Churchill ordered defences built after Second World War disaster

The building of the barriers was prompted by a wartime disaster. On 14 October 1939, the German U-boat, U-47, penetrated the defences of Scapa Flow, evading the blockships which protected the site, and torpedoed HMS Royal Oak before leaving the way it had entered.

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.

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Work 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

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