World War I History: Germany’s Last Act of Defiance

“The commander of the 70 impounded ships had his men destroy the vessels rather than see them awarded to the victors.”

ALTHOUGH THE GUNS of the First World War fell silent on Nov. 11, 1918, it was not until the signing of the Treaty of Versailles more than seven months later that conflictofficially ended.

Yet mere days before the inking of that fateful (and controversial) document on June 28, 1919, one German naval officer ordered a final act of defiance against the Allies. The incident involved the ships of the Kaiser’s once-mighty High Seas Fleet, interned since the Armistice at the British naval base at Scapa Flow in Scotland’s Orkney Islands.

The commander of the 70 impounded ships had his men destroy the vessels rather than see them awarded to the victors. British cruisers keeping watch over the captured armada responded to the audacious undertaking with lethal force. Nine died in the ensuing fusillade – they would be the last casualties of a war that claimed 17 million lives. Here’s how it happened.

Germany Quits

There were 35 provisions of the Armistice signed at Compiègne on Nov. 11, 1918. Among them, Germany agreed to evacuate its armies from France, Belgium and Eastern Europe and hand over 5,000 artillery pieces and more than 1,500 aircraft. Berlin also ceded the bulk of its navy to the Allies. It further agreed to sail its fleet into captivity beginning one week after the ceasefire. The 70 vessels to be handed over included 10 battleships, several cruisers and dozens of destroyers. All were to be escorted to the Scapa Flow until such time as the victors could determine their fate. The fleet’s 20,000 sailors would man the ships for the transit. It was agreed they would be gradually repatriated once the convoy had reached its destination – skeleton crews would remain aboard the interned vessels as custodians.

Berlin ordered Franz Ritter von Hipper, admiral of the High Seas Fleet, to personally command the voyage. Interestingly enough, Hipper, 55, had only days earlier been planning to sail the vast armada into the Thames Estuary to provoke a final and decisive showdown with the British. He flatly refused to shepherd those same vessels into ignominious internment. Instead, Hipper delegated the unpleasant task to Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, a 49-year-old veteran of the battles of Dogger Bank, Jutland and Heligoland Bight. the chief was however on hand to watch the flotilla depart from Wilhelmshaven.

“My heart is breaking with this,” he wrote of the spectacle.Berlin ordered Franz Ritter von Hipper, admiral of the High Seas Fleet, to personally command the voyage. Interestingly enough, Hipper, 55, had only days earlier been planning to sail the vast armada into the Thames Estuary to provoke a final and decisive showdown with the British. He flatly refused to shepherd those same vessels into ignominious internment. Instead, Hipper delegated the unpleasant task to Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, a 49-year-old veteran of the battles of Dogger Bank, Jutland and Heligoland Bight. the chief was however on hand to watch the flotilla depart fromWilhelmshaven.

Reuter, aboard his flagship Friedrich der Grosse, led the defeated fleet into the North Sea where it rendezvoused with the Allied navies. More than 370 British, French and American fighting ships were assigned to escort the vessels into captivity. It would take six weeks for all the stragglers to arrive at Scapa Flow. Anchored around the tiny uninhabited island of Cava, the captured ships lay idle under the guns of a squadron of British battlecruisers. For the German crews, it was the beginning of a six-month floating purgatory.

Read the Remainder at Military History Now