The sinking of HMS Royal Oak

Sharpshooter

Midfield
I'm a bit of WW2 novice and decided to read about the war in more detail for the first time that goes beyond basic school level knowledge.

I've reading about it chronologically so far. PBS America at 6:05pm starting in just over 10 minutes is The Sinking of the HMS Royal Oak, on October 14th 1939 by German U-47 at Scapa Flow.

835 people died, which is over half killed in the Titanic, horrific death toll for one ship. Apparantly its remains still lie at the bottom of the ocean and is left as a memorial.

Was this the first major attack on the British armed forces in the war by the Nazi's?
 
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I'm a bit of WW2 novice and decided to read about the war in more detail for the first time that goes beyond basic school level knowledge.

I've reading about it chronologically so far. PBS America at 6:05pm starting in just over 10 minutes is The Sinking of the HMS Royal Oak, on October 14th 1939 by German U-47 at Scapa Flow.

835 people died, which is over half killed in the Titanic, horrific death toll for one ship. Apparantly its remains still lie at the bottom of the ocean and is left as a memorial.

Was this the first major attack on the British armed forces in the war by the Nazi's?
I'm not sure but when you get to the raid on st nazaire I highly recommend watching this documentary on it by Jeremy Clarkson.

It's incredible

 
I'm a bit of WW2 novice and decided to read about the war in more detail for the first time that goes beyond basic school level knowledge.

I've reading about it chronologically so far. PBS America at 6:05pm starting in just over 10 minutes is The Sinking of the HMS Royal Oak, on October 14th 1939 by German U-47 at Scapa Flow.

835 people died, which is over half killed in the Titanic, horrific death toll for one ship. Apparantly its remains still lie at the bottom of the ocean and is left as a memorial.

Was this the first major attack on the British armed forces in the war by the Nazi's?

If you are a novice I would recommend The World at War from start to finish which is often shown on Yesterday. Its from 1974 but gives you an excellent overview from the rise of the Nazis to the Holocaust. Lots of interviews with people who were there and it is an excellent starter imo.
 
If you are a novice I would recommend The World at War from start to finish which is often shown on Yesterday. Its from 1974 but gives you an excellent overview from the rise of the Nazis to the Holocaust. Lots of interviews with people who were there and it is an excellent starter imo.

Been watching it, 5 episodes in. Although its as good as any documentary covering the whole of world war 2 in just 26 episodes, its obviously covers certain battles and key events quite quickly, because its such an extensive topic.

So for example the invasion of Poland was covered in about half an hour in that documentary, but if I wanted to understand the whole event in more detail, the entire 35 days, all the individual battles with maps, including the build up to it e.g. the Gleiwitz incident, I would have to read a book like this - Case White: The Invasion of Poland 1939 eBook: Robert Forczyk: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store - which I'm thinking of getting.

I love The World at War, but I see it as the greatest summary documentary if you like.
 
My pal's Dad died on the Royal Oak, the Navy have a memorial on Orkney and a Book with the names of all the dead in Kirkwell, very moving for anyone who has family

Very sad watching this documentary, survivors holding back the tears talking about, seeing so many young men and teenagers trapped in pitch black rooms below deck, fireballs raging everywhere, no way out for any of them.

My grandfather served in Royal Navy in WW2, as a gunman on the HMS Nelson. He didn't join till 1942 aged 15 when the Royal Navy had already established superiority in the seas. A lot of my family including my mum don't really know about his WW2 history because he rarely talked about it. He passed away back in 2004, but I've decided to read about what he was likely up to by tracing the HMS Nelsons chronoligcal history during the war.


Fascinating to know he was likely involved in operation overlord.
 
Been watching it, 5 episodes in. Although its as good as any documentary covering the whole of world war 2 in just 26 episodes, its obviously covers certain battles and key events quite quickly, because its such an extensive topic.

So for example the invasion of Poland was covered in about half an hour in that documentary, but if I wanted to understand the whole event in more detail, the entire 35 days, all the individual battles with maps, including the build up to it e.g. the Gleiwitz incident, I would have to read a book like this - Case White: The Invasion of Poland 1939 eBook: Robert Forczyk: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store - which I'm thinking of getting.

I love The World at War, but I see it as the greatest summary documentary if you like.

It certainly is and use each episode as a start to further research, the rise of the Nazis is fascinating and frightening at the same time and you should read a lot more around that especially the economic situation and how others thought they could handle Hitler.
 
My Merchant Seaman Great Grandad was sunk in 1940 off the Orkneys by a U-boat. I only recently discovered that his ship was also Wear built, Laings I think. Poor buggers.
Shit way to go. An awful time.
It certainly is and use each episode as a start to further research, the rise of the Nazis is fascinating and frightening at the same time and you should read a lot more around that especially the economic situation and how others thought they could handle Hitler.
You could spend months learning about hitlers rise to power and still not be half way through.

I consider myself a history nerd and even I find out new things every now and then I didn't know about.
 
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It certainly is and use each episode as a start to further research, the rise of the Nazis is fascinating and frightening at the same time and you should read a lot more around that especially the economic situation and how others thought they could handle Hitler.
Watched that. Incredible all the twists that fell into place for Hitler.
Well worth downloading.
 
Been watching it, 5 episodes in. Although its as good as any documentary covering the whole of world war 2 in just 26 episodes, its obviously covers certain battles and key events quite quickly, because its such an extensive topic.

So for example the invasion of Poland was covered in about half an hour in that documentary, but if I wanted to understand the whole event in more detail, the entire 35 days, all the individual battles with maps, including the build up to it e.g. the Gleiwitz incident, I would have to read a book like this - Case White: The Invasion of Poland 1939 eBook: Robert Forczyk: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store - which I'm thinking of getting.

I love The World at War, but I see it as the greatest summary documentary if you like.
What is completely missing in The World of War is the work of the Bletchley Park code breakers. All of the code breakers had signed the Official Secrets Acts and were not allowed to talk about. Apart from that it is compelling viewing.
 
What is completely missing in The World of War is the work of the Bletchley Park code breakers. All of the code breakers had signed the Official Secrets Acts and were not allowed to talk about. Apart from that it is compelling viewing.

This - the fact that The World at War was put together in 1973 and the Bletchley code breakers were still under the official secrets act at the time so nothing was known about its work at the time. Would have been good to have one episode on that and also what happened post war .
 

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