A GERMAN U-boat crept through the hitherto safe defences of the home fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney, on 14 October 1939 and torpedoed the battleship Royal Oak. A huge quantity of dangerous ordnance remains aboard the Royal Oak and other sunken warships. How to salvage the ordnance safely is a huge challenge. These ships are our “legacy wrecks”. In April, several government departments met to discuss matters relating to them. I asked the veterans’ minister Ivor Caplin what will be done.
He replied that Norway and France are investigating ways of identifying and locating their wrecks, as are the US…
