Internment High Seas Fleet 1918

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany loved his fleet. He loved it so much that he decided to increase it to the largest in the world, sparking an arms race that was one of the leading factors to world war one. When the Kaiser found himself on the losing side of the war he and his own head on the line he abdicated his throne and fled the country. The Kaiserliche Marine's High Seas Fleet was still the third largest fleet in the world and was considered a threat by the allies. It was decided during the cease fire that concluded fighting in world war one on November 11, 1918 that the High Seas Fleet of surface ships was to be interned at Scapa Flow until its final disposition would be decided at Versailles. Under the same agreement the remaining U-boat forces were to sail to Harwich.

Admiral Franz von Hipper, commander-in-chief of the High Seas Fleet, had refused to surrender his beloved ships to the allies and resigned. This forced a new commander to be chosen to lead the force in defeat, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter. Reuter was only 49 and had begun the war as captain of the battle cruiser SMS Derfflinger. A string of combat duty in the Battles of the Dogger Bank, Jutland and Heligoland Bight had earned him promotion and advancement until he was selected to be the last commander of the fleet. The fleet to be interned included 16 ultra modern battleships and battlecruisers.

Seventy-five German warships and their nearly 20,000 crewmen left their bases on November 19, 1918 to sail into internment. In agreement with the cease fire they had offloaded all of their powder and ammunition not to mention the breechblocks, rangefinders and gun sights for their weapons before leaving port. They met the combined allied navies of more than 250 warships two days later at the Firth of Forth off the coast of Scotland. The allied fleet contained more than 30 British and American dreadnought battleships and is thought to be the largest collection of naval big guns in military history. On November 21st at 3:57 the Imperial German Naval ensign was ordered stricken from all of the ships and the Royal Navy ensign of the British Empire was raised in its place. One of the German ships, the torpedo boat V30, had strayed off course while maneuvering through a minefield and exploded.

Within a week the 74 remaining ships had been moved to the shallow waters of the Gutter Sound inlet of Scapa Flow in northern Scotland and disarmed. Inspections were made to ensure that all weapons and munitions were offloaded as was most of the coal and oil used to fuel the beasts to prevent their crews from either fighting or escaping. The crews were assembled and reduced to the bare minimum to man the ships essential pumps and lines so that they would not sink at anchor or break free. Within weeks the ships floating in the still waters of Scapa Flow were reduced to caretaker crews of 75 men per battlecruiser/battleship, 30 per light cruiser and an even smaller amount per destroyer, leaving the imprisoned fleet with a nominal total of just 1700 officers and men. This was less than 10% of the crew that had sailed from Germany.

This fleet would remain surrounded by the Royal Navy for another eight months when impending fears of what the Versailles treaty would bring about its own death by scuttling.

Sources

The Grand Scuttle: the sinking of the German fleet at Scapa Flow in

1919 Dan Van der Vat, Hodder and Stoughton. 1982

The Wrecks of Scapa Flow David M. Ferguson, Orkney Press 1984

Scapa: Britain's famous wartime naval base James Miller, Birlinn Press 2000

British Cartoon Honoring the Surrender

Print Article

Email Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds