Kiel and Wilhelmshaven were under the rule of the President of the Soviet of Workers, Soldiers and Sailors, an ex- stoker, who had a council of twenty- one, with an inner council of five. By November 7 the Red Flag was flying from all ships, except submarines, in the German harbours. The mutiny spread from ship to shore, and from shore to ship. He ordered the Fleet to disperse to their harbours. Admiral von Hipper decided to wait until the next day, but the odds were against him.
News leaked out that a “death or glory attack” was to be made, and this was used as propaganda among the men of the Fleet, who carried out their orders for preparation, but murmured to each other: “Why go out and die when peace is at hand?”Īdmiral von Hipper issued orders on October 29 to raise steam so that the fleet could sail that night but when the time for sailing arrived the stokers in two of the battleships drew fires and refused to sail. On October 27 and 28 the German Fleet began to assemble in Schillig Road, the outer anchorage off the River Elbe, ready for the sortie. On October 25 a number of German submarines put to sea to take up positions south of the Firth of Forth in readiness for the naval attack on the British Fleet. When the prospects of an armistice and peace were followed by orders to go to sea and engage the British Fleet, this discontent was again brought to a head. Discontent, which had first appeared in 1917, had been slowly spreading. The lack of unity between officers and men, as well as the inferior quality of the food, had affected the spirit of the restless crews. Th e German Fleet had been through a wearying war. At the same time he ordered Admiral von Hipper to take the whole High Seas Fleet to sea for action against the British Navy in the North Sea. Admiral von Scheer, the Chief of the German Navy, was opposed to this plan, but he was overruled, and sent orders to all the submarines to return home.
On October 21, 1918, the German Chancellor decided that all attacks on passenger vessels by U- boats should cease, to facilitate the armistice for which Germany was asking. Admiral Beatty decided to get in communication by wireless with Admiral von Hipper, who had been Commander- in- Chief of the German High Seas Fleet. The Government in Berlin was under the control of Herr Ebert, but no one knew who was in control of the Navy. Germany was in a state of political upheaval. The Allied Naval Council left the enforcement of the terms of the Armistice in the hands of Admiral Sir David Beatty, Commander- in- Chief of the Grand Fleet, whose flag was flying in the Queen Elizabeth at Rosyth, in the Firth of Forth. They proposed the complete surrender of the Fleet but the Allied Premiers decided that only the submarines were to be surrendered and that internment of the remaining German naval forces to be handed over was the most that could be demanded. The terms were severe, but the original Admiralty proposals were even more severe. Thus Germany was to be deprived of all naval power. All other surface warships were to be completely disarmed and placed under the supervision of the Allies and the U.S.A. The ships designated were six battle cruisers, ten battleships, eight light cruisers (including two minelayers), and fifty destroyers of the most modern type. were to be disarmed, interned in neutral or Allied ports and placed under the surveillance of the Allies and the U.S.A., with only caretakers left on board. 160 submarines, complete with armament and equipment, in specified ports, and that German surface warships designated by the Allies and the U.S.A. Two clauses of the Armistice Agreement contained the following provisions: that Germany was to surrender to the Allies and the U.S.A. Marshal Foch and Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss were the principal signatories on behalf of the Allies, and the German Secretary of State, Herr Erzberger, on behalf of the new Government of Germany. on November 11, 1918, the Armistice terms were signed in the saloon of a special train that had been drawn up in a siding in the Forest of Compiegne in Northern France. Built in 1912, of 25,000 tons displacement, the Seydlitz was 656 feet long, with a beam of 93 ft. THE IMPERIAL WHITE ENSIGN of the German battle cruiser Seydlitz was still flying as she steamed across the North Sea under the orders of Admiral Sir David Beatty, who was in charge of the arrangements for taking over the German Fleet. Before peace negotiations had been concluded, however, the German sailors scuttled their ships On November 21, 1918, the mighty German High Seas Fleet was handed over to the British Fleet for internment at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands.
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