The Animation of the 1919 German Fleet Scuttle in Scapa Flow 

Funfact: The order to sink the ships was "Paragraph 11". In kind of a running gag Paragraph 11 in German student fraternities always states "It has to be boozed on". The word for boozing is "saufen" and in the form of "absaufen" means also sinking or drown

The steel on those remaining ships is worth more than gold now. Any pre-1945 steel has no radioactive isotopes. Very rare, very expensive.

wow, this should really be on tv. It's hard to believe I just stumbled onto something so well-made. I hope the views at some point match the quality

Simply the best documentary over the scuttling of the german High Seas Fleet ever, excellent! Congratulations and greetings from Germany

Brilliant. I was becoming frustrated that the loss of life was not mentioned, but you made a strong point of it at the end. Illustrating that the sailors at home in Germany wanted peace through revolution, much as many troops in the trenches through fraternization, is a much neglected fact that I was delighted that you showed. Kudos.

Yet again, a fantastic animation and narration. Greetings from Emden!

Excellent job Mr. Jellicoe. I am a Public School Special Education Teacher in Watertown Massachusetts. I have always had a passion for naval history. In the last few years I have shared that passion with my students through the creation of a model ship club, geared towards following multistep directions, organization, and practicing cooperative social skills for students with autism. Today I took those students on a field trip to the USS Constitution. Fortunately, before my work day began I viewed your documentary. You can only imagine how excited those students became when I told them about the Stromness Public Schools front row seat to a remarkable episode of naval history. Or as one of my students put it, "the greatest field trip of all time!". Thanks again.

Watching this in New Zealand, exactly 100 years since the scuttling was going on...great job on this video.

An amazing doco. I'm scanning every photo for my grandfather (opa) who would have been in his early 20s at the time.

Excellent documentary. Thank you for posting it here. HT Gray Connolly, Sydney, Australia.

Finally! It's here guys! The long awaited sequel

This was amazing. I want more of these elaborate, calculated, and brilliant documentaries.

Outstanding documentary and this history should be taught in schools. Not a word of this at any school I've attended. But where does one comment on such an event as this? So much as this event is, it's hard to pinpoint just one part of it. It's a triumph and an overall sad tragedy in one event.

The best thing I've seen about the German fleet at Scapa Flow. Covers all aspects of it.

This documentary pays tribute to the German sailors who honorably fought for their country.

Really the best documentary about.. very good narration , historicaly impecable .thanks

Excellently done! So very well animated, put together and researched! Great quality video!

You did a great job on this documentary, including the narration. In most situations during war time it seamed like the Navy and the Air-Force on both sides, took better care of each other when captured unlike ground troops. i thought I read somewhere the Germans purchased back a-lot of that scrap metal and used it to build ships that were used during WWII.

Much respect for this brilliant film. Best regards from Wilhelmshaven.

An impressive documentary. One of the best I've seen lately. You managed to develop a simple and short paragraph in history books into a full, humane and interesting story.

Excellent presentation about a relatively unknown element of WWI.

Absolutely astonishing documentary. Nicely narrated with fantastic still photos and superb historical commentary. The most complete video of the scuttling of High Seas Fleet I have ever seen. The irony of the waste of men and material leaves me speechless. This video has left a lasting impression on me. Many thanks to the producers.

Your channel and videos were suggested to me in Feb. 2023. Sad that the algorithm suggested it so many years after. I hope this message finds you well. I want to let you know that your videos are wonderful and their story telling. Please make more history videos, it seems you’ve stopped making them. Hopefully you’ll make some more! I was trying to find links to the website but I don’t see any posted. Thank you for posting these amazing videos.

surely this needs to be made into a full length movie. What a great story

It has been a while since your last video! Astonishing quality content!

Gob smacked. Thank you for bringing this history back to life.

*R.İ.P* for these beautiful ships...

Really stellar production and storytelling. Just beautifully done. Thank you for putting this together.

Great job, Nick! I love the animation of the battleship sinking with its cross-flooding (and anti-roll?) pipes being illustrated

As long as history is retold it is not forgotten. Brilliant retelling. Thank you.

I was astonished to learn that bits of these battleships are now outside the Solar System. Pre-nuclear steel was used to make components for Voyager spacecraft. Funny old world.

This is just as the documentary over the battle of Jutland absolute stellar work. the narrator perfect for the task. As a former naval officer, I salute thee.

A lot of small arms from the High Seas Fleet are now on display at Firepower the RN musuem at Portsmouth.

Superb.Thank you for the very best documentary I have seen on the subject.

Thanks for doing this! Its an amazing piece of work and research! My Great-Grandfahter served in the German navy at that time but I don't know on what ship nor is anyone left to ask, there is just one picture in my grandmother's belongings. Again many thanks!

Seriously awesome and venerative work to this amazing circumstance in a fast receding historic time, thanks man.

This is one of the most outstanding videos on RU-vid. Dan Snow - Look and humbly learn how history videos should be made. This film deserves an award. Please please continue. You have just 'raised' the bar.

Well done and God bless sailors past, present and future!

I remember you sending me a comment alerting me to the news of this new production and book months ago in the old video but I sadly forgot. I am ashamed to have not helped and contributed to the production of this wonderful film. None the less I intend to to show some support and order a book when I can. A fantastic piece of informative work good sir. I look forward to more of these things should they ever be made.

Fabulous documentary! I wish this film had been available five years ago when I was researching this event for my book, A WW1 Adventure, The Life and Times or RNAS Bomber Pilot Donald E. Harkness. Capt Harkness was a Royal Naval pilot from New Zealand who won the DSC for destroying a zeppelin shed in Brussels in 1916. He was also my grandfather. The narration of this film by Admiral Jellicoe's grandson could not have been more perfect. I thank you for this very well executed documentary.

Excellent and informative. Thanks! Those who would like to capture the spirit and sheer intensity of the naval conflict between Britain and Germany before WWI might read the classic 1903 sailing thriller, The Riddle of the Sands by Erskin Childers. It is set in the North Sea and Baltic waters of Germany.

Fantastic job indeed! I love such a documentary films - its not an animation anyway. Bravo! Thumbs waay up!

The Comments below set me straight. I thought I was watching something produced for Television by the BBC or the History Channel! .... Outstanding!

Really nice work. The best documentary on this I have ever seen by far. Thank you.

100 years ago to day. The German Navy retained it's honour by scuttling it's fleet. A brave and correct decision.

Most excellent video, narrated by the grandson of Sir John Jellicoe makes a very appreciated bonus. Two great navies fought galantly. Warm greetings from Argentina.

I read " the man who bought a navy" many years ago fascinating story of their salvage

Outstanding documentary!

I learned so much more about the Scapa Flow incident than I have in all my fifty years previous. Reuter did the right thing. It's what I would have done.

Your videos are of such superb quality. You take on the material in such a professional yet presentable way. Well done sir!

By the Germans scuttling their own ships it saved the allies quite a few problems, especially the distribution of the ships

Never realized the story behind Scapa Flow, thanks for bringing it to life, first rate effort, perfect narration. Thanks from an expat Brit in Sydney.

What a shameful waste! These men rightly belonged back home with their families and the ships would have been valuable assets. Interesting insight into class divisions in the Kriegsmarine and a beautiful presentation. And all because of a wish to further humiliate an enemy in a spiteful and unnecessary way.

Lots of very good and rare pictures here, ones I have not seen before. Well done.

Outstanding Research, Thank You! Incredible story!

Surpringly interesting. It wasn’t just a rerun of other shows, at least that I know of. Scapa flow one of my bucket list places but unfortunately there won’t be much left probably. It’s not too often that you can see and touch a major historical event

The often stated "naval arms race" being a cause for WW1 is a misconception. Historians pin their flag on the date "1906", saying that here is where that "history" started. Actually, the naval arms race started in 1871, with an unsuccessful attempted blockade of northern German ports during the Franco-Prussian War by the French navy. The "cause" was therefore the intention of German leaders to protect German citizens from the threat of blockade. Blockading an enemy, was one of the favorite means of economic warfare at the time. It therefore "started" with a German-French naval arms race, and expanded to a German - French/Russian arms race after France and Russia formed an alliance (Entente Cordial). When GB joined the Tripple Entente, this "naval arms race" was already in full swing. Obviously, German leaders then had to protect German ports from a potential blockade of THREE navies. British, Russian, and French. In other words, the German naval re-armament was an "effect" of previous actions (causality). Not a "cause" but an "effect" of previous events. The German leaders reacted to a potential threat (blockade). A confusion of "cause and effect", by simply pinning a "starting date" randomly on a timeline. "History" is being "sold" to us the wrong way, and it is easy to confuse people. Also, study the design parameters of the German ships built up to WW1. Note that they were close range, coast defence vessels without any global reach (naval bases, or international logistics in the form of alliances). The threat to the RN and the British Empire was the typical fear mongering by arms manufacturers, vying for funds for their particular industry. Cause and effect. No cause, no effect. The root cause of German Naval armament was the alliance system, and the widespread use of navies as tools of blockade and for coastal bombardment (Google "Copenhagenizing", a fear as present in the minds of the people who lived at the time, as mass-bombardment was in the 1930s, and as the fear of nukes in the Cold War). en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Copenhagen_(1807) As a general rule, would you say that if a threat to a population develops (any population), that leaders are not allowed to respond to it?

Excellent piece of work Nick, really pleased to see all your plans come to fruition.

Told compassionately without judgement.

This was brilliant. What a great little documentary. 👍

An interesting video. I knew the fleet was scuttled but knew nothing of the salvage operation. While that may have been the last direct death from the war I'm sure that there were people during of their wounds after that date.

SUPERB! What a GREAT documentary. Did NOT know about this chapter of the Great War (or its aftermath). What great details you have enumerated. Thank you!!

I understand why the germans scuttled their ships..

Just popped up in my suggested. My great gran along with her sisters were on the Flying Kestrel. She did a few interviews about it throughout her life and the story has passed down to us so this is a very interesting visual to go along with it.

Absolutely brilliant, I was spellbound.

Very Grateful, Extremely well researched, very best documentary of prior, during and after events of the scutling, many info i didnt know before this. THANK YOU

A testament to the tragedy of war. Such a huge amount of money spent and millions of hours of toil worked to build mammoths ultimately destroyed deliberately. Militarists walked away hugely wealthy, while the majority end up poorer.

A brilliantly well done video, thank you for putting that together

Nick - please note that [6 minutes in] - they didn't set out for"England" - the UK as they headed for Rosyth & then Orkney....

I have always had a deep and abiding respect for the German"s of the High Seas Fleet. What they accomplished in less than half of the time that the British navy did in several hundred years is remarkable to say the least. The scuttling of the proud and worthy High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow was an act of national honor. The German navy and Air Force are the arms of the German military machine that never surrendered their honor and chivalry in the way that the the soldiers of the Imperial German Army were forced to. In short, they did it with class, and I can't help but admire them. What is a flaw in American character ( my people) is the lack of memory of events, and the ensuing lessons of the traumatic upheavals of the times, that aren't as "ancient" as many of my co-Americans perceive. Therefore they take no heed to the past villainy of the past, and walk blind-eyed into the holocaust of the future, with no idea of the why, let alone the consequences.

Outstanding! Professional Grade!

Very nicely done. A standard that very few will reach.

Germany bought a lot of the steel from their ships and built the famous U-boats that ended up sinking thousands of ships.

Coming from a navy family wow this is absolutely fantastic history about the German navy in World war I or really I should say the Great war. You alone have really bought history back to us all and we shall never forget the history of what our forefathers did it doesn't matter what side of the fence they fort on what does Matter is the history of how World war 1 actually ended for both sides but especially for the German navy who surrendered at Scarborough flow. Your story was totally awesome thank you.Ps also I noticed that the names of the German navy sailors that were buried in 1919 at Scarborough flow cemetery were misspelt but now they have been corrected so it just goes to show you that we are still learning more history.

Proud of you, Reuter! You did good.

One of those ships that escorted the High Seas Fleet into the Firth of Forth is the U.S.S. Texas, which is berthed just down the road from where I am now in Texas. Magnificent ship.

Very absorbing to find out about the subsequent titanic salvaging operations that took place. There must be a mine of information labout this topic and whether or not any fortunes were made from salvage. Were any of the ships saved for active service against the Germans in the Second World War? As an aside, the film Whiskey (Snapps) Galore comes to mind and I wonder if any of the Islanders made a bit of coin. Anyway as a Brit I feel the Germans made the right choice for their country and Fatherland as I would like to think the Royal Navy would have done the same in a similar position.

EXCEPTIONALLY WELL MADE ! THIS SHOULD BE ON NETFLIX AS A SERIES OF DOCUMENTARIES !!! EXCELLENT !!! NETFLIX ARE YOU LISTENING ?????

"The undefeated navy

An outstanding animation. Of all the German ships surrendered in History, the "Prinz Eugen" would also have an inglorious but apotheotic end twenty seven years later.

That was a tragic ending for the german sailors. Particularly for those who were shot.

An excellent documentary. I have been at anchor in Scapa in an RN ship - just a couple of days was enough! Have also dived some of the wrecks there. The locals, I believe, dived there too, collecting the steam coal from the German bunkers in baskets to warm their homes. We also lived in a converted rope wall in North Queensferry in the late 80's. One of the older gentlemen in the end cottage remembered the ships being broken up in the dry docks in Rosyth dockyard. He said the smell of the rotting sea life that had taken hold on the hull as they dried out was terrible and carried far on the wind.

well, this gave the Scots many jobs.

ABSOLUTELY Stellar work of you and your team! Breathtaking. I would LOVE to comment more, but I should already have been elsewhere 20 minute ago! Another testament to your fascination work.

The most rational move was the mutiny of the high seas fleet. Being told to go sacrifice yourself for a war already lost, to get better terms, was madness.

This was one of the biggest collections of low background steel available up to the 60s

This breaks my heart. What a waste. But it was the right decision. The German Navy retarined it's honour with that act.

Fab documentary, Nicholas - thanks. Good luck with your dad's bio "George Jellicoe: SAS and SBS Commander".

Your videos are so well done! I was on your website looking, Is there a way to purchase a signed book in the United States? I didn’t see the option at check-out.

Wonderful work! After reading so much about this it's fantastic to see it all brought to life.

Honorable men, in an untenable situation, did the only thing they possibly could, and in so doing, restored, and saved their sacred honor. God Bless all honorable military veterans, regardless of nationality.

Amazing history told in spectacular fashion. Thank you for creating and sharing

Another outstanding video. I am unimpressed with the British behavior, normally they are a very honorable Navy and military. I suspect that the horrors of WW1 were just too much but I still would have expected more from the British Navy than to treat its Jutland adversaries this way. However no country is perfect.

My grandpa, born 1896, served on SMS KÖNIG. Lost part of his hearing during Skagerrakschlacht (Battle of Jutland). I have a photography of the ship I haven't seen anywhere else. I also have a picture of him and comrades in basic (infantry-?) training. They are all wearing almost white denim suits, not the uniform of a sailor. I was only ten, when he died in 1974. I had no clue how historically important this particular ship had been (flagship, the sailor uprising, the scuttling in Scapa flow, where she capsized and now lies about 80 or 90 metres deep on the bottom of the sound. In the name of my late grandfather, Ferdinand Mürriger sen., I thank you for giving him back honour. Much obliged Sir. :')

Too bad there isn't a documentary history channel for you to air films on.

I read somewhere that a prominent British newspaper published a cartoon on the day after the High Seas Fleet had scuttled itself. It showed the two funnels of a battleship protruding above the waters, between two masts. A wire stretched between the masts, from which hung various articles of laundry. The caption under the cartoon, in a parody of Nelson's immortal signal on the threshold of the Battle of Trafalgar, read: "GERMANY EXPECTS EVERY MAN THIS DAY TO DO THE DIRTY".

A movie should be made of this.The Germans did the right thing by scuttling their fleet.The allies were as much to blame for the that war.

Another quality content. Luck on my side to discovered your channel. Very articulate story telling, with interesting narrative. Should have more sub's tbh. I'm buying your books as well. Thanks for your effort.

The German soldier Resolute as alway!

What a captivating well informed video.thank you for posting