GERMAN FLEET AT SCAPA.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17392, 1 March 1922, Page 9

GERMAN FLEET AT SCAPA.

HOW IT WAS SUNK. « Admiral von Reuter's account of the" manner in which the German Fleet interned at Scapa was sunk while under his charge is published in full in the January number of "Cassell's Magazine." As early as March. 191S, the Admiral says, a shrewd suspicion arose among officers that England did not intend to return the ships on the conclusion of peace, and "with his Chief of Staff he considered and discussed what measures should be taken if this should prove to be the case. "It would," he says, ,: have been treason on the part of us* officers to hand over the German fleet to England, even though the ships were ''Ut of action and we were unarmed. At the beginning of the war the All Highest had expressed the wish that no disabled ships should be allowed to fall into enemy hands. On these grounds it was our duty, if a fresh outbreak of hostilities threatened, to destroy—that is, to sink—the ships. The new Government had not rescinded this order."

It. was feared that the attempt to sink the ships would be frustrated by malcontents among the German crews revealing the- plot to the British; and stops were therefore-taken to. secure a, reduction of the craws. "At the end o,f_ May," says the Admiral, "I sent a, wireless message .to the Admiralty in Berlin asking them' to send ships to fetch away 2700 of the crews early in June- This wireless was submitted to the British Admiral and sent with his consent. These:men were fetched home ori June. 15th and. 17th, and the reduction thus effected left us with crews of seventy-five on the large cruisers, fifty en the battleships, twenty on the small cruisers; the numbers leit on the torpodo boats were determined by the officer commanding. . . . On June 17th, when the last of the doubtful members of the crews had been shipped home on Germ-in transports, the orders for sinking wore sent oui to the ships. As I feared to attract attention if I sent them by.my. own boat, most of them wtre despatched, bv the British packets" The orders, which were addressed "to officers only,"' began- as follows: "All necessary preparations for the

sinking of the ships are to be made, at once, so. as to muke sure that on. .receipt of an order the ship may sink as quickly'as possible." Precise and detailed instructions followed as to the measures to be taken, and the .orders concluded with the words: "It is my intention to sink the' ships only if the enemy should, attempt, without the consent, of. our Government, to .take possession of our fleet." On. June. 20th the Admiral received information.from two. sources that members -qfthe crews were becoming suspicious about what was in preparation, aud eventually it was decided to inform the crews of 'the scheme, "even at the risk of treachery." The order already issued was amplified and altered to suit the state of mind of the crews, and this. new edition, was despatched the same' afternoon by British pacltet to the Bhips and torpedo boats. Meanwhile news reached the Admiral that Germany was prepared, under the proviso of a financial arrangement, - to surrender not • only the surface warships, but all ships of the line. ■• "For the second time, therefore, within a brief period," the; Admiral says, "the German fleet had :been humiliated by being offered for sale. 'I was most deeply hurt by the fact that for all these last mouths we' had been upheld by the belief that the Government would insist upon the return of the ships. Instead of that it had offered "even more shins than the Entente demanded 1" Admiral yon Reuter arcordinglv wrote out a wireless- message to tfie German Government stating that the officers objected to the sale of the fleet, would not participate in it, and demanded to be recalled; but he believes this message was never delivered. ■ Then, at ten. a.m. on June- 21st, "Captain Oldekon announced that the British Admiral Iwd left the harbour, putting out to sea. with battleships and deswove-s: further, that according in the English Press, the Entente had refused to buy the German ships, and demanded tlieir unconditional surrender; lastly, that the German mail torpedo boat might be expected.in Soapft Flow the following afternoon. I gave the order to hoist the prearranged signal: 'Sink ships at once!'" In conclusion, the Admiral says:""! was deeply movod ,ind full of gratitude to my courageous officers Bnd bravecrews, who had .succeeded so brilliantly in carrying out my oVders._ All thjese magnificent ships and torpedo-boats, once the pride of the German people, were done for—sunk! How much intelligence, how much technical. 'skill arid experience had gone to the making of these rjreat ships! A development of unsurpassed magnitude had'come to an end; it had found a. -watery'grave. *'