Abstract
"The German people did not understand the sea. In the hour of its destiny it did not use its fleet. To-day all that I can do for the fleet is to write its epitaph." | With these words Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the creator of the German High Seas Fleet, concluded his memoirs. At the beginning of World War I, Tirpitz expected the German Navy to break the back of British sea power, but this dream ended rudely at Scapa Flow where the mighty German battlefleet was scuttled by its own crews.