VE Day: How Orkney played a vital role and bore heavy losses during World War II

Archipelago was central to British naval forces during conflict

It is where the first German aircraft was shot down on British soil after an anti-aircraft battery took aim at a Ju 88 as it attempted to target ships in Scapa Flow, and where the Royal Navy endured one of the darkest chapters in its storied history. Little wonder, then, that when World War II finally came to an end, the celebrations in Orkney went on long into the night.

Just as the archipelago played a crucial role during the first world war, when the decision was taken to base the Home Fleet in the vast natural harbour of Scapa Flow, its importance throughout World War II was paramount.

In a chain of islands with a population around 20,000 strong, it hosted more than 12,000 military and civilian personnel at HMS Proserpine in Lyness to support Britain’s naval operations.

Most of the defences built during World War I had been dismantled long before the outbreak of World War II, and those posted at the base - who nicknamed it ‘Proper Swine’ - carried out considerable work to protect the fleet, laying of twelve miles of anti-submarine and anti-torpedo nets.

The Churchill Barriers were built to protect the British fleet during World War II, but have long served as a lifeline link for island communities. Picture: Orkney.com

Such efforts, unfortunately, could not prevent Orkney enduring one of the greatest losses of the war when, on 14 October 1939, just six weeks into the conflict, a German U-boat fired a torpedo salvo at the HMS Royal Oak, a Revenge-class battleship which, at the time, boasted the largest guns ever fitted on a Royal Navy vessel.

Although the Royal Oak was thought to be safely at anchor in Scapa Flow, the attack engineered by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz was a success. The tragedy claimed the lives of 835 men and boys after the Revenge-class battleship was struck by a torpedo salvo.

To this day, those on Orkney remember the brutal loss. They include Dr Stephen Clackson, whose uncle, Ordinary Seaman Ronald Clackson, was those who died, just a week after his 20th birthday.

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The attack only strengthened Britain's resolve to better protect the nation’s naval might, Dr Clackson said. “Such a breach in the defences of the harbour where the Royal Navy had based its grand fleet at the start of World War II would have been a great shock to the admiralty and government,” Dr Clackson, an Orkney councillor, told The Scotsman. “Steps were taken to block the entrance between the Orkney mainland and the small island of Lamb Holm where the U-47 had crept in, and also the gaps between the other islands on the east side of the Flow.”

The loss of HMS Royal Oak dealt a bitter blow on Orkney and further afield. Picture: PA | PA

The following year, meanwhile, local man James Isbister became the first British civilian to be killed in a German air-raid after the Luftwaffe dropped more than 120 high explosive and 500 incendiary bombs on the evening of 16 March 1940.

An eyewitness to the raids, Ellen Farquhar, told The Orcadian newspaper: “I just saw a blue and white flame, which dazzled me at the same moment as a terrible explosion shook everything. The shop window crashed in and I was half choked with dust.”

One of the most striking legacies of Orkney’s involvement in the conflict - the Churchill Barriers - was built to deter German sea attacks, and they remain a crucial part of the archipelago’s infrastructure to this day, with the vast causeways connecting the Orkney mainland with South Ronaldsay, Burray, Glimps Holm, and Lamb Holm.

In the aftermath of the sinking of the Royal Oak, they were constructed in one of the 20th century's greatest civil engineering feats on the orders of Sir Winston Churchill in his time as the First Lord of the Admiralty.

Dr Stephen Clackson, whose uncle was among those killed when HMS Royal Oak was struck by German forces. | Orkney Islands Council

A shortage of manpower to construct the barriers coincided with the capture of thousands of Italian soldiers fighting in North Africa, so a decision was taken to transport 550 men to Camp 60 on Lamb Holm and a similar number to Camp 34 in Burray.

It was a decision that gave Orkney another landmark which remains popular with locals and tourists alike to this day, when the Italian artist, Domenico Chiocchetti, assisted by other tradesmen, transformed two Nissenhuts into a beautifully ornate chapel.

When the war finally came to an end, Orkney was hit by a spell of lashing rain, but the conditions did not deter locals from celebrating and remembering those who had been lost. Upwards of a 1,000 people gathered for a thanksgiving church service in Kirkwall, while celebrations broke out elsewhere on the islands

The Orkney Herald reported that in Stromness, flags were hoisted despite the heavy rain, with revellers gathering to mark the conflict’s end. “In spite of atrocious weather there were many celebrations in the evening,” it reported. “At most of the military camps, and in the town hall, dancing and merry making went on all night, and beer flowed in profusion.”.

The Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm in Orkney. Picture: PA | PA

A few days after peace came to Europe, there was cause for further celebration when the Churchill Barriers were officially opened by Sir Winston’s successor as First Lord of the Admiralty, Albert Victor Alexander, on 12 May.

For the 80th anniversary of VE Day, a series of events are planned throughout Orkney. As detailed by The Scotsman, a peacetime convoy of former World War II vessels will call in at Kirkwall as part of a tribute to those who took part in the covet Shetland Bus wartime operations, which smuggled special forces soldiers, secret agents and freedom fighters to Nazi-occupied Norway, along with explosives, weapons and radios for the resistance movement.

The Royal British Legion in Kirkwall will also be holding a free dance featuring the Kirkjuvagr ceilidh band. Just like on a rain-lashed night in May 1945, it will be an event where the celebrations will continue long into the night.