HMS Royal Oak was a Revenge-class battleship of the British Royal Navy, infamously torpedoed at anchor by the German submarine U-47 on 14 October 1939. Royal Oak was anchored at Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland when she became the first of the five Royal Navy battleships and battle cruisers sunk in the Second World War. The loss of life was heavy: of Royal Oak's complement of 1,234 men and boys, 833 were killed that night or died later of their wounds. The raid made an immediate celebrity and war hero out of the German U-boat commander, Gunther Prien, who became the first submarine officer to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. To the British, the raid demonstrated that the Germans were capable of bringing the naval war to their home waters, and the shock resulted in rapidly arranged changes to dockland security. Now lying upside-down in 30 m of water with her hull 5 m beneath the surface, Royal Oak is a designated war grave. Includes 103 Photographs

• Written with the cooperation of many of the survivors

  and families of the victims.

• Praise for the hardback published in 2010: 'Compulsive

  reading' ROYAL OAK ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER;

  'A new perspective on the tragedy' SCOTTISH

  MEMORIES; 'Compelling... a window into a lost world' DIVE MAGAZINE; 'A poignant story, giving a lot of personal accounts

  of the events by those who survived. Highly recommended.' THE NAUTICAL MAGAZINE.

• Incorporates the latest research and interviews with

  survivors.

• The author, himself a deep wreck diver, has

  visited the naval wreck of the Royal Oak

  at Orkney on several expeditions.

• Reviews in the naval and history press to include Navy

  News, Sea Breezes, Shipping Today

  and Yesterday, Ships Monthly and BBC Who Do You Think You Are Magazine.

• Review coverage in the Scottish regional press local to

  the wreck site (The

  Orcadian).

• Reviews in the Scottish national newspapers and

  Scottish interest media to include The

  Sunday Post, The Scotsman and The Scots Magazine