Category: The Loss of the <em>Royal Oak</em>

A detailed review of Prien’s attack on Scapa Flow in October 1939. Prien claimed to have sunk a second capital ship as well as Royal Oak. The author suggests that this was probably Iron Duke.

Describes what happened on board the Royal Oak during the sinking, and how the survivors fared in the water. A final section attempts to cast doubt on Prien’s part in the affair.

Originally published in Germany in 1940, this is an important, if partial, source. Reprinted by Wingate-Baker in 1969.

Concentrates on the human side, relying heavily on the memories of three boy sailors and family memories of some who did not survive.

An American "with no axe to grind" attempts to tell the story of the sinking using evidence gathered from survivors and documents no longer concealed by the Official Secrets Act. A straightforward description of what happened, without the speculation that mars other accounts.

An excellent attempt to review the evidence from scratch and to bring new evidence to light.

TURNER, David. The Ultimate Sacrifice: The World War II Battleship. 80p., illus. Ely: Melrose, 2004. ISBN: 0954848012.

Dedicated to the author’s uncle, Commander Woodrow-Clark, who did not survive the sinking. The book is a disorganised ragbag of press reports, ancient myths and survivor’s stories of the sinking with some small reference to the loss of other capital ships and the tale of his personal pilgrimage to Scapa. Republished as a larger volume in 2008 by Argyll Publishing as Last Dawn: The Royal Oak Tragedy at Scapa Flow, ISBN: 1906134138. Further editions of this title were published in 2009 - for the seventieth anniversary of the sinking (ISBN: 9781906134389) - and again in 2011 (ISBN: 9781906134761).