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

by Dan Vander Vat (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $5.48

  At Scapa Flow, Orkney, on 21 June 1919, the world's second most powerful navy deliberately sank itself. Four hundred thousand tons of shipping went to the bottom of Scapa Flow on that fateful day in the greatest act of self-immolation ever committed. However, few people are aware that rear-Admiral Ludwig von reuter was 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, and that the sinking caused the last casualties and last prisoners of the First World War. Fewer still know that the fragments of the Kaiser's great fleet are now on the moon. This is the story of the Grand Scuttle. Dan van der Vat has made use of previously unused German archive material, eye-witness accounts and the recollections of survivors as well as many contemporary photographs that capture the spectacle of the finest ships of the time being deliberately sunk by their own crews.

• Used

  Paperback
  1988

  $3.28

  At Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919, there occurred a very unusual event in naval history. The German Admiral in charge of 74 of his countries warships ordered that the fleet be scuttled. The High Sees Fleet of the German Royal Navy was one of the most formidable ever built, yet 52 of the ships were deliberately sent to the bottom of the British Grand Fleet's principal anchorage at Orkney. The book reports that Admiral Ludwig von Reuter became the only man in history to sink his own navy on the strength of a misleading report in a four-day old British newspaper; the Royal Navy guessed his intention but could do nothing about it; the sinking produced the last casualties and the last prisoners of the war. The author looks at the events leading up to and including the scuttling.