70th anniversary of the sinking of "The Royal Oak"

Sandie Seward · 70th anniversary of the sinking of "The Royal Oak"

It was one of the darkest days in the history of the Royal Navy.

The WWII conflict was only a few weeks old when, in the early hours of Saturday 14 October, 1939, the battleship Royal Oak was torpedoed by a German U-boat at its base at Scapa Flow in Orkney.

Most of the 1,200 crew were asleep below deck.

The first salvo caught those on board by such surprise that many assumed the impact was instead a problem on board rather than an attack.

HMS Royal Oak was then struck with a second torpedo wave, and the ship capsized within minutes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8291329.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Oak_(0 Cool