HMS Royal Oak leads the Fleet during manoeuvres in 1938

Whilst at Scapa Flow in early September 1939 some of the crewmembers witnessed the first German reconnaissance aeroplane fly over on 6th September.   By now all hopes of a visit to the Mediterranean had gone.   On 8th October 1939, HMS ROYAL OAK, with other units of the Home Fleet, was despatched to intercept the German Battlecruiser GNEISENAU and ten other ships of the German fleet.   Due to lack of speed the ROYAL OAK was unable to keep pace with the other British units and, after a severe buffeting in heavy seas, and a fruitless search, the fleet returned to Scapa Flow on Wednesday 11th October 1939.   HMS ROYAL OAK dropped anchor in the Northeast corner of Scapa Bay, some 1500 yards South of the old seaplane carrier HMS PEGASUS (ex HMS ARK ROYAL).   The majority of the fleet then left Scapa Flow in the next couple of days and were dispersed to other safe anchorages, the majority of them making for Loch Ewe on the West coast of Scotland.  

Meanwhile, HMS ROYAL OAK began to make good the damage sustained on her recent sorty, during which, due to the very stormy seas, many of her lifesaving Carley rafts were washed away or badly damaged.   Storing ship was another priority and a large amount of Naval Stores and Victualling Stores were taken aboard.   During Thursday 12th and Friday 13th a succession of barges and lighters were brought alongside laden with stores.   Friday 13th was also pay day and a large amount of cash was paid to the 1200 or so crew members, but, due to the fact that the ship had steam up and was under four hours notice to sail, few of the crew had the opportunity to go ashore to spend any pay.    

HMS Royal Oak at anchor

Friday 13^th October turned out to be a lucky day for Harry Howe.  

During the forenoon of the 13th, Harry was summoned to see the Regulating Chief Stoker who then asked Harry if he would like to go onboard the drifter HORIZON to relieve the Leading Stoker.   He jumped at the chance and, together with a Leading Stoker who was to relieve the Petty Officer Stoker they went aboard the drifter that was lying alongside the ROYAL OAK.   Once aboard, he was introduced to the rest of the small crew and he was asked if he knew anything about coal fired boilers to which he replied that he did.   He was then ordered into the stoke hole to do a bit firing, which he did comfortably.   During the afternoon Harry was told to go aboard the ROYAL OAK and pick up a few belongings from his mess to last him overnight.   Harry went aboard and bumped into Billy Tate who light-heartedly asked him if there was any room for stowaways.   Harry told him that after collecting a few things, he was going inshore with the drifter and would be tied up overnight at Kirkwall pier.   The drifter DAISY 2 would therefore spend the night tied up alongside the ROYAL OAK.    

HMS Royal Oak

Shortly after 1am on Saturday 14th October 1939, a German U boat torpedoed HMS ROYAL OAK as she lay at anchor in Scapa Flow, which resulted in the death of over 800 of the crew.   Many of the crew died in their beds, others while they kept watch and some in the icy waters of the Flow as they battled to swim to safety.   Two separate torpedo attacks were carried out, the first at four minutes past one in the morning struck just under the bow, and word quickly got round the ship that the jolt was in fact due to a malfunction in one of the machinery spaces.   Meanwhile, investigations into the cause of the explosion were being carried out in the ROYAL OAK and U 47, under the command of Kapitanleutnant Gunther Prien, was busy reversing course to fire a torpedo from her stern tube.   The torpedo was fired but failed to detonate.   The submarine then carried out a search for further targets but failed to find any so commenced a second attack on ROYAL OAK, firing three further torpedoes some twelve minutes after the first attack.   From the second encounter the first torpedo exploded on the Starboard side somewhere beneath the Boys messdeck, whilst the second, slightly aft of this, devastated the Stokers messdeck.   The third torpedo wreaked similar havoc to the Marines messdeck.   One of the hits also involved a small arms magazine and the ship immediately began to list as balls of flaming cordite incinerated anything that would burn as they blasted through messdecks and passageways.   Many of the crew were burned alive as they slept in their hammocks; others were badly scalded as clouds of steam engulfed them.   

Most of the crew were asleep in the citadel below the armour-plated deck.   Hatches through this deck were protected by a 2" armour plate and were mounted on runners.   As the ship began to list to starboard, the armour plates began to slide across the hatches, cutting off the means of escape for the crew and unless someone pulled on the toggle that opened the hatch, escape was impossible.   It was not possible to pull on the toggle and climb through the hatch at the same time.   As the ship listed further to starboard, water cascaded into her through the portholes, the first row of which were situated only ten feet above the sea.   To assist with ventilation whilst in harbour, many of the portholes were open, and wooden light excluding ventilators masked the portholes to preserve the blackout that was in force.  

HMS ROYAL OAK took only 13 minutes to turn completely over and sink with over 800 men still trapped inside her.   A few men escaped from the portholes after she sank by removing the wing nuts on the light excluding ventilators, and, floating to the surface, they emerged in a sea thick with furnace fuel oil, which was escaping from the ruptured fuel tanks.   The thick, tar like, substance made swimming very difficult and everyone in the water were coated thickly with the oil; some even swallowed large quantities of it.   HMS PEGASUS, anchored some 1500 yards north of ROYAL OAK, alerted by the initial explosion, sent one boat to investigate.  

HMS Pegasus

On hearing the explosions from the second attack, PEGASUS sent all boats to the rescue.   Before daylight dawned it became apparent that ROYAL OAK had sunk with a loss of 833 officers and men, whilst some 420 or so crew members were rescued.   Considering that the war was only a matter of a few weeks old, the ROYAL OAK was the second major loss for the Royal Navy which, on 17th September, had lost the aircraft carrier HMS COURAGEOUS, also in a torpedo attack, with a loss of 518 of her crew.  

Of the Sunderland men in ROYAL OAK there were few survivors, only James Hearn, Leading Seaman Edward A Boxall and Harry Howe were saved.   In the confusion that followed the sinking, Harry Howe was initially posted as missing as there was no one who could vouch for his whereabouts.   Billy Tate was also saved but was very seriously burned; the ship�s Padre plucked him from the sea.   Frank Carr (23), Mathew Finlay (22), Edward Holyoak (16), William Powles (18), Frank Green (20), Jack Hayes (22), William Gillis (21), Joseph Miller (19), Eric Walker (16), Dalton Jackson (24), Joseph Palfreyman (19), George Watson (19), Thomas Jackson (19), Gordon Gibson (17), Roland Arno (16) and Thomas Naisby all perished.   Many of the survivors were suffering from burns and exposure and the majority were clad in only underwear.   Everything they possessed, including their pay, which they had received a few hours before on the Friday, lay on the seabed.   About one dozen of the crew were in a very serious way, suffering from burns caused by either the cordite flash or the clouds of steam.   Shortly after 8am, Billy Tate and the other seriously injured were transferred from HMS PEGASUS onto a tender belonging to the hospital ship SAINT ABBA.   The tender then made its way across Scapa Bay to Lyness naval base where the injured were transferred to the hospital ship.   There, the medical staff began the treatment of the horrific burns and other injuries.   On Tuesday 17th, the Germans conducted an air raid on the Fleet Anchorage at Scapa Flow and HMS IRON DUKE was holed by two bombs which landed alongside the ship and she had to be beached before she sank completely.    

HMS Royal Oak firing a broadside

Many of the survivors of ROYAL OAK were embarked in the accommodation ship VOLTAIRE and they had a good view of the attack.   Bombs also rained down around the hospital ship SAINT ABBA, which healed over precariously and the injured were rocked about in their cots in the sick bay.   Miraculously she escaped a direct hit.   Small boats took the ROYAL OAK survivors embarked in VOLTAIRE to the island of Flotta in the middle of Scapa Flow.   There, they were landed and told to scatter until after the air raid.   Captain Benn of HMS ROYAL OAK protested to the Admiralty and requested that his men should be removed from the dangers at Scapa Flow.   Following his protest, the men on Flotta and the remainder of ROYAL OAK survivors were taken to the port of Scrabster on the mainland for transfer to Thurso and the rail journey South.   The SAINT ABBA, with the seriously injured men aboard, sailed during the early evening for Invergordon Naval Base where the men were transferred to the new Naval hospital.   Families of the more seriously injured were sent for.   

A comprehensive list of crew members, on the night of her sinking can be found on the next page, or click here.

Billy Tate's mother and father, Maud and William, were deeply shocked when they saw their son at the hospital.   He was bandaged from head to toe and only small openings in the bandages were left for his eyes and mouth.   Nearly all of the time he was in a state of delirium but, when he realised his mothers presence, his first words to her were "I broke through for you mother".    Later he was able to tell how he and another youth were trapped in their bunks when the ship sank.   Scalded by clouds of steam, they managed to squeeze their way through a porthole to the sea where they were picked up.   Lodgings were obtained on a farm near the hospital where his parents were within easy reach for visiting.   As well as comforting her son, Maud Tate assisted the medical staff in any way she could and did anything from cleaning to helping to change dressings.   This also helped to take her mind off the situation.   After a few days at Invergordon, William Tate senior realised there was little he could do to help his son, and, worried by the fact that they had little money to keep them both in Invergordon, decided to return to his work in the shipyards of Sunderland.   On hearing of his plight on his return to Sunderland, his workmates arranged a collection of money and sent him straight back to Invergordon to be with his wife and son. 

On his return he discovered that the condition of his son was gradually deteriorating until, on Friday 27th October, Billy Tate died from his horrific burns.   This was a particularly hard blow for the grieving parents as they had recently lost two other children, Jimmy, who drowned whilst swimming in the River Wear at Southwick, and Mary, who died whilst working in London.   The body of Billy Tate was accompanied back to Sunderland by his mother and father and arrangements were made for what may well have been the largest funeral ever seen in Southwick.   

On the miserably rainy day of Tuesday 31st October 1939, the funeral of Billy Tate took place with six of his friends acting as pallbearers.   The streets were lined with Billy's former friends and colleagues from the colliery and the navy, family friends, neighbours, shipyard workers and even total strangers, touched by the plight of the family, turned out to pay their respects.   The Methodist Church on The Green at Southwick was full to capacity as the coffin, draped with the Union Jack was carried slowly past the silent congregation.   Following the service, the cortege made its way slowly up Old Mill Road to Southwick Cemetery where Billy Tate was laid to rest, in a grave he now shares with his mother and father.  

Billy Tate Headstone, Southwick Cemetery

As well as the headstone in Southwick cemetery acting as a permanent reminder, the name William Tate is proudly displayed on the huge Naval War Memorial, which overlooks the Solent on Southsea Common, Portsmouth.   On that memorial, all of the Naval personnel from the Portsmouth Command of the Royal Navy who made the supreme sacrifice during the Second World War are remembered.   

Kapitanleutnant Gunther Prien - U47 Captain

A radio broadcast, made by Prien on his return to Germany, and the publication of the book "Mein Weg Nach Scapa Flow", ghost-written for Prien the following year, put grave doubts in people's minds.   Prien's story conflicted with the official British version of the sinking so greatly that it was suspected that some sort of 'cover up' story had been invented.   

On the outbreak of the Second World War Commodore Donitz, who was in charge of the German U boat fleet, had a plan, which would avenge the German Navy for the humiliation suffered in the first war, when, the German fleet was interned at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Isles.   The internment culminated in the German fleet being scuttled by its crews and the majority of the fleet sank while at anchor.   Donitz believed that the Home Fleet anchorage could be penetrated by one of his U-boats and great damage inflicted on the British Navy.   On Sunday 8th October 1939, U47 sailed from her German base at Kiel to carry out the mission.   Shortly after 7pm in the darkness of the evening of Friday 13th, U47 surfaced and headed for Kirk Sound.   Shortly after 11pm Prien had to submerge again when, proceeding through the Pentland Firth nearly three miles from Kirk Sound, he encountered a Merchant ship off Rose Ness.   U47 surfaced again and headed for the 200ft gap, which lay to the north of the block-ship SORIANO.   The 15ft 6in draught of U47 would pose no problem at this point, which had a depth of over 20ft at high water, and, unknown to Prien, was monitored by neither floating nor shore patrols.   As Prien made his way through the gap, the fast flowing, following tide, was making steerage very difficult, and, at one stage the U boat brushed the steel wire leading from the bow of SORIANO to her anchor near the shore, and grounded itself at the stern.   The current, flowing faster by the minute, pushed the bows of U47 back on course and the stern broke free from the bottom.   The raging current carried her into Scapa Flow.   As Prien manoeuvred U47 towards the main anchorage in Scapa Flow he found it bare and so headed towards the North East corner of the Flow.   At a range of 4,000 yards HMS ROYAL OAK was sighted and the attack, which led to the sinking, was begun when the range was closed to 3000 yards.   The whole operation was carried out while the submarine was on the surface and, after the final torpedo was fired, U47 began the retreat.   As U47 headed back toward Kirk Sound a flash was noticed as the burning cordite in ROYAL OAK vented itself against the night sky.   Finally, at 2.15am, U47 and her 40-man crew again reached the open sea and set course for Germany.  

Back in Scapa Flow, following the sinking, the remainder of the fleet were ordered to raise steam and sail to sea as soon as possible.   The destroyers were to remain inside the Flow and were under orders to prevent any submarine from escaping.   The idea that a submarine had sunk HMS ROYAL OAK was met with disbelief amongst the crews of other ships in the Flow, but, shortly after 3am, preventative measures were taken to stop a submarine escaping.   Shortly after 10am, the Admiralty ordered that all possible exits be sealed with nets and all possible measures taken, including the use of aircraft, to stop a submarine escaping and informing the German Admiralty.   Divers carried out the first check of the hull of ROYAL OAK on Saturday evening to try and ascertain the cause and the extent of the damage.   Rumours circulated that she had been the victim of sabotage whilst counter rumours circulated regarding a submarine attack.   Some horrific sights confronted the divers as they moved about inside the hull containing over 800 bodies.   

The belief that the submarine was still trapped inside Scapa Flow persisted until after a radio broadcast by Prien on his return to Germany, the following Tuesday.   The Admiralty in Whitehall, still determined that the submarine must be trapped inside Scapa Flow, sent a signal to Scapa Flow telling them to search under the Starboard side of ROYAL OAK, in case the submarine had been pinned underneath as she rolled over.   The First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, made a preliminary statement to the House of Commons on that same Wednesday.   He informed the House that a U boat had sunk HMS ROYAL OAK, but at that stage he did not know how it had penetrated the defences.  

A Board of Inquiry was under way at Scapa Flow and he reported that the facts he was quoting then, might have to be changed in the light of the findings of the Board of Inquiry.   In time, the Board of Inquiry reported that ROYAL OAK had been sunk by torpedo and even listed 11 possible ways by which the submarine could have entered the anchorage.   It concluded that the night was fairly light and the sky had been lit up by the Northern Lights.   Recommendations were made regarding the eastern entrances to Scapa Flow and a decision was made to sink more block-ships as a short-term measure.   The blame for the affair was laid on the shoulders of Admiral Sir Wilfred French, Admiral Commanding Orkney and Shetlands.   This was remarkable, as it was he who pointed out all of the breaches in the defences to the Admiralty, some three months before the sinking.   He even stated that he would be willing to sail a destroyer through Kirk Sound, let alone a submarine, but the Admiralty had failed to act.   He was placed on the retired list.   Later, Churchill ordered that all of the eastern passages be blocked and a sea wall, made from reinforced concrete, be built at a cost of �2,000,000.  

The work took four years to complete and was undertaken by over 500 British and Irish workers and some 1200 Italian prisoners of war.   The causeway, now known as the Churchill Barriers, provides a road link between the islands of South Ronaldsay, Burray, Glimp Holm, Lamb Holm and the mainland of Orkney.   In 1957, the Admiralty announced plans for the salvage of the wreck of ROYAL OAK, public outrage followed and the plan was dropped.   The ship was left to lie in peace and a single wreck buoy marks her position.   Naval divers had made efforts shortly after the sinking to try and locate pieces of any torpedoes but the search proved fruitless.   In May 1973, a local scuba diver discovered the remains of a torpedo and a second diver later found the remains of another.   Both were of the G7e type that had been carried by U47.   The serial numbers were checked and verified with the German Admiralty, which confirmed the authenticity of the find.