the HMS Royal oak has to be one of hem sunk at Scapa flow on October 14, 1939. with the loss of 833 lives ive also attached a sonar image of her as she lies it seems to be one of the greatest feats of the U-boats but such a tragic loss of life.
Plus she is an offical War grave and is still leaking Fuel oil more than 65+ years later. When she was sunk, while providing anti-aircraft protection for Kirkwall, it was laden with 3,000 tonnes of furnace oil. After the sinking, around 1,000 tonnes remained on board and has been slowly leaking ever since.
This prompted a rescue operation by the MoD's Salvage and Marine Operations branch, starting in 2001, which has so far tapped into some of the 70 fuel tanks and slowly extracted almost half of the remaining oil.
Of the 390 servicemen who survived, only around a dozen are still alive, most in their 80s. It is a night that Robert Edmunds, now 88 and living in Hull, will never forget.
The crew of the U-47 must have thought xmas had come and no doubt Priens most prodigous sinking for the whole of WW2.
Prien described the devastation in his log: "After three tense minutes comes the detonation… There is a loud explosion, roar and rumbling. Then come columns of water, followed by columns of fire and splinters fly through the air."
For Prien he received a heroes welcome back home while 833 families received thet telegram of fate to say a father/son/brother etc had died serving king and country probablu for me one of the Best and worst sinkings of WW2.
