Battle of the Atlantic · United Kingdom vs Germany

Sinking of HMS Royal Oak

Name: Sinking of HMS Royal Oak
Start: 1939-10-14
End: 1939-10-14
Location: Sinking of HMS Royal Oak

14 October 1939

Gunther Prien's U-47 slipped through the blockships at Kirk Sound into Scapa Flow and torpedoed the battleship Royal Oak at anchor. 835 men died. The Home Fleet was dispersed to west-coast anchorages until the defences were rebuilt.

Explore Sinking of HMS Royal Oak on the interactive map · Wikipedia

Day by day

14 October 1939 — Kirk Sound

U-47 came in on the surface through Kirk Sound at about 00:30, squeezing between the blockships on a rising tide. Most of the Home Fleet had left for Loch Ewe; Prien found Royal Oak at anchor in the north-east corner of the Flow and fired at 00:58 and again at 01:16. The battleship capsized in thirteen minutes with 835 of her 1,234 men. U-47 went out the way it had come and was back in Wilhelmshaven on the 17th.

w:en:HMS Royal Oak (08) in 1937.Royal Navy photographer · Public domain · source

For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Kapitänleutnant Prien 6534-40Schulze, Annelise (Mauritius) · CC BY-SA 3.0 de · source

Churchill Barrier 1, Orkney IslandsBillC · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Also in Battle of the Atlantic

Battle of the Atlantic
Battle of the River Plate
Convoys SC 7 and HX 79
Pursuit and sinking of Bismarck
The Channel Dash
Convoy PQ 17
Battle of the Barents Sea
Battle of the North Cape