Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 2:21:07-2:22:01

What might have happened without the Scapa Flow scuttling

The ships would have been divided among the Allies, but treaties and obsolescence would likely remove most before the next war.

German High Seas FleetLeague Of NationsNaval TreatiesScapa Flow
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Question

Who was meant to receive the German High Seas Fleet, and would those ships have affected the Second World War?

Short answer

The Allies planned to divide them, but treaties and age would probably eliminate most before 1939.

Notes

Britain welcomed the Scapa Flow scuttling because distributing the German fleet created awkward balance-of-power questions among the Allies. Had the ships survived, the victors intended to divide them rather than leave Germany with an intact battle fleet. Most vessels would probably have been scrapped under later treaty limits and because of age, with ships transferred to smaller powers the likeliest exceptions. A proposal to place vessels in a League of Nations fleet introduced an even harder question: who would command and politically control an international armed force?