HMS Royal Oak

October 14^th 1939 (sixty seven years ago exactly through some bizarre twist of fate) HMS Royal Oak, an aging capital ship of the Royal Navy, was anchored at Scarpa Flow near the Orkney Islands. A veteran of the Battle of Jutland she had been through a lot in her lifetime and had just been painted dark grey, Atlantic colours, dashing the hopes of the crew who had their hearts set on a Mediterranean tour. On the evening of the thirteenth 1,200 sailors were aboard, including 175 cadets. At one o'clock the following morning most were asleep below deck.

Unknown to them was that for the previous six hours U-boat U-47, under the command of Günther Prien, had been inching its way through the anti-submarine blockade of submerged hulks to the east of the harbour. With only a few feet either side of his boat Prien successfully navigated his way into the bay to surprise the waiting British fleet. Once in he realised to his dismay that the larger ships Hood, Nelson and Rodney were not there – they had been moved out the previous day after a German reconnaissance plane set alarm bells ringing. Only the Royal Oak remained.

At four minutes past one a large explosion rocked the boat. Convinced that nothing could penetrate the anti-submarine blockade, and without any sign of aircraft, the ships watch determined that it must have been an engine room malfunction. Disastrously they chose not to alert the crew. This error was to prove fatal.

Ten puzzled minute’s later three more torpedoes smashed into the ships magazine hold, igniting the explosives. The ship went up in seconds, the keel snapped in two and flame gutted the interior. Hundreds of men were trapped beneath deck and those that managed to escape found themselves choking in engine oil on the seas surface.

Thirteen minutes after the last torpedoes had struck, HMS Royal Oak had vanished beneath the waves, taking with her 833 men and women.

That night U-47 silently escaped, leaving the Royal Navy and the British public in deep mourning. The success of Prein and his crew, sinking a capital ship in a heavily defended harbour, proved to the German high command that the U-boats had potential. This high profile sinking was for many people the opening engagement in what would become the battle of the Atlantic.

833 dead. Put that into today’s context. 40 British service personal have died in Afghanistan since 2001 and 119 in Iraq. In just thirteen minutes in 1939 Great Britain lost 833 sailors. How would today’s government cope with a tragedy like that? Let’s hope we never have to learn.

Source: Andrew Williams, ‘The Battle of the Atlantic’.