AT SEA: Scapa & Forth

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I have often wondered why the Germans did not make greater efforts to reduce our strength in capital ships by destroyer or submarine attacks on our bases in those early days. They possessed, in comparison with the uses for which they were required, almost a superfluity of destroyers . . . and they could not have put them to a better use than in an attack on Scapa Flow during the early months of the 1914-15 winter.—The late Admiral Earl Jellicoe.

What another generation of Britons wondered last week was why the defenses of Scapa Flow, notoriously weak at the beginning of World War I, could possibly have been left vulnerable to a submarine which slipped in and sank Royal Oak last fortnight. The London Times called it "grave matter for investigation by the Naval Court of Inquiry which is now sitting." The Daily Express snorted: "... a disgrace . . . inexcusable."

First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill's preliminary report on the disaster was remarkable for its similarity to the jubilant account presently published by Germany. Mr. Churchill explained that, by "a remarkable exploit of professional skill and daring," the U-boat got through net and mine barriers and "fired a salvo of torpedoes at Royal Oak, of which only one hit the bow. This muffled explosion was, at the time, attributed [by Royal Oak's officers] to internal causes, and what is called the inflammable store, where the kerosene and other such materials are kept, was flooded.

"Twenty minutes later the U-boat fired three or four torpedoes and these, striking in quick succession, caused the ship to capsize and sink." Final figures from the Admiralty put the dead at 810, survivors 424.

Mr. Churchill said that Scapa Flow was being searched carefully, that any U-boat hiding on the bottom must rise or perish. He insisted that the anchorage's defenses were modern and believed impassable.

On the heels of Mr. Churchill's statement, a flash came from Germany that Lieutenant Commander Günther Prien and the boyish crew of his U-boat, safely back at Kiel, were congratulated by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder for smiting not only Royal Oak but also Repulse. A. Hitler sent his personal plane, Grenzmark, to fetch them to Berlin for an ovation in which Propaganda Minister Goebbels managed to share the spotlight.

Hero Prien, 31, is a onetime Hamburg-America Line cabin boy who entered the Navy in 1933, saw service in Spain. On the third, fourth and seventh days of World War II he sank the British merchantmen Bosnia, Rio Claro and Gartavon respectively. Adolf Hitler received him and his men at the Chancellery, hung on Prien the Ritter Cross (oversized Iron Cross), the highest German military decoration today. Crowds outside yelled: "Prien, the deed was wonderful!" That night the heroes were regaled at the Wintergarten (vaudeville) where Goebbels presented them each with a book of news clippings and the audience sang: "We are off to England!"