The Forth at War

WHILE SCAPA FLOW is well known for its role as one of the world’s great naval bases during the two world wars, the Forth and its estuary had an equally extraordinary story to tell. This river was very much a front line against Germany – a fact to which the intensive fortifications on its islands still bear mute testimony. During World War I Rosyth was the headquarters of Admiral Beatty’s famous battlecruiser squadron and the Forth saw the greatest concentration of naval might ever seen in history as the German fleet steamed to surrender. Some of the finest pictures ever taken of the construction and fitting out of Britain’s last great battleship class – the King George Vs – were taken at Rosyth. This book contains magnificent pictures of the British battle fleet setting sail from the Forth, of the rows of German ships at surrender after both wars, of the extraordinary steam powered K-class submarines for which the Forth was well known and of the destruction caused by Luftwaffe bombing raids.The Forth at War also includes many photographs from around the Forth – Home Guard exercises on the Water of Leith, parades and pillboxes in the centre of Edinburgh, German officers surrendering, the departure of Olaf of Norway for home in 1945, censored shots of Churchill and the King, and much else besides. It ends with the great ships going to their graveyard in the breakers’ yard at Rosyth.