Dating to the 1930s, this 16mm silent film is ostensibly a study of the geography of the Orkney Islands. Interestingly, when this film was recovered by collector C.E. Daniel (who runs the website danielsww2.com) this film was in a Luftwaffe marked canister. We can assume based on this that the film was actively being shown to Luftwaffe crews during the war, and that makes sense since a film like this one would have greatly added to their navigational prowess.
Normally a silent film like this one would have been accompanied by a script that would be spoken aloud by a teacher or presumably a superior officer.
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of Great Britain. Orkney is 16 kilometres (10 mi) north of the coast of Caithness and comprises approximately 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited. The largest island Mainland is often referred to as “the Mainland”. It has an area of 523 square kilometres (202 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest Scottish island and the tenth-largest island in the British Isles.The largest settlement and administrative centre is Kirkwall.
Orkney was the site of a Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow, which played a major role in World War I and II. After the Armistice in 1918, the German High Seas Fleet was transferred in its entirety to Scapa Flow to await a decision on its future. The German sailors opened the sea-cocks and scuttled all the ships. Most ships were salvaged, but the remaining wrecks are now a favoured haunt of recreational divers. One month into World War II, a German U-boat sank the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow. As a result, barriers were built to close most of the access channels; these had the additional advantage of creating causeways enabling travelers to go from island to island by road instead of being obliged to rely on ferries. The causeways were constructed by Italian prisoners of war, who also constructed the ornate Italian Chapel. During World War II, the politicians of German-occupied Norway asked German authorities to take over Orkney as Norway sought new opportunities for expansion. The navy base became run down after the war, eventually closing in 1957.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
