Although officially outraged at the act many Royal Naval officers said privately they would have done the same in Reuter's position. He was repatriated in January 1920.

Many of the ships would have been valuable assets to the victors, some were less than three years old. It did however spare the Allies the difficulty of dividing up the fleet, GB in particular was keen to retain its dominance of the seas which could have been challenged if other nations were awarded the more modern German ships.

GB in particular was keen to retain its dominance of the seas which could have been challenged if other nations were awarded the more modern German ships.

If they had given them to Canada or Australia how would that have challenged GB's dominance.

We could have put them to good use during the Korea conflict instead of showing up balls naked.

Warships 35 or more years old wouldn't have been much use in the Korean War.

Most of the German vessels at Scapa Flow would have been awarded to the European powers, we didn't want to see France or Italy getting new state-of-the art dreadnoughts. 

100 years ago today, on 23 June 1919, the German Naval Airship Division attempted to emulate their seaborn colleagues by destroying their airships to prevent them from being taken over by the Allies.

At the end of the war the German Navy was left with 14 Zeppelins, some of which were old and used only as training ships. They were disarmed, their gas bags deflated and were hung up in their hangars across Germany.

When news of the scuttling at Scapa Flow reached the airship crews they acted together to destroy their charges. At the bases of Nordholz and Wittmundhaven seven Zeppelins were wrecked by having the suspension tackle released so the 40 ton airships crashed to the floor breaking the internal structure beyond repair. None had flown for eight months so the damage was considerable. However the remaining seven Zeppelins survived, at Ahlhorn the plot was uncovered before the crew could act while at Seddin and Seerappen no action was taken.

The seven airships were subsequently awarded to the Allies; two to GB, two to Italy and one each to France, Belgium and Japan.

Warships 35 or more years old wouldn't have been much use in the Korean War.

Most of the German vessels at Scapa Flow would have been awarded to the European powers, we didn't want to see France or Italy getting new state-of-the art dreadnoughts.  They would have all had massive guns capable of firing great distances still and so I think they would have been a great accede to help try and slow the Chinese advance down with.

These ships wouldn't have had to fight sea battles but only serve as gun platforms. The North Koreans and the Chinese didn't have ships to oppose them with.