1990 Death We have come to the tragic denouement of our plot, which is the life and work of Viktor Tsoi. I had a chance to see Vitya for the last time and even talk briefly with him on June 22, 1990 in Moscow, the day after his birthday. My wife and I arrived in Moscow by

A British battleship exploded in the roadstead of the Royal Navy's main base, Scapa Flow. 833 people died.

1939 An alarming October night enveloped the British Isles. In the main base of the Royal Navy, Scapa Flow, the battleship Royal Oak froze in the roadstead. The ship has just returned from another voyage, and the tired crew received a long-awaited rest. It seemed that nothing foreshadowed trouble, when suddenly, at about one in the morning, a dull blow shook the entire battleship. The alarm signal raised the sleeping sailors from their bunks and scattered them to their posts. Soon the first reports arrived on the bridge: “Underwater hole in the stem area. As a result of the internal explosion, the liquid fuel tanks were damaged and the anchor chains were torn from their stoppers.” Then a high column of water shot up on the starboard side, in the area of ​​the chimney. And finally, the powder magazines exploded. The mortally wounded battleship fell on board. Half an hour later, in the bay, covered with a thick layer of fuel oil, only the wreckage of the ship and the few surviving sailors floated. In the morning the Royal Navy was missing 833 men.

The first days after the disaster, the British command remained silent: they were completely unaware of the causes of the disaster. The bitter truth became known only a few days later, when fanfare sounded in Berlin. This is what the official press of Nazi Germany reported.

On the night of October 14, the submarine U-47, under the command of Lieutenant Gunther Prien, penetrated the English base through the Kerk Strait. Having found no prey in the western part of the water area, Prien began to explore the eastern part. He soon discovered the battleship Royal Oak and the battlecruiser Repulse in the light of the northern lights. The position for the attack was ideal. After the first attack, both English ships were damaged. Having recharged the devices, Prin repeated the attack. Three torpedoes that reached the target sealed the fate of the Royal Oak.

A triumphant trip to Berlin, national celebrations, a reception with the Fuhrer - this is what awaited all those who distinguished themselves in Scapa Flow. Soon another bestseller, “My Way to Scapa Flow,” appeared on bookstores in Germany. Gunther Prien, now a lieutenant commander, described his exploits. His military journey ended on March 10, 1940, when British ships sank U-47 200 miles south of Ireland.

Naturally, fascist propaganda did not fail to elevate Prien to the rank of an “immortal hero.” True, even then there were skeptical remarks addressed to the submariner. First of all, the German pilots were unpleasantly surprised to see the “heavily damaged” cruiser “Repalz” safe and sound. Upon learning of this, Prien hastened to correct himself, declaring that he had not blown up the Repulse, but the battleship Ark Royal. But the aircraft carrier was also in combat formation. Moreover, as the British command claimed, on the Scapa Flow roadstead on the day of the attack there were only the battleship Royal Oak and the old seaplane transport Pegasus. The latter did not in any way resemble a battleship or an aircraft carrier, not to mention the fact that Prien did not notice it at all.

The very descriptions of the U-47 breakthrough also caused bewilderment. What were the references to the tidal current worth, for example: at 23.30 - “following tide” (boat approaching the base); at 00.30 - “low tide” (boat in the harbor); and after a few minutes the speed of the tidal wave allegedly reached 10 knots! Meanwhile, in Scapa Flow the tide goes out by midnight.

According to Prien's book, he himself chose the most convenient position for torpedo firing: a large, stationary ship stood sideways to the boat (heading angle - 90 degrees), the distance was optimal. And in such conditions, reminiscent of training shooting, without any opposition, the experienced submariner managed to miss the battleship with the first salvo (of the four torpedoes fired, only one, according to Prien, hit the Repulse).

The command of the British fleet explained the death of the Royal Oak as an accident, a fatal coincidence: the blocker, which was supposed to plug the Prinovsky loophole, was a day late to arrive in the bay. And who could have expected from the Germans such awareness of the defense system and navigation situation in Scapa Flow, and most importantly, such audacity.

Not everyone was convinced by these arguments. Rumors spread throughout the ships and bases of England, explaining the “true reasons for the death” of the battleship. Here is one of the versions.

Soon after the self-sinking of the German fleet in the English base of Scapa Flow (under the terms of the 1917 armistice, the German fleet was concentrated in Scapa Flow, where it was subsequently sunk by the Germans themselves), naval officer Alfred Wehring found himself on the brink of poverty. He didn't save any money, and his only hobby was watches. All this brought the unemployed sailor to one of the German watch companies. As a traveling salesman, Wehring traveled to European countries, where, in addition to commercial assignments, he carried out assignments for the German secret service.

This continued until 1926, when Wehring decided to settle in Switzerland. In a traditionally neutral country, he not only mastered the profession of a watchmaker to perfection, but also changed his name along with his citizenship. In 1927, Swiss citizen Ortel emigrated to England and settled in the town of Kirkwall, next to the main English naval base at Scapa Flow.

Kirkwall's new resident soon opened a watch shop. In addition to his business, the watchmaker was interested in sailing and fishing. No one paid attention to the fact that he preferred to fish in the areas of the straits connecting Scapa Flow harbor with the North Sea. It was where controlled minefields, observation posts, nets and blockades were located that blocked the passage to the harbor. In a word, by 1938 the description of the defense system of the Scapa Flow base lay in the safes of fascist intelligence.

One October evening, under the pretext that the weather was rainy and there were no buyers in sight, the Kirkuol watchmaker closed his shop earlier than usual. Having carefully locked the door of the house, he removed a short-wave radio transmitter from its hiding place and went on the air for a few seconds. His call signs were heard on the continent, and on October 13, the submarine U-47 secretly approached the Orkney Islands. There she received an unknown man from the English coast, who took command of the boat. He safely guided the submarine through the narrows and obstacles of the Kerk Strait, and then, after sinking the battleship, brought it back into the North Sea.

It was not difficult to guess who this man was. But his name remained unknown. Alfred Wehring shed the guise of Albert Ortel and disappeared among the naval officers.

This is the legend of the watchmaker-spy. However, an investigation carried out at one time by the local Orkney Herald newspaper showed that neither the old residents of the city, nor the watchmakers, nor the officials knew anything about Albert Ortel. Official sources in the West also deny this version.

The Nazis also had other opportunities to become quite thoroughly familiar with the Scapa Flow base: in the pre-war period it was visited by German ships, and from the first days of the war it was under constant surveillance from the air and from under water. In addition, German intelligence at that time knew the English naval radio code. Consequently, the negotiations between the Royal Navy officials were no secret to the enemy, nor was the fact that the naval security of the base was being neglected, that there was a “gap” in the Kirk Strait. German strategists understood that this loophole would soon be closed. How else to explain the haste of the German command. Knowing that there were two obsolete ships in the harbor - the Repules and the Royal Oak - it could have waited until more valuable prey arrived there: a new battleship or aircraft carrier. Thus, Prien's breakthrough was well prepared and secured.

On October 13, Prien was informed by radio of the exact location of the Royal Oak and the Repulse. However, it was on the night of October 14 that the battlecruiser Repulz went to sea. Naturally, Prin might not have known about this. Taking advantage of the climax of the tide, U-47 penetrated Scapa Flow and immediately headed for the area where intelligence indicated that two enemy heavy ships were anchored. It can also be assumed that while maneuvering in the darkened tidal zone, and then in the harbor itself, the submarine's navigator got lost - the calculated point on the map where the German submarine was supposedly located did not correspond to its actual position in the harbor. This discrepancy, called a “discrepancy” among sailors, led to an incorrect description of the location and heading angle at the moment of the Royal Oak attack. And finally, the text of the radiogram informing about the presence of a battleship and a battle cruiser in Scapa Flow was obviously quite categorical and gave no reason to doubt it. One of these ships was discovered. The second was a figment of Prin's imagination. It is possible that he mistook some coastal structures for the Repules. At night, with specific lighting (northern lights), they could easily be mistaken for the hull and superstructure of a heavy ship.

So, a German submarine attacked the Royal Oak. The explosion in the bow of the ship was accompanied by a relatively small column of water, which is typical for a magnetic torpedo with a proximity fuse, which is triggered not at the protected side, but under the bottom. In this case, artillery magazines, engine rooms and boiler rooms are affected - that is, the most important and vulnerable objects. However, the non-contact torpedo had little reliability at that time. Not surprisingly, of the four torpedoes fired on U-47's first salvo, only one worked.

The watch commander, being on the bridge of the battleship, might not have noticed the explosion: the upper deck on the forecastle hung over the stem and covered it from observation. The explosion tore apart part of the bottom, destroyed the bow torpedo tubes, caused destruction in the skipper's warehouse and tore the anchor chains from the stoppers, after which the ship, having received some freedom of movement, somewhat changed its position, turning stern.

Since a number of bow compartments were flooded, and liquid fuel tanks in the ship's storage warehouse were also damaged, it is doubtful that the emergency team would be able to accurately determine the nature of the explosion.

The second German torpedo probably hit the area where the anti-mine and anti-aircraft artillery ammunition magazines were located - the most vulnerable spot of any warship. Then, taking advantage of the complete confusion of the British command, Prien safely got out of the base.

All surviving members of the Royal Oak crew gave their testimony. It turned out that about half of them were convinced that the ship died from an internal explosion, and not from enemy torpedoes. Supporters of this version argued that of all the explosions on the battleship, only one could undoubtedly be classified as a torpedo. The rest looked like internal ones. Moreover, two of them occurred in the areas where artillery magazines were located, and one in the area of ​​torpedo tubes.

By that time, rumors about the bloody actions of German spies and saboteurs were quite widespread in England. Is it any wonder that speculation was made in the press: did a German submarine even penetrate Scapa Flow? And isn’t her commander just a screen to hide the true reason for the death of the battleship - a reason that the German command would like to keep secret? Perhaps the ship was sunk by saboteurs entrenched in coastal warehouses, or by submariners who entered the base in dwarf submarines?

The British Admiralty stood its ground: the U-47 attack was the only reason for the death of the Royal Oak. When the journalists demanded evidence, they were told that divers had discovered torpedo fragments at the bottom of the bay. However, this convinced few people. After all, the first explosion occurred exactly where the battleship’s torpedo tubes were located. Therefore, the found fragments could be of English origin...

To accurately answer the question: why did the Royal Oak die, it is necessary to raise the ship to the surface and examine the damage to the hull. The battleship lies in shallow water in a closed bay, so this task is not difficult. However, the project to raise the ship was met with hostility by some influential circles. “Do not insult the peace of dead heroes,” is the main argument of the objections. And to this day the Royal Oak rests at the bottom of the bay.

Scapa Flow in Orkney. In two world wars, this vast deep-water harbor was the northern base of the British Navy. She was considered impregnable, but on a cold October night in 1939, a German submarine entered the harbor and fired four torpedoes at the battleship HMS Royal Oak. The crew had no chance of salvation.

Scapa Flow is a natural harbor with an area of ​​360 square meters. kilometers in the Orkney Islands. For half a century it was the northern base of the British naval forces, an impregnable fortress of the most powerful fleet in the world. In addition, this harbor was an anchorage for the British navy during the First World War. This was an ideal position for a blockade of Germany. From here, Britain could control the waters between Scotland and Norway, preventing the German fleet from using the North Sea to pass through, crippling the German economy. The harbor was chosen for its enormous size. On the roadstead, the world's largest navy could conduct exercises and keep its ships in a position most advantageous for the economic war with Germany. But the sailors hated this place; they called it the end of the world. It was cold, windy and there wasn't much to do.

In September 1939, the Scapa Flow fleet was once again preparing to enter the front line. Germany attacked Poland, and clashes between Britain and the enemy began to occur at sea. All eyes were turned to the fleet.

The Scapa Flow raid was well known to German submarine commanders. The seven entrances to the harbor were guarded by anti-submarine nets, patrol ships, searchlights and guns. Part of the narrow straits was blocked by blockages - sunken old ships. In World War I, two submarines tried to penetrate Scapa Flow and both were lost.

On October 8, 1939, Gunther Prien set sail on U-47 from the port of Kiel in northern Germany. At this time, 600 miles to the west, the mighty British Navy HMS Royal Oak was patrolling the Fair Island Channel between the Orkney and Scottish islands.

battleship HMS Royal Oak

This 200-meter giant with a displacement of 26 thousand tons was a veteran of the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the First World War. But by 1939, the battleship was not the same powerful force. The ship's firepower was impressive; it had eight 15-inch guns that could sink any German ship. But the battleship could not catch up with the German ships, since its speed was 21 knots, and its defense systems were intended for short-range combat. In a word, the ship is outdated, especially in speed. Of the 1,149 crew members of the battleship HMS Royal Oak, 163 were 15-year-old cabin boys. This is an old Navy tradition. Young boys have always served in the British Navy. Young officers and sailors were taken on ships, trained in maritime affairs, and by the time they graduated from school they became serious professionals.

On October 10, the battleship HMS Royal Oak returned to Scapa Flow. Feeling safe, everyone returned to business as usual. This was the case three days later, until a German submarine approached the Orkney Islands. The boat lay in the North Sea east of the Orkney Islands at a depth of 90 meters. The commander gave the order to take food and prepare the submarine for battle. As darkness fell, U-47 surfaced and headed for Scapa Flow. Gunter Prien was to go down in history and decide the fate of hundreds of British sailors. He was about to undertake one of the most daring submarine raids of the Second World War, his goal was to attack the British fleet. No submarine has ever penetrated these waters. The Germans discovered a weak spot in the defense. In one of the straits, 500 m wide and only 10 m deep, at high tide, the current speed reached 10 knots. In addition, the strait was blocked by three blockades. But there were small passages left in it, and there was no other defense - no searchlights, no sentries.

Soon the submarine headed for a 40-meter passage between the northern block and the shore. The boat had to move very slowly over the water, choosing a path along a difficult fairway. Fighting the rising tide, the crew maintained the submarine's heading speed. Suddenly there was a crash. The boat got caught in the anchor chain of a block. She had to give a full reverse and the submarine managed to escape. But to the horror of the entire crew, a beam from the shore illuminated the conning tower. These were the headlights of a car that soon swerved - probably the driver was in a hurry to raise the alarm. But it was too late to turn around. Remaining on the surface, U-47 made its way through the harbor. The watchmen scanned the horizon, but they saw no ships. The British were lucky that a few days earlier the large ships of the fleet had been ordered to disperse in case of an air raid.

It was a typical evening aboard the battleship HMS Royal Oak. He was alone in Scapaflow. Unfortunately, he was discovered by a German submarine. Soon, four torpedoes were fired from the submarine from a distance of 3000 meters: one did not go out, two missed and only one hit the bow of the battleship. At the start of World War II, the German Navy believed they had the best torpedoes in the world, but they were not tested. As a result, they were not accurate enough, did not hold depth well, and often missed. The commander turned the U-47 around and fired from the stern torpedo tube - again missing. Now he hurried to take refuge in Kearsound, expecting confrontation. But no one on HMS Royal Oak even realized they were under attack, and the boat soon returned for another try. This time Gunter Prien approached 2700 meters and fired three torpedoes. At 01:16, one after another they hit the target. The third explosion turned out to be the most powerful, and the ship tilted to starboard. The torpedoes left huge holes in the starboard side of the battleship below the waterline. While the sailors were getting out of their hammocks, the powder magazines caught fire and the flames engulfed the ship with horrific consequences. The battleship tilted and the lights went out. Hundreds of people left below found themselves in the dark. Only a third of the battleship's crew managed to get onto the deck. The ship continued to list. People were trying to get on board. The water was icy, many had severe burns, and the sea was covered in fuel, suffocating people.

sinking of the battleship HMS Royal Oak photo

current location of the wreck

The battleship HMS Royal Oak sank in just 13 minutes. Hundreds of people died locked in the hold, hundreds of others struggled for life in the dark, icy water. But the alarm never sounded; a few minutes before the defeat, the ship lost electricity. There wasn't even time to fire flares. Half an hour later the battleship lay at the bottom. Of the 1,219 crew members, 833 died. Out of 163 cabin boys - 126.

All day in the morning, British destroyers bombarded the phantom submarines with depth charges, but U-47 disappeared long ago and, having overcome the strong current, went out to the open sea.

Soon Prien and his crew returned to Germany, where they were greeted as heroes. It was an impressive success to sneak into the lair of the British fleet, sink a large battleship and get away with impunity. Hitler was pleased, he even sent a plane to take the submarine crew to Berlin, where they were greeted by enthusiastic crowds.

Upon the return of the German submarine to the base, the Nazi propaganda machine began to work. Hitler spoke and presented medals. A film was shot and shown, memoirs were written and published. In 1939, Nazi Germany was in need of heroes, it had waged a war that most had no hope of winning, and anyone who performed an outstanding act became a celebrity.

In Britain, the events of that night were gradually reconstructed from the accounts of survivors and articles from the German press. Thousands of people mourned the loss of husbands, fathers and sons. And the Admiralty began a search for answers to the question of why the defense of Scapa Flow was ineffective. Soon, the investigative commission found 11 routes along which an enemy submarine could enter the harbor past anti-submarine networks and through straits only partially blocked by blockages. The commission found that local officers had warned of the shortcomings of Scapa Flow, but this was not considered a priority in the preparations for war. Only after the declaration of war did the Admiralty order additional measures to be taken. Paradoxically, two ships sent as blockers were sunk by submarines, and the third was supposed to be sunk where U-47 passed, but the ship arrived a few hours after the death of the battleship HMS Royal Oak.

Only one person suffered from the findings of the commission of inquiry - Admiral Wilfred French, commander of the Orkney and Scottish Islands. He took office a week before war was declared. He requested 15 patrol ships to ensure the safety of the harbor, but at the time of the death of the battleship there were only two. He became a “scapegoat”, he was sent to the reserve, and in fact he was fired. Scapa Flow was fortified with new guns, nets, patrol and patrol vessels and, at enormous expense, the eastern straits were forever blocked by concrete dams, which were called Churchill Barriers in honor of the First Lord of the Admiralty.

The sinking of the battleship HMS Royal Oak was the largest loss of cabin crew in naval history. But the fleet had no time to mourn. The Second World War had entered its most dangerous phase, and the Navy was strictly determined to play its part.

Gunter Prien, who sank 31 ships, did not live to see the end of the war; the odds were against him, as against all German submariners. Fifteen months after the sinking of HMS Royal Oak, U-47 attacked a convoy in the North Atlantic, where she was sunk by a deep-sea bomb from the destroyer HMS Wolverine. Prien left his memoirs of his famous campaign, which after the war were published in Britain under the title My Way to Scapa Flow. To the surprise of everyone who was there, he wrote that he had torpedoed two ships. There were so many discrepancies with known facts that some came to the conclusion that Prien simply was not in the harbor. What followed was a surge in conspiracy theories. The battleship HMS Royal Oak was said to have been blown up by enemy agents. As for the memoirs, they were written by a literary hack who embellished the truth to make young Nazis want to imitate the submariner hero.

Of the 833 dead on the battleship, only 26 bodies were found. They were taken to the island of Hoy and buried in a sailors' cemetery, 40 km from the site of the ship's sinking. Today, the remains of the battleship at Scapa Flow are an official mass grave, lying at a depth of 30 meters. Every year, Royal Navy divers carry out a unique ceremony, raising a white pennant over the remains of the battleship in memory of the 833 sailors, marines and boys who died on that cold October night.

The battleship HMS Royal Oak was launched in 1914. It was a hefty battleship, almost 200 meters long and 30 thousand tons of displacement. During the First World War he took part in the Battle of Jutland, then served in Malta and Gibraltar. In 1939, the battleship returned to Portsmouth, was in one combat operation, after which it was decided to send the relatively slow and old ship to Scapa Flow to participate in the air defense of the base. The ship's crew. at that time there were about 1200 people.

Scapa Flow has been considered a safe anchorage since the First World War. In 1914 and 1918, German submarines tried to break through here, one ran aground and was captured, the other was spotted and sunk. It is quite possible that by 1939 these successes had relaxed the British, and everyone was sure that it was impossible to penetrate the bay. However, the captain of the German boat U-47, Gunter Prien, apparently thought differently.

The main route to enter the bay now and then was the southern and western straits (Khoksa and Hoy):

The straits on the eastern side - near the islands of Barray and South Ronaldsay - were considered unnavigable - firstly, they themselves were shallow, and secondly, old ships were sunk on the fairways to completely exclude the possibility of passage this way. However, some loopholes still remained. On the night of October 13-14, 1939, at the hour of maximum tide, U-47 passed through the Kirk Strait, successfully avoiding all obstacles. A moonless night contributed to the fact that Prien's boat went unnoticed. Almost immediately upon leaving the strait, the boat noticed a Royal Oak standing at anchor. Two torpedo salvoes followed, leading to the death of the battleship and most of the crew (almost 900 people). U-47 left the same way.

If you superimpose Prien’s route (approximate, of course) on a modern navigation map, it will look something like this (red line - breakthrough, blue - withdrawal, blue loop - first and second attacks with an interval of 12 minutes):

It is worth noting how, in combat conditions, Prin managed to travel such a difficult route at night without any GPS, remain unnoticed and calmly leave.

Now the former Kirk Strait looks like this (Royal Oak stood behind the far cape on the right):

According to the stories of locals, whose relatives lived on the coast of the bay in those days, on the morning after the death of the battleship, the shore was littered with wooden debris, sailor's bunks and other evidence of a terrible disaster. This is the place where he died:

The investigation carried out following the sinking of the ship revealed gaps in the defenses of Scapa Flow. Therefore, it was decided to block the small straits that were not used for navigation completely. The dams were built over the next few years and became known as the Churchill Barriers:

Then they paved the way to the southern island. I must say that I really disliked these barriers, since in this place there was an exceptionally narrow two-strip bordered by bumpers on both sides. In a right-hand drive car, you feel the dimensions worse than in a regular car, and passing oncoming cars on the barrier is just some kind of torture.

In recent years, oil has been constantly leaking from the battleship's bunkers, so in 2010 a series of operations were carried out to pump it out, but now the leakage seems to have decreased significantly. These operations were carried out based on the results of a sonar examination of the hull:


Based on them, a drawing was made of what the Royal Oak looks like now:

Well, about the legacy. A monument to the crew of the Royal Oak can be seen in Kirkwell Central Cathedral:

The Scapa Flow Museum houses a plaque with the name of the battleship, recovered from it by a diver. In general, Royal Oak is a historical place and lifting anything from it is prohibited. This sign was taken out illegally, the diver moved with it to Canada, and only then his relatives returned it to Scapa Flow:

Every year, Royal Navy divers dive onto a battleship and "raise" the naval ensign on it, which is then given to museums or "friendly" organizations. One such flag is kept at the port administration:

And next to the administration building, in a village called Scapa, there is another large memorial to the ship’s crew:

Here's the story. But this is not the whole story about the historical ships of Scapa Flow.