Scapa Flow: The Defences of Britain's Great Fleet Anchorage 1914-45 (Fortress 85)

• Publisher:   Osprey Publishing
• Number Of Pages:   64
• Publication Date:   2009-07-21
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   1846033667
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9781846033667

A strategically important natural harbor in the Orkney Islands, Scapa Flow served as Britain's main fleet anchorage during World Wars I and II. It held Jellicoe's Grand Fleet from 1914-18, and it was from here that it sailed out to do battle with the Germans at Jutland in 1916. In 1914 the British began building a comprehensive defensive network by fortifying the entrances to Scapa Flow and then extending these defenses to cover most of Orkney. These static defenses were augmented with boom nets, naval patrols and minefields, creating the largest fortified naval base in the world. With the outbreak of the Second World War, Scapa Flow again proved ideally situated to counter the German naval threat and served as the base for Britain's Home Fleet. Despite constant attacks from aircraft and U-boats, one of which managed to sink the British battleship Royal Oak, the defenses of Scapa Flow were again augmented and improved. By 1940, Orkney had become an island fortress, the largest integrated defensive network of its kind in Europe, manned by as many as 50,000 Commonwealth troops. Backed by newly commissioned artwork, naval historian Angus Konstam tells the story of this mighty naval fortress, many pieces of which can still be seen on the island today.

• Introduction
• Chronology
• The development of Scapa Flow’s defences
• Principles of defence: ‘Plan Q’ and ‘Plan R’
• A tour of the fortress
• Life in the Orkney Garrison
• Scapa Flow at war
• The aftermath of World War II
• The defences of Scapa Flow today
• Museums and other attractions
• Further reading
• Appendix
• Index

Having grown up and lived in the Orkney Islands, military historian Angus Konstam was the perfect choice to write Osprey's Fortress No. 85, Scapa Flow. This great British naval base north of Scotland, home to the main British battlefleet in both World Wars, is both familiar to readers of Second World War history, but not well-known. While many readers are aware of the importance of Scapa Flow to the British fleet, few know the actual details about how the British Admiralty established defenses on these remote islands. Konstam's Scapa Flow lays out these oft-ignored details in clinical detail in the volume, which is one of the better additions to the Fortress series. Overall, a well-written volume with fresh content. The volume begins with an introduction that describes how the Royal Navy became interested in Scapa Flow as a fleet base in the 19th Century but took no concrete steps to turn this into a reality until just before the First World War. As Konstam points out, the Grand Fleet was sent there in June 1914, but no defenses and few support installations existed. Over the course of the First World War, the Admiralty gradually installed anti-submarine booms/nets, coastal batteries and anti-aircraft guns to defend the base. This section includes a map depicting all defenses around Scapa Flow in the First World War and two color plates showing a gun battery and A/S defenses. The author also discusses the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet there in 1919. The defenses of Scapa Flow were mothballed or removed after the First World War and it was only in 1938 that work began on re-storing its defenses. However, the defenses against U-Boat attack were inadequate at the beginning of the war, which resulted in the destruction of the battleship Royal Oak (which is covered in some detail, along with a color plate and a map). The author includes a map of Scapa's defenses in the Second World War and four more color plates depicting various installations. The author has provided a good number of wartime B/W photos of the defenses, as well as a number of post-war and modern color photos. The volume concludes with an order of battle of army units stationed at Scapa Flow in 1940, a short bibliography and notes on museums. One section that is clearly missing from this volume is on construction, which usually describes how the installations were built and how much they cost. Given that this has been done in other Osprey Fortress volumes on the French Maginot Line and the German Westwall, it would have been nice to get some comparison with British spending on fixed defenses. There is also only a limited amount of information about the minefields around Scapa Flow. Although the author does mention that mines succeeded in sinking a U-Boat in 1918, he fails to discuss why they failed to stop U-47 in 1940. Indeed, it's hard to understand how U-47 could cruise around on the surface in Scapa Flow without being spotted - the author could have focused more on exactly why the defense failed on this occasion. Otherwise, this is a very good volume and helps to fill in some of those missing details about Royal Navy operations in the World Wars.

It is not possible for any person researching an historic account to verify all the facts and figures presented, and certify them to be either complete or correct. My own litmus test, therefore, is to take a much closer look at those elements of the work which I happen to know rather well and consider the accuracy of the information as an overall indication for the remainder. This book provides the reader with an excellent appraisal of historic Scapa Flow throughout that period in history when it provided an anchorage for what was the greatest naval fleets of the time. It was in Scapa Flow in June 1919 that the commander of the interned German High Seas Fleet, ordered his ships scuttled under the very noses of their captors. It was also in this same stretch of water that Gunther Prien famously sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak in October 1939. Having dived the remains of that German Fleet and had the rare privilege of also accompanying Royal Navy divers on one of their own inspections of the Royal Oak, I have studied both accounts in great detail. In this work by Angus Konstam, we have an appraisal of Scapa Flow which includes, albeit briefly, informative and accurate accounts of those two historic events alongside so many more - of which I am less informed. Because of the accuracy of the former, I find myself able to trust the latter. This is especially so because of the photographic detail. Apart from historic pictures of people, places and downed enemy aircraft - many of which do not appear to have been previously published, there is also a trio of personal photographs which tell an intriguing little story. In the first, the author is seen, as a boy, standing on a blockship which is close to the water's edge. In the second, taken 21 years later, he is seen standing on the same wreckage where the sand has reached the upper superstructure. In the third, all we can see of that same ship is a few feet of mast above that sand. The artwork, provided by Peter Dennis is used to great effect, adds much detail to the accompanying photographs where, together, they combine to complete a fascinating story. This book will be of considerable interest to the inhabitants of Orkney, people with an interest in ships, shipwrecks, the Royal Navy, the history of WW1 and WW2 and anyone who has visited this remote corner of the UK where the welcome is as warm as anywhere in the world. NM

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