Chapter 2 02. Raid on Scapa Flow

During World War II, all the officers and men of the German U-boats had undergone rigorous training, and the captain of this boat was one in a thousand, and all of them were good-looking. Merle is a famous general in the history of submarine warfare. As soon as World War II broke out, the British knew the power of German U-boats. In the middle of the night on October 14, 1939, Scapa Flow, an important base of the British Navy at that time, was under a bright moon.At two o'clock in the morning, suddenly there was a huge explosion in the quiet military port. The British battleship "Royal Oak" ignited a raging fire and sank quickly.At that time, many officers and soldiers on the warship were still dreaming, and they were euthanized directly before they woke up.None of the more than 800 officers and soldiers on board survived.

The "Royal Oak" battleship became the first battleship lost by the British army in World War II. Many people called the sinking of the "Royal Oak" battleship the British "Pearl Harbor Incident". The sinking of the "Royal Oak" made the British Admiralty Churchill heartbroken. He called this day the darkest day in the history of the British Royal Navy.Because the battleship "Royal Oak" was once the most powerful battleship of the British Navy, and this battleship has a very big name. It is said that in 1651, that is, at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, King Charles II of England was defeated in the civil war and fled alone. He ran to a big oak tree and found that the oak tree was hollow, so he hid in it and escaped. Chasing soldiers.Later, Charles II made a comeback and regained power, so he named the old oak tree that saved his life the "Royal Oak". The "Royal Oak" has since become the God of War and the mascot of the British Army.Since then, several warships of the British Navy have been named HMS Royal Oak.Among them, an oak battleship built in 1862 is very famous.

The "Royal Oak", which was sunk, was launched in 1914. It is the fifth ship of the British Sovereign-class battleship. It has visited various countries as a British throne ship many times. Portraits of the British kings hang on the walls.At that time, in the eyes of the British, the "Royal Oak" was a symbol of the invincible majesty of the Royal Navy. Unexpectedly, it exploded and sank more than a month after the war started. After the "Royal Oak" sank, the British didn't know why, whether it was the boiler explosion or what happened.The Royal Navy, which was in a dilemma, set up an investigation committee composed of 15 experts. After an investigation, it was concluded that the "Royal Oak" did not explode on its own, but was sunk by a torpedo launched by a German submarine.

After this conclusion was announced, public opinion in the UK was in an uproar, and people found it incredible that this conclusion was simply a fantasy.why?Because the waterway of Scapa Flow is narrow and tortuous, and there are floating turrets and blockade ships at the entrance of the base, even surface ships need pilot guidance to enter.The commander of the Scapa Flow Naval Base said: "Scapa Flow has no threats from the sea." Not to mention submarines, even seals cannot enter.Therefore, experts cannot imagine how it is possible for a German submarine to bypass numerous obstacles underwater and enter the port in the middle of the night?

In response to the pressure of public opinion, Churchill had no choice but to order the dismissal of all senior officers at the Scapa Flow Naval Base, and then announced to the outside world that the "Royal Oak" sank by itself due to a boiler explosion. How was the battleship "Royal Oak" sunk by a German submarine?How did the German submarine enter the heavily guarded Scapa Flow? It had a lot to do with a German spy named Albert Otter.Speaking of it, every war has a spy who plays a decisive role, and the most important thing in a war is the collection of intelligence. Albert Otter, whose real name was Alred Wehling, was born in a family of German merchants who had emigrated to Switzerland.Switzerland is a country where some Germans do not want to be Germans, some French people do not want to be French, and some Italians do not want to be Italians. A country composed of these people has a large number of German and Italian residents.

Welling is proficient in English, French and German. He is an extreme militarist and firmly advocates the establishment of Germanic hegemony in the world.After the outbreak of World War I, Welling joined the German Navy, became an officer on a battleship, and also participated in the famous Battle of Jutland.During the war, Welling was awarded the Knight's Medal by the German Imperial Government three times for his bravery in combat. When World War I ended, the head of the German Military Intelligence Bureau, Admiral William Canaris, took a fancy to Welling's fanatical militarism and rich naval knowledge, so he made Welling a spy who specialized in collecting naval intelligence from various countries.Welling was sent to Switzerland by the German military intelligence department to learn art in a watch shop. In fact, he opened a watch shop to cover his identity.

This boy Wei Lin has a superhuman memory, has a photographic memory, and is a great god.He transformed into a skilled watchmaker in just a few months.In 1927, Welling immigrated to the UK as a successful Swiss watch businessman, and stayed in the UK for a long time, which lasted for 13 years. After arriving in the UK, Welling's task was to collect naval intelligence of various countries, especially the intelligence of the British Royal Navy, which was Germany's main opponent.So Welling opened a watch shop near the Scapa Flow naval base, specializing in Swiss watches. Due to Welling's proficiency in business, coupled with his humorous personality and great personal charm, it didn't take long for his watch shop to become well-known in the local area. He is a gentleman and lady in the upper class, and an officer at the Scapa Flow Naval Base. , have become his regular customers.Welling also squeezed into the upper class.Welling often attends social events in the upper class of the UK. This kid is slick and versatile. Through some small favors, he has successfully made a large number of famous friends, such as the chief of staff of the Scapa Flow Naval Base Command and the chief of the local police station. .With the help of these people, Welling became a British citizen.

In the following years, Welling quietly obtained a large amount of information from these friends, and reported the information to his superiors. In August 1939, Germany had decided to go to war.When another world war was approaching, Welling borrowed the opportunity to purchase goods from Switzerland, where he met with his boss, Canaris, who had been separated for 13 years.Canaris gave Waring two treasures, two essential things for espionage: a radio station hidden behind a wall clock, and a walking stick equipped with a high-power spotting telescope and a miniature camera. No sooner had Waring returned to England than World War II broke out.Spies are all performers, and Welling pretends to be more patriotic than anyone else. He firmly supports the British government's declaration of war against Germany, and hangs the British flag at the door of his house. , Take the lead in donating money and materials to the army.The dude was so good at faking it, so well disguised, that British counterintelligence never offered him coffee.

In mid-September 1939, Welling received a secret message from his motherland, Berlin, asking him to pay close attention to the movements of the large Royal Navy warships moored in Scapa Flow, and to take the opportunity to obtain a channel map of the harbor.Therefore, Welling stepped up his intelligence gathering activities, and took a walk every night on a high ground near Scapa Flow, where he could spy on all the movements of the base with the help of the high-power telescope in his cane.On weekends, Welling invited officers from the naval base who he was familiar with to go fishing on the sea near the entrance of the harbor on his private yacht—in fact, Welling was really "fishing", and the "fishing" was The "big fish" of the British Royal Navy took the opportunity to observe the situation of warships entering and leaving the naval port, as well as the position of the floating turret and searchlight at the entrance of the base.

During a fishing activity, an officer in charge of base navigation came late. After this guy came, he was full of embarrassment and explained to everyone why I was late because a warship left the port temporarily and I had to be in charge of navigation. .In order to convince everyone that he came late for a reason, this buddy patted his briefcase and said to everyone: "Look, I rushed over before I even had time to put down the navigation map." Welling realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.At that time, the weather was hot, and Welin drove the yacht to a shallow water area, and then suggested that the brothers should go swimming in the sea.At that time, these officers were already sweating profusely. Seeing that they could go swimming in the sea, they readily agreed, and they all jumped into the sea before the yacht stopped.Welling said you go into the water first, I have to drop this anchor.Using this as an excuse, I went into the sea a few minutes late.In just a few minutes, Welling opened the navigation officer's briefcase, took out a harbor channel map with various obstacles and water depths marked, and took a quick photo with the miniature camera in the cane.

Back home, Welling sent a British business travel guide to a front company run by the German Military Intelligence spy agency in Switzerland.He pasted the transparent microfilm that had been stripped and bleached on the seventh full stop on page 75 of the book.This is what he had discussed with the German spy agency long ago. In this way, the navigation map of Scapa Flow was sent to Canaris. One day in early October 1939, when Welling was "walking" on the edge of the naval base, he discovered that an anti-aircraft camouflage net was being laid on a large area at the No. 9 anchorage in Scapa Flow, and the number of anti-aircraft guns nearby was also increasing.Welling knew that a big guy had entered the port, and quickly marked the exact location of the warship on the map.But due to the cover of the camouflage net, Welling couldn't tell what kind of ship this big guy was. A few days later, a British naval officer who repaired watches came to Welling's watch shop.Welling noticed the young man as soon as he entered the house.why?Because the badge on the young man's chest was clearly engraved with the pattern of a warship.Welling recognized it at a glance, it was the battleship "Royal Oak"! Welling received the young man warmly.After some conversation, Welling learned that this young man was indeed the communications officer on the battleship "Royal Oak", saying that his cousin was not sure.Welling took the young man's watch and asked the young man when he planned to get it.The young man replied that he planned to pick it up on October 20.Welling understood at once that the "Royal Oak" would not depart before October 20.So a spy who can dig up information doesn't have to go to someone's house to break into the safe, that's the worst kind of thing. Smart spies use legal means to collect information. Welling went out to "fishing" again. He noticed that the dredgers at the naval base pulled out pieces of things like anti-submarine nets from the sea east of Scapa Flow.When attending the Navy Club dance on the weekend, Welling got confirmation from several base officers, saying that the base command removed the old net in consideration of the long-term soaking of the anti-submarine net at the eastern entrance of Scapa Flow. Yes, Xinwang will arrive at the end of the month. When Wei Lin heard this, he was ecstatic!This means that Scapa Flow has opened the door to German submarines, the channel is known, and now there is no anti-submarine net.That night, Welling reported to Canaris through the secret radio station the important information he had on the berthing location and time in port of the "Royal Oak" and that the Scapa Flow anti-submarine net had been dismantled.Canaris quickly reported the information to the German Naval Command. After receiving the information from Welling, the German Naval Command decided to take immediate action in order to hit the morale of the Royal Navy, dispatching the ace captain Prien to command the U-47 submarine and attack Scapa Flow at night.At that time, Dönitz, the commander of the German submarine force, only made an oral report to the commander-in-chief of the Navy Raeder for the sake of confidentiality, and there was no written text.Apart from Raeder, Doenitz, and Captain Prien himself, no one in the German Navy knew about the operation.After careful reconnaissance and careful planning, Prien formulated a combat plan, code-named "Operation T". On October 8, 1939, submarine U-47 set sail from Kiel, Germany, towards Scapa Flow. In the early morning of the 13th, the U-47 submarine arrived near the target.The submarine dived in the sea all day long, and only surfaced at 7 o'clock in the evening to approach Scapa Flow.The channel of Scapa Flow is narrow, the current is turbulent, and there are many sunken ships blocked-many of these sunken ships were sunken ships of the German High Seas Fleet at the end of World War I, which sank after being captured by the British. Under the cover of night, Prien commanded the U-47 submarine to calmly pass through the wreck shoals according to the channel map provided by Welling, relying on his experienced operating skills.In the middle of the night, the U-47 submarine sneaked into Scapa Flow without anyone noticing, found the battleship "Royal Oak", and caught a big fish. In the early morning of October 14th, the U-47 submarine first launched three torpedoes to attack the battleship "Royal Oak". As a result, two torpedoes did not explode, and one hit the starboard side of the bow of the "Royal Oak", but the damage caused was very serious. Slight, many officers and soldiers on the whole ship did not wake up. Those who were awakened thought that the ship's galley or some inflammable material exploded, so they turned over and fell asleep again.U-47 then turned to fire another torpedo from the stern torpedo tube. U-47 is really memorized to the extreme, and the torpedo didn't explode. At this time, the submarine might be exposed at any time, but the "Royal Oak" remained motionless.Prien is worthy of being a brave man of high art, unwilling to return empty-handed, under tremendous pressure, ordered to reload the torpedo in front of the enemy.After loading, the U-47 submarine turned around again, re-entered the attack position and started launching. Three torpedoes rushed to the sleeping "Royal Oak". Three minutes later, after hitting the middle of the starboard side of the hull continuously, the "Royal Oak" caught fire and sank quickly.After the end of the First World War, the German High Seas Fleet implemented the "Government War", and 52 warships captured by the Allied Powers were sunk by the Germans in Scapa Flow. Now the "Royal Oak" went to accompany the former enemy. The submarine U-47 withdrew in disorder, surfaced at the appointed place, picked up Wehlin who had been waiting here, and returned to Germany together.Not only the submarine U-47 was fine, but even the great spy Welin was fine. When the U-47 submarine returned, the navy commander Raeder and the submarine force commander Dönitz personally greeted him, and Prien became a German national hero overnight.Hitler used his private plane to bring all the officers and men of the U-47 submarine to Berlin for honors, and Hitler awarded Prien the Knight's Cross.Prien became the first person in the U-boat unit to receive the honor.The crew of Prien also won the Iron Cross of the first class or second class, and the chests of dozens of officers and soldiers in the whole boat were clanging loudly. The U-47 submarine's successful attack on Scapa Flow was the first major victory of the German Navy in World War II. Although it could not change the situation of the strong and the weak, the morale of the German Navy was greatly boosted. It's a pity that Prien and his U-47 boat did not last long. On March 8, 1941, the U-47 boat attacked the British merchant fleet in a storm. The destroyer "Black Badger" of the Royal Navy came to protect the merchant ship and pursued the U-47 boat for five hours. Fighting and almost exhausting all the depth charges, the U-47 boat was finally doomed, and all the officers and men on the boat below Prien survived. Knowing the news of the sinking of the U-47 boat, Dönitz, the commander of the German Navy's submarine force, wrote in his eulogy: "The hero of Scapa Flow made his last cruise, and the submarine force mourned him and his men. And with deep respect."

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