

British commanders had determined that Scapa Flow was the best port from which to thwart German access to the Atlantic Ocean. By war's end, 1918, they were proven right. Throughout the war, but for the Battle of Jutland in mid 1916, the German fleet remained trapped in its home port of Wilhelmshaven on the Baltic Sea.

World War I. At Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919, there occurred an event unique in naval history. The German High Seas Fleet, one of the most formidable fleets ever built, was deliberately sent to the bottom of the sea at the British Grand Fleet's principal anchorage at Orkney by its own officers and men.

Hoops, Bronx Girl, TIMDT and Mwah (sic) are here at Scapa Flow today, just a bit more than one hundred years after German Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter became the only man in history to sink his own navy... some four hundred thousand tons.... 54 ships, including 20 or so capital ships.

After the Armistice of WWI was declared on 11 November 1918, something had to be done to neuter the German fleet, most of which was berthed at the German port of Wilhelmshaven.

It was decided that the fleet, still technically under German command, should be put in a neutral harbor pending finalizing negotiations of the Armistice at Versailles. No neutral harbor could be found. So, it was decided to harbor the fleet at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands in far north Scotland, under the watchful eye of the British navy.

In the end, Admiral Reuter scuttled the interned German fleet based on faulty information suggesting that the Germans were going to back out of Treaty of Versailles negotiations and that hostilities could resume. German Admiral Reuter figured that he could not let the German fleet move from internationally sanctioned "internship" to enemy, British hands.

World War II. On 14 October 1939, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak was sunk at her moorings within the natural harbour of Scapa Flow by the German U-boat U-47.

Shortly before midnight on 13 October U-47, under the command of Günther Prien, had entered Scapa Flow through Kirk Sound between Lamb Holm and the Orkney Mainland. Although the shallow eastern passages had been secured with measures including sunken block ships, booms and anti-submarine nets, Prien was able to navigate the U-47 around the obstructions at high tide. He launched a torpedo attack on the Royal Navy battleship while it was at anchor in Scapa Flow. The U-47 then escaped seaward using the same channel by navigating between the block ships.

In response, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill ordered the construction of several permanent barriers to prevent any further attacks. Work began in May 1940 and was completed by September 1944. The barriers were officially opened on 12 May 1945, four days after the end of World War II in Europe.

Driving in this area driver/guide Jean pointed to the green buoy which mark's the spot of the sunken HMS Royal Oak.

Scapa Flow has a robust diving business on account of remaining sunken ships... those not salvaged in extensive salvaging operations during the 1920's and 1930's.