Self-sinking of the Imperial High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The interned Imperial High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow Bay in November 1918

The self-sinking of the Imperial High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow took place on June 21, 1919 at the British naval base Scapa Flow , where the former imperial fleet was interned as a result of the armistice at the end of the First World War . Since the German government was about to sign the Treaty of Versailles , which provided for the surrender of all warships in Scapa Flow in Article 184, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter initiated the organized self-scuttling.

place

Internment in Scapa Flow

The Scapa Flow is a kind of bay that results from the location of the islands Mainland , Burray , South Ronaldsay , Flotta and Hoy in the southern part of the Scottish archipelago of the Orkneys . Since this bay is well protected, it has been used as a natural harbor more often in history. The Norwegians already assembled their ships here in the 13th century and gave them the name “Skalpafloi” . This port also played an important role in Napoleon's time. The British assembled their ships there before going to the Baltic States . The British Navy set up the main base of their fleet here in both World War I and World War II. In both world wars, German submarines managed to penetrate the bay.

The anchorage of the German fleet in Scapa Flow was in the part of the bay called Bring Deeps , which lies roughly between the island of Hoy and the smaller islands of Graemsay and Cava .

The overpass

After the end of the fighting , the German deep sea fleet was to be interned in accordance with the armistice regulations. The implementing provisions to § 23 of the armistice provisions provided that the German high seas forces had to go to a neutral port or a port of the Entente within seven days in a disarmed state. After the Entente could not find a neutral port, internment in a neutral country became obsolete.

The implementation turned out to be extremely difficult, because the German warships were largely in the hands of the soldiers' councils .

Since the British refused to negotiate with the councils and demanded that the fleet be disarmed within a few days and transferred by officers led by an admiral, the previous commander of the I. finally took over on November 18, 1918 at the request of Admiral Franz von Hipper . Reconnaissance group, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter , this task. The Supreme Soldiers' Council could only get a little red pennant placed in the front top, which was soon drawn up on the high seas. Otherwise the ships sailed again under the German war flag .

On November 18, the first twenty submarines left for Harwich . The transfer association with nine ships of the line , five large cruisers, seven small cruisers and fifty torpedo boats followed on November 19. Two ships that were not ready to sail, the König Albert and the Dresden , completed their march later, as did the Baden , which was initially not recorded . During the transfer, the torpedo boat V 30 ran into a mine and sank with two dead.

On the morning of November 21, when the transfer association approached the ordered meeting point in front of the Firth of Forth , the entire Grand Fleet , an American squadron, a French armored cruiser and numerous aircraft and airships were waiting for them. After the investigation by a British commission, the British Commander-in-Chief Admiral David Beatty ordered that the German war flag should be brought down and not be set again. The admiral's flag and commander's pennants remained unaffected.

It was not until November 22nd that the order was issued that the German ships had to go to Scapa Flow in four squadrons: torpedo boats on November 22nd, large cruisers on November 24th, the IV squadron on November 25th and the rest on November 26th November. On November 27th, accompanied by strong British naval forces, the last German ships arrived in the bay of Scapa Flow.

Self-sinking of the deep sea fleet

The sinking SMS Bayern
Sinking SMS Derfflinger
The aground destroyer G 102
The sunk SMS Hindenburg

In Scapa Flow, the disarmed ships were only manned by emergency crews. German merchant ships were directed to Scapa Flow in order to transport the redundant parts of the crew home. The personnel for securing and maintaining the ships then comprised 4500 men, which corresponded to a fraction of the target crew. On December 13th, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter on SMS Friedrich der Große handed over the leadership of the internment association to the longest-serving commandant, Captain Dominik on SMS Bayern , and drove on the transport steamer Bremen to Germany, where he obtained an overview of the situation in numerous discussions tried. It was not until January 25, 1919 that he returned to Scapa Flow on board SMS Regensburg . On March 25th, he made the Emden his new flagship.

All valuable pieces of equipment, such as nautical instruments, had been removed before the ship left Germany. The teams had to provide themselves with food. For this purpose four so-called drifters (converted fishing vessels ) were used, which provided for the supply of provisions in the ship-shore shuttle service. As a result, a brisk illegal barter with the island population developed.

On May 31, 1919, the third anniversary of the Skagerrak Battle , the German war flag was set on all ships without the British taking any action. In mid-June 1919, the crews were again reduced by around 2,200 men on the initiative of Reuters. With this step Reuter intended to get rid of restless crew members and thus regain their own ability to act. He made his decision under the impression of British behavior and influenced by the seemingly critical course of the negotiations in Versailles on the self-sinking of the fleet. Reuter suspected that the German government would not accept the Versailles peace treaty and that a state of war would soon be restored. The German fleet should not then fall into the hands of the British without being destroyed. He instructed his officers to start scuttling on his signal. A corresponding preparatory order was issued on June 17th.

“ At around 10 o'clock (June 21, 1919), Frigate Captain Oldekop reported to me that the English admiral had left the port with ships of the line and destroyers, going seaward; that according to English press reports the purchase of the German ships was refused by the Entente and unconditional extradition was demanded (...) "

At 11:00 a.m., Reuter gave the order to submerge itself:

" Paragraph eleven. To confirm. "

The sea valves of the German ships were opened, the locks subsequently made unusable, the doors between the watertight compartments opened and wedged open. When all the German sailors left their ships almost simultaneously with lifeboats, several of the guard ships that had remained in the bay opened fire on the boats. As a result of this action by the British, the commander of the SMS Markgraf , Corvette Captain Walther Schumann, and eight sailors were killed and five were wounded. According to the casualty figures reported by Reuter, four were killed and eight were wounded. The killed soldiers were buried in the Lyness Royal Naval Cemetery on the Isle of Hoy. The graves are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to this day.

When the British saw what was really happening, it was too late to intervene effectively. The first ship to sink was the SMS Friedrich der Große at 12:16 p.m. and the last was the SMS Hindenburg at 17:00 p.m. With the exception of a liner ( SMS Baden ), three small cruisers ( SMS Emden , SMS Frankfurt and SMS Nürnberg ) and eleven torpedo boats, all German ships sank. This destroyed the core of the Imperial Navy.

With the self-sinking, the navy had regained part of the reputation it had lost in military circles, and especially during the November Revolution, but the consequences were severe. The Allies not only demanded the handover of other ships, some of them very modern, which should have formed the basis for the new Reichsmarine , but also 400,000 tons of port material.

The sinking of the ships was a breach of the armistice terms that prohibited the destruction of military equipment. Reuter was therefore accused of breach of contract and taken prisoner of war with his seamen. 1773 Hull crew officers and crews were transferred as prisoners to a military camp near Invergordon . They returned to Germany on January 31, 1920 on an English steamer.

Ships interned and sunk in Scapa Flow

The German warships interned in Scapa Flow are listed below.

Battleships, battle cruisers and cruisers

Reconditioning of the broken SMS Baden and SMS Frankfurt
Surname Ship type sunk / set on the ground further fate
1 SMS Seydlitz Big cruiser sunk at 13:50 GMT lifted November 1929
2 SMS Moltke Big cruiser sunk at 13:10 GMT lifted June 1927
3 SMS Von der Tann Big cruiser sunk 14:15: GMT lifted December 1930
4th SMS Derfflinger Big cruiser sunk at 14:45 GMT lifted August 1939
5 SMS Hindenburg Big cruiser sunk at 17:00 GMT lifted July 1930
6th SMS Kaiser Large-line ship sunk 13:15: GMT lifted March 1929
7th SMS Prinzregent Luitpold Large-line ship sunk 13:15: GMT lifted March 1929
8th SMS Empress Large-line ship sunk at 14:00 GMT lifted May 1936
9 SMS King Albert Large-line ship sunk at 12:54 GMT lifted July 1935
10 SMS Friedrich the Great Large-line ship sunk 12:16 GMT lifted in 1937
11 SMS king Large-line ship sunk at 14:00 GMT not upscale
12 SMS Great Elector Large-line ship sunk at 13:30 GMT raised April 1933
13 SMS Crown Prince Wilhelm Large-line ship sunk 13:15: GMT not upscale
14th SMS Markgraf Large-line ship sunk at 16:45 GMT not upscale
15th SMS Baden Large-line ship set on the ground to Great Britain, sunk as a target ship in 1921
16 SMS Bayern Large-line ship sunk at 14:30 GMT lifted September 1933
17th SMS brake Mine cruiser sunk at 14:30 GMT lifted November 1929
18th SMS Brummer Mine cruiser sunk at 13:05 GMT not upscale
19th SMS Dresden Small cruiser sunk at 13:50 GMT not upscale
20th SMS Cologne Small cruiser sunk at 13:50 GMT not upscale
21st SMS Karlsruhe Small cruiser sunk at 15:50 GMT not upscale
22nd SMS Nuremberg Small cruiser set on the ground to Great Britain, sunk as a target ship in 1922
23 SMS Emden Small cruiser set on the ground scrapped to France in 1926
24 SMS Frankfurt Small cruiser set on the ground to USA, sunk as a target ship in 1921

Torpedo boats

Surname sunk / set on the ground further fate
1 SMS S 32 sunk lifted June 1925
2 SMS S 36 sunk lifted April 1925
3 SMS G 38 sunk lifted September 1924
4th SMS G 39 sunk lifted July 1925
5 SMS G 40 sunk lifted July 1925
6th SMS V 43 set on the ground to USA, sunk as a target ship in 1921
7th SMS V 44 set on the ground to Great Britain, broken up in 1922
8th SMS V 45 sunk lifted in 1922
9 SMS V 46 set on the ground to France, broken up in 1924
10 SMS S 49 sunk lifted December 1924
11 SMS S 50 sunk lifted October 1924
12 SMS S 51 set on the ground to Great Britain, broken up in 1922
13 SMS S 52 sunk lifted October 1924
14th SMS S 53 sunk lifted August 1924
15th SMS S 54 sunk lifted September 1921
16 SMS S 55 sunk lifted August 1924
17th SMS S 56 sunk lifted June 1925
18th SMS S 60 set on the ground to Japan, broken up in 1922
19th SMS S 65 sunk lifted May 1922
20th SMS V 70 sunk lifted August 1924
21st SMS V 73 set on the ground to Great Britain, broken up in 1922
22nd SMS V 78 sunk lifted September 1925
23 SMS V 80 set on the ground to Japan, broken up in 1922
24 SMS V 81 set on the ground dropped on the way to demolition
25th SMS V 82 set on the ground to Great Britain, broken up in 1922
26th SMS V 83 sunk lifted in 1923
27 SMS G 86 sunk lifted July 1925
28 SMS G 89 sunk lifted December 1922
29 SMS G 91 sunk lifted September 1924
30th SMS G 92 set on the ground to Great Britain, broken up in 1922
31 SMS G 101 sunk lifted April 1926
32 SMS G 102 set on the ground to USA, sunk as a target ship in 1921
33 SMS G 103 sunk lifted September 1925
34 SMS G 104 sunk lifted April 1926
35 SMS B 109 sunk lifted March 1926
36 SMS B 110 sunk lifted December 1925
37 SMS B 111 sunk lifted March 1926
38 SMS B 112 sunk raised February 1926
39 SMS V 125 set on the ground to Great Britain, broken up in 1922
40 SMS V 126 set on the ground to France, broken up in 1925
41 SMS V 127 set on the ground to Japan, broken up in 1922
42 SMS V 128 set on the ground to Great Britain, broken up in 1922
43 SMS V 129 sunk lifted August 1925
44 SMS S 131 sunk lifted August 1924
45 SMS S 132 set on the ground to USA, sunk as a target ship in 1921
46 SMS S 136 sunk lifted April 1925
47 SMS S 137 set on the ground to Great Britain, broken up in 1922
48 SMS S 138 sunk lifted May 1925
49 SMS H 145 sunk lifted March 1925
50 SMS V 100 set on the ground to France, broken up in 1921

Whereabouts of the wrecks

The wrecks of the sunken ships were bought by the Admiralty for £ 40,000 from engineer and entrepreneur Ernest Cox , and most of them were lifted, cannibalized and scrapped between 1923 and 1939 under his direction through his company Cox & Danks . Considerable pioneering engineering work was done here. With the wreck of the large cruiser SMS Hindenburg in August 1930, he succeeded in salvaging the largest lifted ship to date. It was not until 1950 that this record was surpassed when the Gneisenau was recovered. After Cox had sold his company to Metal Industries Inc. , they carried out the salvage of several more wrecks until 1939.

Seven ships remained on the seabed; they now serve as popular destinations for wreck divers . Until a few years ago, high-quality steel ( low-background steel ) was occasionally recovered from the wreckage for radiation shielding purposes.

In 1995 the remaining shipwrecks were placed under monument protection, and since 2002 only diving centers authorized by the Scottish authorities have been allowed to conduct dives on the wrecks. The Association of Orcadian Ship Charter Companies and Diving Schools has made several attempts since 2004 to protect the waters off the island of Hoy , in which the wrecks are located, as a National Marine Reserve (comparable to the status of a national park ). Despite the benevolence of the responsible Scottish ministries, these attempts have failed several times due to the determined resistance of the Orkney Island Council , which fears that the oil terminal on Flotta and the fishing fleet will be affected .

Commemoration

To mark the centenary of the sinking, the German and British navies held a commemorative event on site: the German flag was symbolically raised at the bow of the wreck of the Dresden still lying there . British divers and German mine divers celebrated their bond by shaking hands as a sign of friendship. As the highest German representative, Flotilla Admiral Stephan Haisch was present and presented the sea with memorial wreaths together with British Captain Chris Smith.

Cultural appreciation

See also

literature

  • Major Perceval Gibbon: The Triumph of the Royal Navy. Hodder and Stoughton, London et al. 1919 (Official report on the delivery of the German fleet, English).
  • Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. A mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present day. Biographies. 3rd volume. 2nd revised edition. Koehler, Herford 1985, ISBN 3-7822-0371-2 .
  • Andreas Krause : Scapa Flow - The sinking of the Wilhelmine fleet. Ullstein, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-550-06979-0 .
  • Ludwig von Reuter : Scapa Flow - The grave of the German fleet. Koehler, Leipzig 1921 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
  • Friedrich Ruge : Scapa Flow 1919. The end of the German fleet. Buch & Welt, Klagenfurt 1969, ISBN 0-7110-0426-9 .
  • Dan van der Vat: The Grand Scuttle. The sinking of the German fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919. Waterfront, Edinburgh 1986, ISBN 0-87021-225-7 (English).

Web links

Commons : Submergence of the Imperial High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article 184. With the entry into force of the present treaty, Germany loses ownership of all German surface warships that are outside the German ports. Germany waives all rights to the ships mentioned. Ships that are currently interned in the ports of the Allied and Associated Powers in accordance with the provisions of the armistice of November 11, 1918, will be declared permanently surrendered. Ships that are currently interned in neutral ports are to be surrendered to the governments of the main Allied and Associated Powers. When the present treaty comes into force, the German government must notify the neutral powers accordingly. contract-von-versailles.de ( Memento from May 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Ludwig von Reuter Scapa Flow: The grave of the German fleet, Unikum-Verlag, Barsinghausen, (Reprint) 2011, p. 105.
  3. ↑ Ludwig von Reuter: Scapa Flow: The grave of the German fleet. KF Koehler, 1921.
  4. ^ Friedrich Ruge: Scapa Flow 1919. The end of the German fleet. Stalling Verlag, Oldenburg 1969, p. 195.
  5. ↑ List of Warships Scuttled at Scapa Flow. World War I Naval Combat (worldwar1.co.uk), accessed May 6, 2019 .
  6. ^ Daniel Allen Butler: Distant Victory: the Battle of Jutland and the Allied Triumph in the First World War. Westport, Connecticut, USA 2006, ISBN 0-275-99073-7 , p. 229.
  7. ↑ https://www.kn-online.de/Lokales/Eckernfoerde/Eckernfoerder-Minentaucher-gedenken-auf-den-Orkneys-100-Jahre-Scapa-Flow