In the first weeks of World War ll, in the early hours of 14 October 1939, HMS Royal Oak was sunk by torpedoes from a German U‐boat.
HMS Royal Oak was lying at anchor at Scapa Flow in Orkney. She was torpedoed by the German U‐boat U‐47 under the command of Kapitan‐Lieutenant Günther Prien. Within minutes the Royal Oak sank beneath the waves.
Hundreds of sailors fought for life in freezing temperatures amid a slick of thick engine oil. The small trawler boat Daisy II rescued 386 men and boys from the water.
The sinking of the Royal Oak entailed the biggest loss of boy sailors in any single Royal Navy engagement before or since. Out of the 833 sailors lost, some 120 fatalities were boys aged between 14 and 18.
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Find out more about the Royal Oak and listen to historian David Turner talking about the tragedy, in which his uncle died.
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