Sinking of the German Fleet

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22006, 12 January 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

Sinking of the German Fleet

IWAS aboard the Sochosin. She was one of the several small patrol boats guarding the interned German fleet in Scapa Flow. She drifted lazily on that famous sea basin in the South Orkneys, which, during the four years of the Great War had proved an impregnable stronghold for the British naval forces. The war was over. A peace conference was then discussing, among other things, the distribution among the Alließ of the seventy-four German vessels anchored in the Flow. My mind went back to a grey winter afternoon seven months earlier—ten days after the declaration of the' armistice — when the surrendering seventy-four German vessels, under Admiral von Reuter, had arrived off Rosyth. Between two avenues of warships the Germans had been escorted into the Firth of Forth. Admiral Beatty was on the bridge of the Queen Elizabeth. He rapped out au order. A bugle sounded. It was sunset. The German flags were hauled down. The White Ensign took their places. A band played. Once again Britannia ruled the waves. The German Fleet was subsequently taken to Scapa Flow and put in charge of British patrol boats. A Strict Surveillance Night and day for six months a strict surveillance on the fleet had been maintained, although by the terms of the armistice the British had no right to place our own men aboard their ships, and had no jurisdiction in the matter of their internal discipline. The German vessels were under the command of Admiral von Reuter and skeleton crews. The Sochosin was a German minesweeper captured toward the end of the war. The reason for my presence aboard her was a commission from the American Navy to make sketches of the interned vessels. I had been living aboard the Revenge, the flagship of the First British Battle Squadron stationed at Scapa Flow, which less than three hours before had weighed anchor and left for the open sea to carry out tactical exercises. I had stayed behind to finish my work. Altogether ten battleships, five battle-cruisers, eight light cruisers and fifty-one destroyers of the German Navy were moored in the Flow on this brilliant June morning. The destroyers were cabled close to the shore in pairs. The bigger vessels were lined arc-wise further out. There were the Markgraf, the Kaiser and the Grosser Kurfurst, battleships whose gunfire at Jutland had accounted for the British armoured cruiser Defence, in which Sir R. Arbuthnot and every soul on board perished. The Von der Tann, too, which at the same action had in seventeen minutes sunk the British battlecruiser Indefatigable, leaving only two survivors. There was also the Seydlitz, the Moltke and the Derflingdr, which had taken part in the bombardment of the Hartlepools and Scarborough in the first year of the war. Signals From the Emden In the far distance I could discern the Emden. What a dance the first arrogant little cruiser of that name had led us! Suddenly, from her a heliograph flashed, and flashed again. I watched interestedly, for Admiral von IJeutcr was aboarrl her. There was a pause, and then more heliograph signals.

I read the message. It did not seem very important. " Paragraph 11. Vom heutigen Tage. Bestatigen," Which translated meant: " Paragraph 2 of to-day's orders. Acknowledge." Immediately answering signals were semaphored from the rest of the German battleships. The next moment I noticed sailors swarming down the gangway stairs of the Friedricli der Grosse, the flagship of the German fleet and down the sides of most of the other ships. Luggage was being thrown from their quarterdecks into boats drawn alongside. There was an air of grim finality about the proceedings. I hurried to the chartroom. "Do you allow the crews to tro for joy rides?" I asked a lieutenant of the Sochosin, pointing to the crowded gangways. " Certainly not." he replied. 110 focused his binoculars and regarded the scramble with a puzzled look. " What on earth are they up to?" Suddenly a gleam of understanding showed on the officer's face. Then he shouted, "By Jove, I believe the blighters are scuttling their ships!" They were. As hd spoke the great shape of the Friedricli der Grosse began slowly to heel over to port. It was an

.TWENTY YEARS AFTER_

A T noon on June 21, 1919, rather more than seven months after the Armistice was arranged, 74 ships of the German Navy, interned in Scapa Flow. were scuttled by their crews. The ships included ten battleships, five battlecruisers, eight light cruisers and fifty-one destroyers. Of these fewer than a dozen ships remained afloat. The total loss in tonnage through the sinking of the vessels was 400,000 and in monetary value £70,000,000 A number of the ships have since been raised by a British salvage firm.

awesome sight. I stood fascinated as the giant vessel shook like some sick bc'ast. Jumping From the Decks Men were jumping from the vessel's decks and swimming toward the boats, now being rowed frenziedly toward the shore. Orders rang out in the Sochosin. She slewed round. We were racing toward the foundering ship. And then began one of the most exciting scenes I have ever watched. To our starboard was tho Frankfurt. The same feverish activity was going on aboard her. The lieutenant veered the Sochosin in her direction. " We'll make a start on her," he said grimly. Already the Frankfurt's boats, crowded with German sailors, were being lowered in tho water. "Cutlasses arid rifles ready," ordered the lieutenant. We drew alongside the boatful of Germans.

An officer stood in the German vessel's prow. He was wearing yellow kid gloves and smoking a cigar. The

By BERNARD F. GRIBBLE, the well-hnoivn artist

Iron Cross decorated his tunic. He grinned impudently at us. " Return to your ship," shouted the lieutenant through a megaphone. The only retort was a sardonic smile from the officer and jeers from the ratings. Their boat rocked on the waves. Its oars had been discarded. Two Rifle Shots A petty officer in the Sochosin threw a fresh supply of oars to the Germans. There was no excuse for disobedience. Again it was ignored. Rifles were raised. A shot rang out. One of tho ratings staggered back into the arms of his comrades. There was an indignant oath from the officer. " We are prisoners of war," he yelled. " How dare you?" I' Nothing of the sort," bawled back the lieutenant. "■ Do as you like in your ships. Nou> you're under our orders." Another shot. Another rating sagged over the gunwale of the German boat. The white flag of truce fluttered in its midst.

We shifted our position to nearer the boat. One of the Sochosin's crew jumped aboard. A rope was thrown, and we took her in tow. A bullet whistled past my ear. There was another boat full of Germans aft the Sochosin. We took that in tow too. And then another. They showed no sign of resistance. All around us the German battleships were fast settling down. Pandemonium! The deep note of megaphoned orders. The sustained shriek of sirens. The clatter of chains. The splash of desperately wielded oars. And against the horizon a maze of drunkenly slanting masts. Now tugs from the shore, attracted by the warning sirens, were chugging away their last ounce of steam in an effort to reach the doomed vessels before they sank. . Two destroyers, their decks awash, had already been taken in tow by tugs now making for the shore at full speed in an attempt to beach them. Ships Sink One by One Clinging to the mast of the Hindenburg, scarcely six feet of which remained above water, was a German sailor. He was struggling to secure the German ensign to its head. At last ho succeeded. There were cheers from a near by boat of Germans. Then there was a splash. The bailor had fallen into the water. The waves washed the fluttering pennant. It curled limply round the mast. It disappeared into the waves. Tho Hindenburg was gone. An hour passed. Two hours. One by one the German vessels had been going down. Then across the horizon there was a billow of smoke. The First Battlo Squadron was returning. 1 could make out tlic Revenge. Nearer came the British ships. Tugs and patrol boats wero still racing ove/ the waters of tho Flow picking up boatloads of Germans. There were very few German ships left by now. As tho Revenge steamed through this amazing scene, tho last of the cruisers, the Bremse, gave a shuddering plunge, and disappeared. Admiral Fremantlo and his staff watched this last episodo through binoculars from tho bridge of the Revenge. Four hundred Germans taken from boats and rescued from tho sea were placed under arrest aboard tho Revenge. Tho remaining 1300 wero disposed in other ships of the First British Battle Squadron. ICvents, when 1 returned to the ship, wero impressive. German officers and men were paraded on the quarter-deck by Admiral Fremantlo. Tliero was a

military escort of marines with fixed bayonets. Admiral von Reuter was ordered to stand in front of his staff. Addressing him through an interpreter, Admiral Sir Sydney Fremantle said: " Before I send you ashore as a prisoner of war I would like to express to you my indignation at the deed which 3 T ou have perpetrated, and which was that of a traitor violating the action of the arrangements entered into by the Allies. " The German fleet was, in a sense, more interned than actually imprisoned. The vessels were resting here as a sort of good will from the German Government until peace had been signed. When the Plot Was Hatched " It is not the first occasion on which the Germans have violated all the decent laws and rules of tho seas. We have had on many occasions to regret the fact of having to fight a nation which takes no notice of civilised laws on the high seas." Admiral von Reuter replied, in a low tone, " I take full responsibility." It was afterwards disclosed that the scuttling of the ships was the outcome of a plot carefully hatched by the German Admiralty months before. When eventually the Emden was salvaged two secret documents were found in von Reuter's cabin. One note was dated May 9 —six weeks before the scuttling took place—.and was from Admiral von Trotha, chief of the German Admiralty. It hinted that, rather than swallow the bitter pill of surrender to the enemy, Germany

would prefer to lose her ships altogether, so long as they were lost with the German flag still flying. The second document was a copy of orders sent from the Emden by Admiral von Renter on June 17 to every officer aboard the interned ships. It gave full details of the time and method of the scuttling, which Was to take place immediately on receipt of the apparently innocuous code signal: "Paragraph 2 of to-day's orders," which delineated meant: "Sink ships at once " Sailor's Nightly Swim Tt was further revealed that a copy of these orders was delivered to each commanding officer by a German sailor. This man, to evade the .vigilance of the British guard boats, swam every night for several weeks from one ship to another under cover of darkness. The ordinary methods of conveying messages and orders by heliograph and semaphore had been prohibitedIt is also significant that five days before the date on the document from von Trotha a German boat, the Dollart, arrived at Scapa Flow. Also that on the date of von Reuter's orders two other ships, tho Bardenia and Schlesuig, arrived ostensibly to bring food, clothing and supplies for the German sailors aboard, according to certain articles of the armistice. There is little doubt that the documents were concealed in loaves of bread or articles of clothing. Von Router had well chosen the moment for his signal to the officers of the interned-fleet to sink the ships.