Rafe Mair Online | www.rafeonline.com | Vancouver Province Editorials 1999

Vancouver Province
for September 8, 2000

You don’t learn that in school, the old song goes and never is that better demonstrated than a trip to Northern Scotland. Bypass London, fly to Glasgow then head north. Within an hour you’ll see the site of one of the great incidents of Scottish history the effects of which are present today. As you pass through the great glen of Coe you’ll be amongst the spirits of fallen Macdonalds, slain at the hands of Clan Campbell under the direction of Dalrymple, the Master of Stair.

Old MacIan was, you see, by January 1, 1692, to have sworn allegiance to the new King William of Orange who usurped the throne from James Stuart. Well, MacIan was in no hurry to do so and didn’t get the job done until January 6. The Macdonalds, like most of the highlanders, the exception being Clan Campbell, were none too fussy about union with England in the first place much less rule by a non Stuart. For his delay MacIan and his men were slaughtered by a group of Campbells after giving them highland hospitality. This has come down to us as the massacre of Glencoe and although fewer than 40 perished, it is no stretch to say that the memory of this and the defeat of the highlanders at the hands of the English (and the Campbells) at Culloden a half century later underscored a political division amongst Scots that manifests itself today in the new Scottish Parliament.

North of mainland Scotland lies Orkney – never, mind you, "The Orkneys". The main island of Orkney, "The Mainland", and surrounding islands form the huge harbour called Scapa Flow and it is here that two more important incidents took place.

The November 11, 1918 Armistice was supposed to be just that, not a surrender – a distinction not a difference as the Germans were soon to find out. Part of the deal was that the German Navy would present itself at Scapa Flow for internment until the Peace Treaty could be negotiated. As the negotiations proceeded it became clear to Admiral von Reuter that the Allies intended dividing the fleet up amongst themselves so on June 21, 1919 he ordered the fleet, some 52 vessels, to be scuttled. Already there was a strong feeling in Germany that the nation had itself been scuttled by the politicians, a notion fortified by the fact that the German Army had not been decisively beaten in the field and no part of Germany had been captured. This act of von Reuter was the first bit of flesh on the bones that led to the theory that communists, politicians and Jews had betrayed the Fatherland. Thence Hitler.

On the 14^th of October, 1939, just six weeks into the Second World War, Lieutenant-Commander Gunther Prien in U47 penetrated the defences of Scapa Flow – an astonishing bit of seamanship, and sunk the British battleship Royal Oak sending 833 men to their graves. Even more astonishingly, Prien and his submarine escaped to a tumultuous welcome back home which included the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves for Prien and the Iron Cross, Second Class for all hands.

But the loss of the Royal Oak was really not that big a deal although it certainly shook up the British Admiralty under First Lord Winston Churchill. Its real effect was much more profound for up until then, Commodore Doenitz (raised to admiral after this success) had been unable to convince Hitler that there was any real merit to submarine warfare. The sinking of the Royal Oak changed all that. U-Boat construction was greatly intensified and the Battle of the Atlantic began for real. By 1942 it looked as if U-Boats were about to win that battle and Britain would be starved out of the war. One shudders to think of what the effect would have been on world history had Doenitz been able to convince Hitler prior to the war’s start of the efficacy of submarine warfare. As it was, the Battle of the Atlantic took a terrible toll on Allied ships and personnel – especially on Canadian merchant seamen who have not, to this day, had their role properly recognized.

So there we have it – a bit off the beaten track with a stop in the Scottish Highlands and a ferry ride to Orkney and one can experience history as it really was not as is so skimpily taught in our schools.