Churchill ordered defences built after Second World War disaster
Just 13 minutes after the strike, 833 of the Royal Oak’s complement of 1,400 had been killed.
Within a month, Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, had travelled to Orkney and ordered that work begin on the construction of four permanent barriers linking the chain of islands from Mainland in the north to South Ronaldsay in the south.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdWork began in May 1940 and the barriers – huge walls of rock and concrete forming causeways – were formally opened on 12 May 1945, ironically shortly before the end of the war.
The barriers stretch for nearly two miles. In all, 40,000 cubic metres of rock was encased in wire cages and dropped into the water up to 70ft deep and topped with 300,000 tonnes of concrete blocks.
Due to labour shortages, in January 1942, 1,200 Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa were brought to the islands to help the construction effort.
They also created the famous Italian Chapel from corrugated iron huts, which is still one of Orkney’s top tourist attractions.
JOHN ROSS