5 окт 1938 г. - The Sinking of the HMS Royal Oak

Описание:

On October 5th 1938, The Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak was searching for the German battleship Gneisenau in the North Sea and was being used as a diversion for the commerce-raiding of two German heavy cruisers, the Deutschland and the Admiral Graf Spee.

But the search was ultimately fruitless, particularly for Royal Oak, whose top speed, by then less than 20 knots (37 km/h), was unable to keep up with the rest of the fleet.

The HMS Royal Oak chose to return back to the safety of the natural harbour of Scapa Flow.

While in port, the German U-Boat, U-47 arrived in Scapa Flow, and attacked and sank the HMS Royal Oak.

This would cost the lives of 833 seamen on the British battleship.

This attack delivered a massive blow to the UK as this was a huge embarrassment to the British Government.

This was a major victory for the Reich and deeply demoralising for the British public before any real ground fighting on the European mainland or the naval campaign for British shipping had happened.

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