On 14 October 1939, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak was sunk at her moorings within the natural harbour of Scapa Flow, by the German U-boat U-47 under the command of Günther Prien. U-47 had entered Scapa Flow through Holm Sound, just to the north of Burray, and one of several eastern entrances to Scapa Flow.
The eastern passages were protected by measures including sunken block ships, booms and anti-submarine nets, but U-47 entered at night at high tide by navigating between the block ships.
To prevent further attacks, the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill ordered the construction of permanent barriers. Work began in May 1940 and the barriers were completed in September 1944, but were not officially opened until 12 May 1945, four days after the end of World War II.
The Churchill Barriers project required a substantial labour force, which peaked in 1943 at over 2,000.
Much of the labour was provided by over 1300 Italian prisoners of war, who had been captured in the desert war in North Africa, who were transported to Orkney from early 1942 onwards. As the use of POW labour for War Effort works is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, the works were justified as 'improvements to communications' to the southern Orkney Islands
The prisoners were accommodated in three camps, 600 at Camp 60 on Lamb Holm and the remaining 700 at two camps on Burray itself.
[edit] References
- , 2001 UK Census per List of islands of Scotland
- , a b c d Haswell-Smith, Hamish. (2004) The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh. Canongate.
- , Ordnance Survey
- , Anderson, Joseph (Ed.) (1893) Orkneyinga Saga. Translated by Jón A. Hjaltalin & Gilbert Goudie. Edinburgh. James Thin and Mercat Press (1990 reprint). ISBN 0-901824-25-9
- , Pedersen, Roy (January 1992) Orkneyjar ok Katanes (map, Inverness, Nevis Print)
[edit] See also
Coordinates: 58°51'5?N 2°56'6?W? / ?58.85139, -2.935
(Source: Wikipedia) |