More than 100 years ago the German Navy sank, 52 German ships sank in the bay of Scapa Flow without a shot being heard. The only sound from the dying battle ships was the gurgling and smacking of the penetrating water, the tearing of metal and the crack that made the anchor chains give way.
How could this happen? Before the First World War, Germany looked at the Navy with pride. The development of the deep-sea fleet was particularly important to the Kaiser and the patriotic Germans. A powerful navy was supposed to secure the longed-for “place in the sun” for the empire all over the world.
No role in war
But when the war began in 1914, it quickly became apparent that it would be decided on the ground. The Germans wanted to defeat Paris in a quick advance – the fleet was not needed for this. When the fronts got bogged down in an endless trench war, the high seas fleet was supposed to try to rule the seas and thus decide the war.
From May 31, 1916 to June 1, 1916, there was the only major naval battle of the war on the Skagerrak. After the first heavy losses of the British, the German battle line drove straight into a trap. With a bold maneuver, Admiral Scheer saved his ships and broke off the battle. In terms of losses, the battle ended in a “tie”. Strategically, it was a British victory. The Germans could not break out of their ports and never challenged the Royal Navy again.
While millions of infantrymen were shredded by grenades and suffocated on poison gas, the fleet essentially spent the war in safe havens. When the war was hopelessly lost, some officers wanted to launch a suicidal attack – but the sailors no longer followed them. The revolution broke out and the empire collapsed.
Delivered to the Allies
The handover of the German deep sea fleet to the Allies was one of the conditions of the armistice that ended the First World War in November 1918. 70 German battleships, cruisers and destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter arrived on the Scottish coast off the Firth of Forth on November 21st to subordinate the fleet to British Admiral Sir David Beatty. The handover was peaceful and Beatty wrote to his wife, not without irony: “Well, Pansy, we have finally met the deep-sea fleet.” The deep-sea fleet that had avoided meeting Beatty’s ships for years.
The Allies were at odds about what to do with the German ships, so they were taken to the large natural harbor of Scapa Flow on the Orkney Islands to be interned. Other ships arrived, finally there were 74 with around 20,000 German seafarers. Most of the seafarers returned to Germany, only an emergency crew remained. “The ships were not actually surrendered and so there were no British troops on board to prevent them from being sunk,” Orkney Museum’s Tom Muir told BBC Radio. “They were the property of the German government and stayed that way throughout their time here.”
Scuttling to save the honor of the Navy
On June 23, the British wanted to take over the German fleet, but on June 17, von Reuter was preparing to sink his fleet. He expected his ships to be boarded and confiscated by the Royal Navy. The rear admiral thought he shouldn’t allow such a thing to happen. Paul Schell was a seaman on the torpedo boat G 102. He recalled in a radio interview: “I was on G 102 – that is, Germania 102. And you already knew a few days beforehand that you got in touch with the few officers who were still there were, and it was then agreed that the ships would be sunk at a certain moment. ”
Orkney Museum’s Muir said: “Von Reuter had already sent letters to the commanders of the ships informing them that he was planning to sink the fleet on his signal. Ironically, it was British boats that sent those letters Officers transported on the other ships. ”
On June 21, 1919, von Reuter gave the order to submerge after most of the British ships had left the port for an exercise. At 10:30 am the flagship Emden signaled the message – “Paragraph Eleven; confirm”. That was the signal that ordered the men to sink their own ships. Reuter’s ships hoisted the German flag again, they were forbidden to do so during internment. Sea valves, portholes, watertight doors, hatches and torpedo tubes were opened. The ships were deliberately flooded from one side so that they would turn around and sink upside down. The Germans believed that this would make it harder to save the ships.
Paul Schell remembered: “Where the flag was hoisted, then of course the sinking started. And of course everyone had to open their valves, no, and see that he comes out of the ship, no, and the small boats, the lifeboats, there Of course you sat down and tried to stay afloat until something happened. ”The remaining 2,000 men went into the boats.
Shots at the German sailors
The only civilian witnesses to the sinking of the German fleet were schoolchildren from Stromness who were on a voyage. Fifteen-year-old James Taylor wrote: “Suddenly and without warning, these huge ships were listing, some plunging upside down, their stern lifting and pointing skyward. A muffled tearing of the anchor chains increased the noise as the large bodies sucked and sucked horribly clicking sounds went down. ”
Another student, 12-year-old Leslie Thorpe, watches the British fire a machine gun at a German boat full of fleeing soldiers. “The men were ordered to open fire on the defenseless German sailors,” Muir told the BBC. Nine Germans were killed and 16 injured. They were the last dead of the First World War.
The Hindenburg, the largest German battle cruiser, was the last ship to go down. 52 German ships sank, the superstructures of some of them could still be seen. In the 1920s, scrap dealer Ernest Cox bought two sunken battlecruisers and 26 destroyers and began lifting the ships to recycle the metal. Later he bought more ships, more than 30 ships disappeared in this way. An inglorious end for the once proud ships.
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