Why Did The Germans Destroy Their Own Fleet After WW1? | Sinking the German Battle Fleet | Timeline

A few years ago, I was paid a visit to the Orkney Islands and, in our favourite pub, they sold Scapa Beer. Scapa Beer's advertising slogan at the time was "Goes down faster than the German Fleet".

In short, the German fleet was "not deployed" immediately in 1914 for the very simple reason that it had already failed to achieve sufficient strength in capital ships to oppose the RN at all, i.a.w. the tenets of Tirpitz "Risk Theory." Britain had, in fact, already 'won' the pre-war Anglo-German naval arms race. The High Seas Fleet was consequently obliged to seek repeatedly, via one stratagem after another, to isolate and ambush only a portion of the British Grand Fleet in hope of being able to reduce Germany's overall numerical disadvantage to a point where a subsequent general engagement could be sought.

Great post ! Thanks to all involved.

Great program.

Another great example of how war is insane.

It is completely mind blowing that in the years that followed the British salvaged the fleet and sold the steel to Germany, who then built ships and U-boats from it, the U-47 is perhaps the greatest irony, a U-boat built from remains of the battle of Jutland which sank a Battle of Jutland veteran, the Royal Oak

That last cruise must have been sad and laced with bitterness.

i can't blame german for being furious and raging WW2

Interesting and informative. Excellent photography of the WW-1 ships sinking. Dive crew investigation of WW-1 sunk ships. Special thanks to guest speakers separating facts from fiction.

Very interesting

Artefacts from the fleet are on display at the Scapa Flow museum. Pop by and say hello, I'll pop the kettle on!

Germany was not in a good geostratigic position in WW1, after the British Empire declared war on her as a result of the invasion of neutral Belgium (this was tactically to fulfill the Schlieffen Plan; an attempt to knock France out of the war early). As we know the Schlieffen Plan failed and then trench warfare ensued on land. At sea, Germany's geostrategic position was even worse as she was bottled up in the Baltic Sea and could not freely sail the North Sea because Britain was there. At that time, Britain was the largest sea power in the world. Somehow the Kaiser's political think tanks missed this geostrategic impasse risk by firstly building up a modern dreadnought navy (clearly to challenge the British and in the "prestige" of being a growing colonial power, particularly in Africa and in East Asia) and by declaring war against Russia and France in support of the ailing Austria-Hungarian Empire. The British may have remained usefully neutral in a general European war, had the Kaiser's powerful navy had not been there.

Both the British and the French Empires were financially exhausted. It was only the collapse of the German monarchy before the Armistice was signed that allowed Britain and France to pose as victors.

A waste of great ships. If The Kaiser wasn't willing to lose them in bettle against The Allies, why build them in the first place? The very existence of such a large Fleet is what drove The United Kingdom to see Alliances with France, Russia and Japan in the first place. Maybe World War I never takes place or is a much smaller conflict and millions fewer are killed or wounded.

One could consider the battleship fleets of Britain and Germany as being 'too big to fail.'

It was a matter of pride and so they don't become target practice for the Brits.

By scuttling the Grand Fleet of the Kaisherlich Marine, the Germans harmed least their principal opponent; the British Royal Navy. As the ownership of the vessels of the Grand Fleet were being squabbled over in Versailles, giving several German dreadnoughts to the French, Italians or Americans was not in the interest of the Royal Navy. So by scuttling their ships, the German sailors got the Royal Navy, more or less, off the hook.

14:40 For Germany, it could be expressed as a victory for a smaller navy to maneuver a large navy to do so little during the war. Sure, there were battles. Same with the British. To both, their fleets were a force in being. An earlier less potent Mutual Assured Distruction.

It was the special design of the Diesel engines. That was the secret

Wow, this guy really took his toys and went home.