I want to thank Casemate Books for providing the review copy and IPMS/USA for the chance to see this excellent resource. Submarines were now faster and more maneuverable than their predecessors and could run deeper and stay submerged longer. This time around, the Germans held several advantages. I recommend it to those interested in the Royal Navy, WW II buffs or general naval history. an extensive landlocked anchorage off the N coast of Scotland, in the Orkney Islands: major British naval base in both World Wars. Scapa Flow remained a nagging reminder of the detested Versailles Treaty that had inflicted hefty reparations and the humiliation of defeat upon Germany after World War I. This is a very good resource on this important Royal Navy base and gives the reader a complete picture of the base’s history, resources and the reasons why things were done the way they were. Along with the afore mentioned maps, at the end are eight pages of line drawings of some of the artillery emplaced there as well as the HMS Nelson, Rodney, Queen Elizabeth, Royal Oak and Ark Royal. There now lies many relics in these waters from British naval history. It used to be one of the main anchorage spots of the Royal Navy. The waters in Scapa are sheltered by the Islands that surround this body of water forming a natural harbour. They are all in black and white and most are crisp and clear. Scapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands in Scotland at the tip of the UK. There are many photos of ships that were stationed there and equipment that was used. There is even one chapter that details U-47’s raid under Gunter Prien into the harbor that sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak. There are chapters dealing with the antiaircraft defenses, coastal artillery and barrage balloons, the RAF’s presence, minefields and wrecks, and everyday operations as well as the eventual fate of the base at the end of the war. It starts with a complete geographic description and a brief pre-WW II history of the base and then goes into a step-by-step description of the base’s development, facilities and defenses, including several maps of the locations of anti-aircraft defenses, mine fields and, anti-submarine barriers I am sure Germany would have liked to get a hold of. They were deployed to assist with minesweeping, harbour duties, and the operation of mobile boom defences.This volume is from MMP’s Maritime Series and is a comprehensive description and history of the Royal Navy’s base in the Orkney Islands at the Northern tip of Great Britain during WW II, Skapa Flow. The name Scapa Flow comes from the Old Norse Skalpafli, meaning bay of the long isthmus, which refers to the thin strip of land between Scapa Bay and the. The Strathgarry and Chance were among the large numbers of fishing vessels requisitioned for war duties. However, surveys are revealing widespread debris of the many other vessels left behind by the salvors. Since the 1980s, the German wrecks have become hugely popular diving attractions. It is a large expanse of water surrounded by the Orkney Isles. Scapa Flow Visitor Centre Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:Scapa Flow Visitor Centre. The Claymore and Tartan oil fields also feed into this line. A 30-inch, 128-mile-long underwater pipeline brings oil from the Piper oilfield to the Flotta oil terminal. These two Royal Navy incidents claimed the lives of more than 1600 sailors, many buried in the Lyness Royal Naval Cemetery on Hoy. Scapa Flow is situated on the north east coast of Scotland. Scapa Flow is one of the transfer and processing points for North Sea oil. Historical photo showing destroyers of the German High Seas Fleet. It is almost intact, but with evidence of torpedo damage inflicted in the early hours of 14 October 1939. Scapa Flow was the base chosen by the British Admiralty as the home of the Grand Naval Fleet. The wreck of the battleship HMS Royal Oak also survives. The wrecks of three battleships ( Markgraf Kronprinz-Wilhelm Konig) and four light cruisers ( Brummer Dresden Coln Karlsruhe) are all that survive substantially intact.Įlsewhere, the shattered fragments of wreckage of HMS Vanguard bear testament to a huge explosion that took place on 9 July 1917 while the ship was at anchor. Seven of the scuttled German warships proved too deep to salvage economically in one piece. A diver exploring a section of mast from a German battleship courtesy Bob Anderson and MV Halton Lost warships
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