The Grand Scuttle: The Sinking of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919

by Dan van der Vat

Overview

A true account of a unique event in naval history from “a superb storyteller” (Northern Mariner).
 
On June 21, 1919, the German High Seas Fleet, one of the most formidable 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.
 
The Grand Scuttle became a folk legend in both Germany and Britain. However, few people are aware that Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter became the only man in history to sink his own navy because of a misleading report in a British newspaper; that the Royal Navy guessed his intention but could do nothing to thwart it; that the sinking produced the last casualties and the last prisoners of the war; and that fragments of the Kaiser’s fleet are probably on the moon.
 
This is the remarkable story of the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow. It contains previously unused German archive material, eyewitness accounts, and the recollections of survivors, as well as many contemporary photos which capture the awesome spectacle of the finest ships of the time being deliberately sunk by their own crews.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857905130
Publisher:	Birlinn, Limited
Publication date:	12/20/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	399,909
File size:	912 KB

About the Author

Dan van der Vat, born in Holland and educated in England, became a full-time author after 25 years in journalism. He has published seven books on maritime history, including The Ship that Changed the World and The Riddle of the Titanic (with Robin Gardiner), as well as a biography of Albert Speer.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction: Scapa Flow, 21 June 1919 1

Part I A Study in Folly - The Anglo-German Naval Arms Race

1 German Naval Expansion Ends British Isolation 9

2 Acceleration and the Prelude to War 30

Part II Willing to Wound but Afraid to Strike - the War at Sea 3

3 The Skirmishes Before Jutland 55

4 Jutland and the U-boat Campaign 75

Part III The Grand Scuttle - the Salvage of Honour

5 Mutiny 101

6 The Last Voyage 124

7 Internment 141

8 Reuter's Decision 177

9 'Paragraph eleven. Confirm.' 192

10 Aftermath 208

Part IV Picking Up the Pieces - the Saga of the Salvage

11 Unfinished Business 227

Appendix I The Ships of the Internment Formation 249

Appendix II The Text of the Order to Scuttle 258

Appendix III A Newly Discovered Eyewitness Account 261

A Note on Sources 265

Index 269