Word: u-boats
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First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill's preliminary report on the disaster was remarkable for its similarity to the jubilant account presently published by Germany. Mr. Churchill explained that, by "a remarkable exploit of professional skill and daring," the U-boat got through net and mine barriers and "fired a salvo of torpedoes at Royal Oak, of which only one hit the bow. This muffled explosion was, at the time, attributed [by Royal Oak's officers] to internal causes, and what is called the inflammable store, where the kerosene and other such materials are kept, was flooded...
...Twenty minutes later the U-boat fired three or four torpedoes and these, striking in quick succession, caused the ship to capsize and sink." Final figures from the Admiralty put the dead at 810, survivors...
...Churchill said that Scapa Flow was being searched carefully, that any U-boat hiding on the bottom must rise or perish. He insisted that the anchorage's defenses were modern and believed impassable...
...heels of Mr. Churchill's statement, a flash came from Germany that Lieutenant Commander Günther Prien and the boyish crew of his U-boat, safely back at Kiel, were congratulated by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder for smiting not only Royal Oak but also Repulse. A. Hitler sent his personal plane, Grenzmark, to fetch them to Berlin for an ovation in which Propaganda Minister Goebbels managed to share the spotlight...
...ships; Britain has nine more abuilding, and France has four. Germany has two, as well as three pocket battleships. But when British movie-goers last spring watched a Herbert Wilcox (Nurse Edith Cavell) film called Torpedoed-in which by models and studio shots Royal Oak is sunk by a U-boat (see cuts)-they little realized the melodrama's terrible impending reality...