70th anniversary of Royal Oak sinking

[NZSnowman]

Hi Simon,

Those are some images, thanks for posting. I saw you mentioned "The Royal Oak Disaster" by G. Snyder on another thread. Did you get that book? I'd recommend it. The Royal Oak sinking has many controversial elements and this book solves many is of the debatable issues.

Cheers,

Dougie

Hi Dougie

Finish the book this morning, overall I thought it was good, some parts were excellent, and other part had no meaning to me. These parts were the detail of survivors movement through the Oak. It was great that Snyder used all the correct names of the boat, but without an Oak deck layout, “B gun deck” had no meaning to me It would had been very useful if he had included a layout plan of the Oak with the book.

Anyway, did you noticed in the image section of the book, the plan of the VIIB from the US Naval History Division. The plan says “Typ VIIB” but the drawing is of VIIC or VIIC/41

Simon

[FoxbaT]

Thanks for posting this topic 
In may, i am going to Scotland on my motorbike with some friends.
We are now busy planning the holiday, the plan is to start in Edinborough and from there upwards towards the top of Scotland, and from there to the west and downwards.
We have about 17 days for this trip.
Last week, i checked the site from the marine museum wich is based on the Orkney Islands, te see if it`s worth to take the ferry and check things out.
Could someone tell me how long it takes to get to Scapa Flow with the ferry?



Thanks,


Karel

[Rokket]

have fun on the trip!

[dougie47]

Hi Karel,

The Orkneys are lovely, you'll have a good time with your friends. It can get windy in the winter but in May the islands can be really nice. The roads are quiet and a pleasure to drive / ride on. The islands are full of history, particularly naval history because of Scapa Flow.

You could try here for ferry info -

http://www.jogferry.co.uk/times.htm

Looks like only 40 minutes from John O'Groats to Burwick. Burwick is on the south of the island of South Ronaldsay. This would be ideal for you. You could ride over the Churchill Barriers north onto Burray then Glimps Holm then Lamb Holm then onto the mailand. When you ride over the Churchill Barriers you can still see some blockship remains.

The place you have to see is Stromness museum, which is on the mailand -

http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/STROMNESSMUSEUM/

Remains of one of the U 47 torpedoes are on display at Stromness. There are also artifacts from the scuttling of the High Seas Fleet.

Another place to see is the Scapa Museum on the island of Hoy -

http://www.hoyorkney.com/VisitHoy/scapa_flow_museum.html

There are some large artifacts of the High Seas Fleet here. The ferry is from Houton on the mainland to Lyness on the island of Hoy.

Simon, glad you liked the book. You are right about the schematic, I'd never really looked at it before. But it has what looks like Turm IV, which I don't recall seeing on any VIIB!

Cheers,

Dougie

[NZSnowman]

Simon, glad you liked the book. You are right about the schematic, I'd never really looked at it before. But it has what looks like Turm IV, which I don't recall seeing on any VIIB!

Cheers,

Dougie

If you look hard you can also see the 4 containers for the 5 man inflatable life rafts near the bow, and a schnorchel mast. But looking at the hand writing and the drawing it look like a original Greman document 

[iceonaboy]

I dont know if anyone is interested, but the town I live, Oban, on the West coast of Scotland used to be a seaplane base during the war. Sunderlands and some other types patrolled from here looking for U boats and protecting convoys.

http://www.rafoban.co.uk/page1.htm

[Rokket]

Lot of good info, thanks for the link

[iceonaboy]

Hi Karel, I have never actually made the journey to Orkney , but Ive been to John O`groats and its not far to Orkney. Just a short ferry trip. Wrap up warm if youre going anytime other than high Summer!