Scapa: Britain's Famous War-Time Naval Base

by James Miller

Through two world wars, Scapa Flow was the main anchorage of the world's greatest battlefleet - the British Home Fleet. This magnificent setting saw some of the great dramatic events of the 20th century take place, including Kitchener's last farewell before setting sail on the Hampshire to his death, the sailing of the fleet to Jutland, and the surrender and scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet. Less remarked but equally extraordinary is the raising of the battlefleet between the wars in one of the greatest salvage operation in history.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

This is James^^^^^^^^^^Miller

James Miller (b. 1948) is a Scottish writer. He studied zoology in Aberdeen and marine biology in Montreal. After working for the British Council in Afghanistan and the Far East he became a full-time freelance writer. He has written a number of acclaimed books, including Scapa, The Dambuilders, The Foresters, Inverness and The Gathering Stream.

Reviews

[Tom Darrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book from my parents who went on a cruise around the British Isles and stopped at Scapa Floe.

Positives - It has some good, real life, pictures of life at Scapa during both WWI and WWII... not just the ships, but the people who lived there. It also has some new information that I hadn't seen elsewhere, like the efforts of various companies to scrap the German ships that were scuttled there.

Negatives - The author's writing style is very amateurish. He meanders from point to point, going through some things very quickly and leaving out important information, like how many people died when the Royal Oak was sunk and then taking way too much time on other issues. There is also no real order to the events, other than a chronological order. On one page he's talking about the fleet, then he skips to the radar facilities, then to the submarine booms, then back to the fleet.
Perhaps the biggest negative is the layout. The pictures are good, but there is no organization to them. Some pages have two large pictures and only 3 lines of text between them, the next page is all text and the next page has one picture on the right with all the text on the left. Also, there are some full, two page spreads of a single picture, and some don't really need to be full page (ex. I can understand a picture of an airplane landing with a smaller picture just as well). The final, and perhaps most galling issue, is that the text never lines up with the pictures... so you'll be reading about a certain battleship and then there is a picture of it 12 pages later. All of this makes this book somewhat difficult to read.

[Michael Koch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in Britain in 2001. Written by James Miller it covers use of Scapa Flow (Orkney Islands) as a major base by Britain’s Royal Navy during times of war. The first few pages give its history from 1812 to 1912 when its use was examined in preparation for a potential European war. Stated major benefits included: i) capacity for the entire Grand Fleet, ii) due to isolation, security against spies observing ship movements, and iii) physical and hydrographic conditions making torpedo attack very challenging using submarine or surface vessels.

Miller covers preparation of the base for both the Great War and the Second World War. Security in the Great War was relatively light with single submarine booms covering the west and south entrances and block ships sunk to cover the eastern gaps. Hydrophones were added to the west and south entrances in order to listen for submarines, and anti-ship artillery was also placed. As expected, the Germans mined all the entrances. Some 3000 mine sweepers were deployed to handle more than 43,000 mines, resulting in the sinking of 200 mine sweeping vessels. The greatest loss due to mines was HMS Hampshire, lost with Lord Kitchener, Britain’s Secretary of State for War. Lost off the eastern entrance, the cruiser was carrying Kitchener to Russia to negotiate bilateral military supply trade. The largest ship lost in Scapa was HMS Vanguard which suffered a major explosion. The cause was never confirmed.

The biggest challenge in the Great War was the weather, especially during winter. Storms, fog and precipitation were frequent, sometimes all three at once. Ocean currents around the Orkneys could reach eight knots during winter storms. Entry and exit from Scapa was always dangerous during these periods with several ships damaged due to collisions. Two destroyers sank when they both ran into the rocky shore, west of the southern entrance.

During the Second World war, security was tightened considerably. The eastern gaps were fully closed after a German submarine sank the Royal Oak after sneaking in between block ships. Marine and Army artillery was installed to cover the entrances and light and heavy anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) was installed. Women were posted to the Orkneys in medical and administrative posts including indirect fighting such as anti-aircraft artillery. More importantly, RAF and Marine aircraft were situated on several bases supported by local and distant radars. During this war, aircraft carriers increased in importance. Carriers, battleships and battle cruisers did not sail without significant protection from submarines and torpedoes by destroyers. After the USA joined the war, some of her capital ships joined the grand fleet at Scapa as necessary.

The book gives considerable information about transit to Scapa, accommodation, entertainment and morale of servicemen posted here. There is also a short story regarding Italian POWs placed here as labour. Their comfort was considerably enhanced after Italy withdrew from the war in mid 1943. The Royal Navy officially left Scapa in 1945 after Germany surrendered. However, she was still used as needed until 1957 when all facilities were closed.

Although this book makes no pretense of telling the stories of all the ships that anchored here, some of the activities of the largest and most important ships are given thumb-nail sketches. I was surprised at how frequently, I discovered names of ships I already knew from previous reading. Of interest to people interested in naval aspects of the two world wars. There are lots of figures and photos. Three and a half stars.

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Britain's Famous Wartime Naval Base.

As its subtitle (above) implies this is a short history of the use of Scapa Flow in Orkney as a base for British naval operations. These had marginal beginnings in the Napoleonic Wars but the emergence of Germany as a potential enemy and a threat to North Sea and Atlantic shipping during the run up to the Great War led to proposals for the main British fleet to be stationed there. The outbreak of war saw these brought to fruition and Scapa and Orkney quickly became a home to thousands of men - and in World War 2 many women, who on their nights out were apparently strictly chaperoned. The locals were also in great demand for dances and such. Unlike in the rest of the UK in wartime food was reasonably plentiful on Orkney due to its fertility. Eggs were in good supply and there was never a shortage of mutton!

The book is replete with photographs, with a readily accessible text. The caption to a photo of the men of the Ness Battery in front of a hut mentions the strap designed to hold the hut down during strong winds.


The main incidents are all here; the HMS Vanguard explosion, the loss of HMS Hampshire, the collision of HMS Opal and HMS Narborough, the internment of the German High Seas Fleet in 1918, its Grand Scuttle in 1919, the sinking of HMS Royal Oak, the building of the Churchill Barriers and the Italian Chapel. A quick, easy history of the UK naval presence in Orkney.