LOSS OF ROYAL OAK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 245, 17 October 1939, Page 7

LOSS OF ROYAL OAK

TOTAL OF 414 SURVIVORS LIST BELIEVED TO BE COMPLETE [By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) i Received Oct. 16, 11.30 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 16. According to the German wireless. n the Royal Oak was sunk at 2.30 a.m. I on Saturday. g A detailed list of names of surn vivors, issued by th.? Admiralty, shows e the total to be 414, of an apprexi|t mate complement of 1200. The Admirr alty regrets that the possibility of c l additional survivors is remote. ( n FRENCH AND ITALIAN " SYMPATHY n n c VESSEL WAS NOT OF LAU TAL r IMPORTANCE g a [ British Official Wireless ] d RUGBY, Oct. 15. Agency message reports of the sinkie ing of the British warship Royal Oak '6 have evoked keen sympathy among II French naval circles and among the st French people. Naval authorities point out th<M although the destruction of so many lives is a matter for the deepest regret the ship herself does not present *> loss of capital importance to the Brit ish Fleet. These expressions are not confined to France, as another agency messag p, states that the news was received with great regret in Italian circles, where expressions of sympathy are widespread. ! FOUGHT AT JUTLAND D HALS. ROYAL OAK | CONSTRUCTED 23 YEARS AGO I (OST £2,500,000 TO BUILD s- The sinking of H.M.S. Royal Oak. i- presumably by a submarine, with the ic loss of some 800 lives, is the second n severe blow delat. to the ships of the )3 Royal Navy by German U boats. The c i first was the destruction of the airC [ craft-carrier Courageous, also with heavy loss of life. The chief cause for sorrow is that well over 1000 oth--5 cers and men have perished with the two ships. Both were valuable ships j of their types, but were more than * 23 years old and normally were due for replacement next year by new ships now completing. The Royal Oak was a battleship of 29,150 tons displacement, measuring 621 ft. in length and 101 ft. in extremebreadth. She was armed with eight 15in. and 12 Gin. guns, four 4in. antiaircraft guns, five multiple machineguns and two submerged torpedo tubes. The Royal Oak. which had a speed of 23 knot, was fitted with n catapult and carried one aircraft. In Action at Jutland The Royal Oak was tne sixth British warship to bear this name, which dates back in the Royal Navy to 1664. Built at Devon port Dockyard at a cost of £2,500.000, the Royal Oak was one of the five ships of the Royal Sovereign class of battleship, the others being the Royal Sovereign, Revenge. Ramillies and Resolution The first keelplate of the Royal Oak was laid on January 15. 1914, and she was launched 10 months later, on November 17. Commissioned on Maj’ 1, 1916, by I Captain Crawford Maclachlan for service in the Fourth Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet the Royal Oak was in action at the Battle of Jutland on May 31. In that memorable action the Royal Oak was next astern of the Iron Duke, fleet flagship of the Corn- - mander-in-Chicf, Sir John Jellicoe, ana at 6.29 p.m. she opened lire at 10,900 yards on the on the cruiser '■ n Wiesbaden, partly disabled and lying > between the rwo fleets. The first salvo straddled and a hit was observed from the third salvo. The ’ Royal Oak herself was also under fire and straddled. 11 At this time the German Comman-der-in-Chief, Admiral Scheer, made x his first "battle turn” (reversing his fleet), and retired. At 6.45, the enemy was fa.ntly visible to the Royal Oak, and the order to "open fire” \nas given but. could not be carried out owing to mist enveloping the target. After steering to the westward for 20 minutes. Admirer Scheer, at 6.55, again reversed his fleet to pass astern of the British Fleet, or perhaps to cs cut off an inferior force in the rear. M Actually he headed straight into the centre of the Grand Fleet and the second phase of the battle fleet action began. At 7.15 the Royal Oak sighted three enemy battle cruisers. The Lutzow, heavily damaged, had previously ped to enable Admiral Hipper to transfer to a destroyer, and, at the most critical part of the action, the command o/ the squadron devolved on Captain llartoz of the Derfflinger. Fierce Fighting. The Royal Oak opened tire on the a j Derfflinger at 14,000 yards with 15inch guns. Hit several times, she )n turned away into the mist. Fire was shifted to the second ship, taken to be the Seydlitz, but only a few rounds could be fired as she was also lost sight of in the mist. j n The tremendous punishment to in which the Derfflinger and Seydlitz had been subjected by the Royal Oak and other ships caused Admiral Hipie per to wander about in a destroyer for over an hour. He went alongside be the Seydlitz to transfer his flag but Je found she had some thousands of tons ■td of water in her, and went on to the to Moltke. As he approached her, the e- British fire increased and the captain e- dared not stop. w st. Admiral Scheer realised he was M again facing the Grand Fleet and te ordering his second "battle turn” he of retired to the westward under cover of a smoke screen, and the battle fleet action was ended. Meanwhile two enemy destroyer flotillas had been sent out to attack, and as early as 7.16 the Royal Oak had opened a vigorous fire on them with 6-inch guns. Twenty-one torpedoes were fired, of which a large number crossed the British line but were successfully avoided. The intensity of the fire, specially

t d of the Iron Duke and Royal Oak, was s largely the cause of preventing the - attacks from being pressed home. One destroyer was seen to sink and two y others were badly damaged. The - Royal Oak had fired 39 rounds of 15n inch and 84 rounds of 6-inch ammunik tion, but had suffered no damage or d casualties. Vice-Admiral Sir Cecil Burney, Sece ond-in-Command of the Grand Fleet, ■ who had transferred his flag from the - torpedoed Marlborough to the Re--1 venge during the night of the action, flew his flag in the Royal Oak from June 5 for two months, and it was from this ship that he dispatched his e report of the battle. r Since the Great War the Royal Oak had served in the battle squadrons of the Mediterranean Fleet and the e Home Fleet. She saw service in Spans ish waters during 1935-37, Captain T. y B. Drew, her then commanding offi- :, cer, being wounded by flying splinters i from the bursting of an anti-aircraft 3 shell on the quarter-deck of his ship during an insurgent air raid on Valencia. The Royal Oak was recom- '> missioned at Portsmouth on June 7 1 last for further service in the Second ’ Battle Squadron of the Home Fleet. ' The Price of Admiralty. i The loss of the Royal Oak, like that of the Courageous, is part of the 1 “price of Admiralty," paid lor the > protection of the British Empire ' against aggression. Against the sinking of these two ships must be reck- - oned the heavy losses of Gorman sub- - marines—three were destroyed in one J day last week —and the almost com- • plete immunity from losses during the last three weeks of the vast volume of British merchant shipping. •. It is well to remember, too, that during the Great War, the Royal Navy 2 suffered the loss of 254 vessels, includs ing 13 battleships, three battle-cruisers, 25 cruisers, 67 destroyers, 11 torpedos boats, 54 submarines, three aircraftt carriers and 30 armed merchant cruisers and boarding steamers. 3 When the present war started some z 200 warships were under construc- < tion in Great Britain, including nine - battleships, six large aircraft-carriers, r 25 cruisers, 43 destroyers and 19 sub--2 marines. The battleships included five t of 35,000 tons, namely King George s V, Prince of Wales. Duke of Yorx. e Jellicoe and Beatty, of which the first a two were nearing completion and the i other there were almost ready for launching. To others, the Lion and s Tmereraire, each of 40,000 tons, had 1 been under construction for some e months and a further two of similar r size had been ordered. Meanwhile, t the fleet of small craft for hunting submarines is growing rapidly, and by r the end of this month will be three , times as great as when, the war < started. i