By five in the afternoon, 15 capital ships, 4 light cruisers and 32 destroyers were sunk. When Vice-Admiral Sir Sydney Fremantle received news about the scuttling, he raced back to Scapa Flow just in time to see only the large ships still afloat. The German ships were tilting heavily to one side, the German flag were once more flying from the masts, and the crews were abandoning the ships. The ships were deliberately flooded from one side so that they would turn over and sink because that made the ships more difficult to salvage.Ībout an hour went by before the British realized what was happening. In some ships holes were bored through bulkheads to facilitate the spread of water. The upper-works of the German battle-cruiser SMS Hindenburg above the water at Scapa Flow.īelow deck, German sailors opened seacocks, torpedo tubes and portholes, and smashed water pipes to flood the ships. At about 11:20 another flag signal was sent using semaphore and searchlights. At ten in the morning, exactly an hour after the British fleet had left, Reuter sent a flag signal ordering the fleet to stand by for the signal to scuttle. On the morning of 21 June, the weather was calm and favorable, so the British fleet left Scapa Flow for exercise, and von Reuter saw his chance. Ironically it was the British drifters who were carting those letters around to the officers on the other ships. Should our government agree in the peace to terms to the surrender of the ships, then the ships will be handed over, to the lasting disgrace of those who have placed us in this position. It is my intention to sink the ships only if the enemy should attempt to obtain possession of them without the assent of our government. On June 18, 1919, Reuters sent out orders to all the interned ships in the harbor. Reuter felt it was his duty to not let that happen. ![]() By May that year, Reuter learned that the Royal Navy was preparing to seize the fleet. German Rear-Admiral Ludwig von Reuter himself had suggested it to his chief of staff as early as January 1919. The possibility of the Germans scuttling their own ships to prevent surrender was considered. The French and Italians each wanted a share, but the British wanted them destroyed because they knew that any redistribution of the ships would put their own navy at a proportional disadvantage in numbers compared to other navies. Meanwhile, the Allied powers remained divided over the fate of the ships. The luckier ones got sent home, but nearly five thousand of the original twenty had to stay behind as caretaker of the ships. Lack of supplies and no entertainment resulted in poor discipline and appalling living conditions. They were not allowed the go ashore or visit any other German ships, making their interment a veritable imprisonment. The men tried to supplement their diet with fish and seagulls caught from the decks. Food was sent twice a month from Germany, but it was monotonous. Four more ships joined the fleet that brought the total number of interned ships to 74-the largest fleet of warships ever assembled.įor the next seven months the ships languished in the harbor and the crew stranded aboard as peace talks were delayed again and again. Finally, under heavy Allied escort, the ships began to move out and arrived at the massive natural harbor at Scapa Flow between 25 to 27 November. ![]() Once all the German ships had arrived, Admiral David Beatty of the Royal Navy gave a controversial order to lower the German flags on the ships and not to raise them again without his permission, despite the fact that the ships were still the property of Germany as the peace talks had not yet started. On 21 November, 70 German vessels rendezvoused at the Firth of Forth, Scotland, to be escorted to their place of internment at Scapa Flow. ![]() Scuttling of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow. It was suggested that they should be interned at Royal Navy’s base at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, until their fate could be determined. Germany’s U-boats should be surrendered immediately, the Allied powers decided, but they could not agree what to do with the German surface fleet. One of the conditions of the Armistice was the complete demilitarization of Germany, and the surrender of military material to the Allied. The Germans were given a laundry list of terms to agree, but few promises were made by the Allied Supreme Commander, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, in return. The Armistice of 11 November 1918, that ended hostiles between the Allied and the Allies, left little for negotiation.
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