Remembering HMS Royal Oak

October 14, 2013 at 9:15 am

RoyalOakMemorial2011_034 — The Royal Oak buoy, marking the last resting place of the World War Two battleship.

The annual remembrance ceremony to mark the anniversary of the sinking of HMS Royal Oak takes place today, Monday — the 74th anniversary of the wartime tragedy.

The battleship was sunk by a German U-boat on October 14, 1939, while lying at anchor in Scapa Flow, with the loss of 834 lives.

Built at a cost of £2.5 million, the 27,000 ton Royal Oak had been presumed unsinkable by submarine attack within Scapa Flow – but the unsinkable became the unthinkable as German U-boat commander Lt Gunther Prien evaded the flimsy defences in the submarine U47 and attacked at the heart of the British Navy.