This Day in History - June 21

1919 - The Scuttling of the Imperial German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow

SMS Bayern

World War I ended on November 11, 1918, but as things tend to do, not everything was quite tidied up yet. Under the terms of the Armistice, the German U-boat fleet was surrendered and no one was under any illusions that the Germans would be allowed to wreak havoc on international shipping with their U-boats again. The High Seas Fleet was another matter however. Under Article XXXI of the Armistice the Germans were not permitted to destroy their ships. Germany of course, wanted them back, the opinions of the British Royal Navy seemed to lean towards breaking the ships up for scrap, so that they could never again threaten them. The French and Italians contingents wanted a quarter of the ships each for themselves. They could at no cost, greatly increase their Naval power and at the same time, decrease their neighbors and punish Germany. (Which was of course, the point of the Treaty of Versailles, which may have helped to cause WWII, but that is another matter)


Admiral von Reuter, commanding the crew of the interred Navy, waited until most of the Royal Navy ships in the vicinity went out for a training exercise and gave the order to scuttle all vessels at 10:00am. By 12:00, when the began to list, the crews hoisted the Imperial German Ensign to their mainmasts (which they had been expressly forbidden from doing) and began to abandon ship. The Royal Navy picked up 1,774 Germans by the evening and transported them to Invergodon by battleships of the First Battle Squadron. Vice-Admiral Fremantle had sent out a general order declaring that the Germans were to be treated as prisoners-of-war for having broken the armistice and they were destined for the prisoner-of-war camps at Nigg Island.

Ultimately, 52 of the 74 ships sank including 15 of the 16 capital ships, 5 of the 8 cruisers, and 32 of the 50 destroyers. The rest were towed to shore by the British Guard boats that attempted to stop the scuttling. Nine German soldiers were shot and killed by the guards during those actions. In the inter war period, some were raised and scrapped or sunk as targets, but some remain today, many at considerable depth, and can be visited by divers.

SMS Hinderberg

217 BC - Battle of Lake Trasimene

The battle of Lake Trasimene has been recorded not only as one of the most important battles of the First Punic War, but also one of the most successful ambushes in the history of war.

The Punic Wars were a series of conflicts between the north African empire of Carthage and the Republic of Rome. Due to the daring, intelligence and and burning hatred of Carthage's general Hannibal, the Romans had been having a rough time. They elected Gaius Flaminius and Gnaeus Servilus Geminus to the position of Consul and gave them control of two armies and orders to destroy Hannibal's invading army which had been pillaging and burning its way through southern Europe.

Hannibal was an expert tactician and showed a clear understanding of the need to fight on ground that is favorable to your forces. After failing to goad the army under Flaminius to a fight, Hannibal started to move towards Rome. Hearing that the Roman army had finally broken camp and was following them, Hannibal chose his ground and arrayed his forces.


He chose a heavily forested hill region on the shores of the lake. Below the camp, on a small hill, he set up his heavy infantry forces, made up of Iberians, Celts and Africans. They would be position to attack downhill toward the Roman column's left flank when it appeared. His light infantry from Gaul was concealed in the wooded hills along with the the cavalry. They were to stay hidden until the attack began and then quickly block the Romans' line of retreat. His lightest armed troops were kept along the hills in hiding, ready to hit the Roman column in the flanks after the attack began. Hannibal had also ordered his men to light campfires on the Tuoro, to convince the Romans that they were further away than they thought. Having set up his men, Hannibal then merely had to wait for Flaminius to come blundering along into the trap. Flaminius could have waited to be reinforced by Servilius, and in fact was urged to do so. But he is remembered as a being impetuous and lacking self-control. He would live just long enough to regret those traits.

The next morning, Flaminius led his troops eastward along the road along the edge of the lake. A thick morning fog was present. Hannibal dispatched a small force of skirmishers to draw out the Roman vanguard. This had the effect of splitting the Roman force into two groups. As soon as the main body of the legions entered the kill zone, the trumpets were sounded, giving the signal for the attack.

The attack went exactly as planned and the Carthaginian cavalry blocked off the retreat route of the Romans. The Romans were taken by surprise and were being attacked on three sides, with water on the fourth. The Romans did not have time to form up their standard ranks and had to fight in a way they did not prefer. Romans armies usually did not march in their armor although this may not have been the case in this battle. The Romans were divided into three groups and the vanguard seeing the slaughter behind them, broke through the skirmishers and escaped through the forest. The rear of the column, furthest to the west was hit by a cavalry charge and forced into the lake, where many drowned. The center, with the most of the forces, fought for more than three hours with Hannibal's elite Gaulish heavy infantry before being wiped out. Flaminius was killed by the Gaul Ducarius. The Romans suffered about 15,000 dead and 5,000 captured, a total and complete defeat. The Carthaginians lost 2,500 killed and reports state that many later died of their wounds.

Also...

• Livy states that so terrible was the massacre at Lake Trasimene, that neither army was aware of the occurrence of an earthquake, which at the very moment of the battle "overthrew large portions of many of the cities of Italy, turned rivers, and levelled mountains with an awful crash."
• An ancient tradition says that because of the blood, which for over three days filled the water, that the name of a small stream feeding the lake was renamed Sanguineto, the "Blood River".
• In the surroundings of Lake Trasimene, there are further areas which retain a particular meaning, including Ossaia ("Charnel House, Place of Bones"), Sepoltaglia ("Place of Burial"), Caporosso ("Cape red"), Piegaro ("Subdued Place), Preggio (from "Peggio", "Worse"), Pugnano ("Place of battles"), and Pian di Marte ("Field of Mars").

Military Technology- Razzle Dazzle Camouflage

In an effort to better protect ships from attack, especially from the threat of submarines, British artist and Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Norman Wilkinson devised a camouflage scheme for warships at sea. The idea was to use a pattern of angular, geometric shapes and lines in bold, contrasting colors. The scheme became known variously as Razzle Dazzle, Dazzle camouflage or Dazzle painting. It was used a great deal on the ships of the Royal Navy and others in WWI. It was used as late as the end of WWII on some American Navy ships.




About this time, after viewing the above picture, you may be thinking that artist/camouflage designer Norman Wilkinson perhaps became confused and drank a glass of turpentine while he was working. That might explain trying to conceal a 600 foot long, 11,000 ton ship by painting it in purple star bursts. But the point was never really to hide the ships from view. Rather, the aim was to make ships trying to fire on the ship confused about the direction, speed, size, and range of their target. So the point was really to confuse the rangefinders and gunners of the enemy, not to hide from their lookouts and scouts. The hope was the Dazzle camo would make the enemy unable to identify the ship, or to tell whether they were looking at the bow or stern, or even if it was approaching or sailing away. Rangefinders of the early 20th Century operated on the co-incidence principal. The idea is that the ship is targeted with the rangefinder and the operator sees two half-images of the ship. He adjusts the knobs until the images meet up and finds the range based on tables and such. The camouflage was supposed to hinder this by making a pattern that seemed to not match up correctly at any range. Also, the dazzle patterns usually had a false bow wave to throw off accurate estimation of the ships' speed.

In a 1919 lecture, Norman Wilkinson explained:

The primary object of this scheme was not so much to cause the enemy to miss his shot when actually in firing position, but to mislead him, when the ship was first sighted, as to the correct position to take up. [Dazzle was a] method to produce an effect by paint in such a way that all accepted forms of a ship are broken up by masses of strongly contrasted colour, consequently making it a matter of difficulty for a submarine to decide on the exact course of the vessel to be attacked.... The colours mostly in use were black, white, blue and green.... When making a design for a vessel, vertical lines were largely avoided. Sloping lines, curves and stripes are by far the best and give greater distortion.

RMS Empress of Russia, painted with Dazzle camo as troopship in WWI

The British painted over two thousand ships with Dazzle camo in WWI, much of the work was supervised by artist Edward Wadsworth. The patterns and colors were different for each ship, and each pattern was tested in miniature before being used. The small wooden models were viewed through a periscope and the patterns evaluated by Naval personnel before being scaled up. Most of the models were constructed and painted by women from the London Royal Academy of Arts.

Man, that is just nauseating

Razzle dazzle was evaluated and selected by the US Navy in 1918 and the Navy continued to use it to varying degrees through the end of WWII. All of the Essex-class carriers and Tennessee-class battleships were painted with Razzle Dazzle camouflage. Rather than the unique designs of the Royal Navy, the US Navy decided to standardize the process and paint the various ships with tested and approved designs.

Was Razzle Dazzle effective? Well, your guess is as good as mine. It is very possible that the protection was negligible. Even if if worked well for a little while, it is certainly possible that the Germans could have found technology and tactics to work around it. In post war reports, the British Admiralty decided that it had no effect on the success of submarine attacks. They did however, feel that the bold and brightly colored ships inspired higher morale in both the ship's crews and the public. So I guess that was nice.

Whether or not the idea working in WWI, by the end of WWII it was close to completely obsolete. The amazing jump in effectiveness of naval based reconnaissance planes made many of its features useless, and the technology of visual rangefinders got better as well. With the advent of radar and radar range finders, Dazzle camouflage was done. There are however, some people who stated that it was still effective against submarines, which at the time usually needed to stalk their prey from underwater and their only view of the target was from tiny periscopes just inches off the surface.

HMS Belfast with the camouflaged paint scheme it had during WWII

Black Tom Island

This topic was suggested by loyal reader Dalek, and I confess I had not even heard of it.

In 1916, Black Tom Island, in the Jersey Harbor, was a munitions depot. Prior to the British Naval blockade in 1915, American-made munitions were sold to both sides of WWI, but after that, the American markets were closed to the Germans and they decided to strike at those munitions.
On the night of July 30, 1916, there was estimated to be two million pounds of ammunition in freight cars on the island, and also 100,000 pounds of TNT aboard the Johnson Barge No. 17, which was tied up to the pier to avoid a $25.00 towing charge. Shortly after Midnight, fires were spotted on the island near the pier. Attempts were made by some to put out the fires before an explosion occurred, but around 2 AM, a massive explosion occurred. The explosion was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter Scale. The blast was felt as far away as Philadelphia. The clocktower of the Jersey Journal, over a mile away, was hit and stopped at 2:12AM. Windows were broken for miles around, as far as 25 miles, and people all over the region thought that an earthquake had struck. Buildings were cracked and items fell from shelves. Property damage from the attack was estimated at $20 million ($ 390 million in 2009 dollars)

Black Tom pier just after the blast

Hundreds of people were injured and as many as seven may have died.


The attack also did considerable damage to the Statue of Liberty, located a few thousand feet away. The damage amounted to somewhere around $100,000, but that is nearly 2 million in 2009 dollars. Shrapnel pierced the arm and the skirt and the torch has been off limit to visitors ever since.

A view of Liberty Island from the site of the explosion

Today, the Black Tom Island incident is considered to be an act of terrorism against the United States, and like many of the actions undertaken by the Germans in the 20th Century, probably did them more harm than good. It led directly to the passage of the Espionage Act of 1917, and also like the unrestricted submarine warfare, did much to enrage the people of America and cast Germany and the Central Powers in an evil light.

Perhaps most disturbingly, the true nature of the attack was hidden from the people by President Woodrow Wilson. He did this because it did not suit his political ends and would cause the American people to rightly reject his anti-war and isolationist policies. He was in the midst of a reelection campaign and instigated a massive cover up to hide the truth.

Now, I am neither a truther nor a birther, and I only enjoy conspiracy theories in a social and recreational way, but seeing what has happened in the past does make me wonder...
What if we had been lied to about another terrorist attack?
Are there other "accidents" that it has been convenient to explain away?
I don't know whether to put on my Kevlar helmet or my tin foil one.

Medal of Honor- Lt. Samuel Woodfill, US Army

WOODFILL, SAMUEL

Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 60th Infantry, 5th Division.

Place and date: At Cunel, France, 12 October 1918.

Entered service at: Bryantsburg, Ind. Birth: Jefferson County, Ind. G.O. No.: 16, W.D., 1919.

Citation: While he was leading his company against the enemy, his line came under heavy machinegun fire, which threatened to hold up the advance. Followed by 2 soldiers at 25 yards, this officer went out ahead of his first line toward a machinegun nest and worked his way around its flank, leaving the 2 soldiers in front. When he got within 10 yards of the gun it ceased firing, and 4 of the enemy appeared, 3 of whom were shot by 1st Lt. Woodfill. The fourth, an officer, rushed at 1st Lt. Woodfill, who attempted to club the officer with his rifle. After a hand-to-hand struggle, 1st Lt. Woodfill killed the officer with his pistol. His company thereupon continued to advance, until shortly afterwards another machinegun nest was encountered. Calling on his men to follow, 1st Lt. Woodfill rushed ahead of his line in the face of heavy fire from the nest, and when several of the enemy appeared above the nest he shot them, capturing 3 other members of the crew and silencing the gun. A few minutes later this officer for the third time demonstrated conspicuous daring by charging another machinegun position, killing 5 men in one machinegun pit with his rifle. He then drew his revolver and started to jump into the pit, when 2 other gunners only a few yards away turned their gun on him. Failing to kill them with his revolver, he grabbed a pick lying nearby and killed both of them. Inspired by the exceptional courage displayed by this officer, his men pressed on to their objective under severe shell and machinegun fire.

Not mentioned in the MoH citation is that Lt. Woodfill was hit with mustard gas during this action and was in hospital for the remainder of the war. He was one of the most decorated and celebrated soldiers of the First World War. Among others, he was also awarded the Croix de Guerra with palm leaves, the Meriot di Guerra and the Cross of Prince Danilo. General John Pershing, the most distinguished officer of the era, stated that he was the most outstanding soldier in WWI.

Lt. Woodfill returned to the Army following Pearl Harbor and was commissioned as a Major and spent the rest of his Army days training recruits in Birmingham, Alabama.