Home | Soldiers | Maschinist Kuno Eversberg in the Great War
All Which is the Truth
The final combat casualty of the Great War a German PoW. Maschinist Kuno Eversberg shot in the back while escorted to the head aboard HMS RESOLUTION at Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919. Able Seaman James Woolley stood trial for the shooting, but a jury returned a verdict of not guilty, not being able to determine who had fired the fatal shot.
Machinist Kuno Eversberg, SMS FRANKFURT, died 29 June 1919.
Kuno died aboard the Hospital Ship AGADIR on 29 June 1919, and later laid to rest in Lyness Royal Naval Cemetery. Rear Admiral Sydney Fremantle reprimanded for giving false information by adding Eversberg to the list of the dead killed during the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet. This led to the wrong date engraved on Eversberg’s gravestone.
History of Orkney
The feat of salvaging these battleships is one of the greatest legacies of the scuttling. It wasn’t just contained to 21 June 1919. It changed the history of Orkney.
Lieutenant Jennifer Smith, Deputy Naval Liaison Officer for Scotland
SMS FRANKFURT
SMS Frankfurt a light cruiser of the Wiesbaden class built by the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). She had one sister ship, SMS Wiesbaden. SMS Frankfurt laid down in 1913, launched in March 1915, and completed by August 1915.
SMS FRANKFURT under US flag prior to being used as target, July 1921.
When the fleet scuttled in June 1919 at Scapa Flow, SMS FRANKFURT one of the few ships not successfully sunk. Ceded to the US Navy as a war prize and ultimately expended as a bomb target in tests conducted by the US Navy and Army Air Force in July 1921.
When the Guns Fell Silent
The Smithsonian Museum claims this is a very realistic recreation. Yet, guns did not miraculously fall silent at 11:00 am. Many units unaware of the cease-fire, and fighting continued for days on the Western Front. Men continued to die from their wounds years afterwards.
The Smithsonian Museum also claim Kansas as the origin of “Spanish” Influenza.
Fighting on the Eastern Front never really came to a halt, and conflicts have continued to this very day. However, the final casualties of the Great War agreed to have occurred following the deliberate scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow.
Surrender of the German High Seas Fleet at Firth of Forth
Ten days after the signing of the Armistice, the German High Seas Fleet surrendered to the Allies at the Firth of Forth, with the fleet moving to Scapa Flow a few days later.
In all, 70 German battle cruisers and destroyers led into this internment around the Scottish Isles. German sailors banned from going ashore for months, and conditions deteriorated.
Humiliation
At the Firth of Forth, near Edinburgh, Admiral Beatty gave the order the German Imperial flag to be lowered at sunset and not raised again without permission.
Intended to be a humiliation, Beatty really didn’t have the authority to tell the German Fleet’s commander, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, how to run his ships.
Imperial German naval ensign (1903-1921)
Imperial German naval ensign 1903-21 pattern, reputedly belonging to SMS ‘Königsberg’ 1905, scuttled in Rufiji River in 1916. The tattered battle ensign, worn during ‘Königsberg’s’ action with British monitors, recorded as being presented to her commander, Captain Max Looff.
Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen (1878-1967) claimed in his book ‘Army Diary 1899-1926’ this is a spare ensign captured from a German infantry company that included members of her crew. Ambushed by Meinertzhagen’s agents after the destruction of the ship. R.M. Marston in a letter of February 1996 disputed this claim.
Eventually, Rear-Admiral Ludwig von Reuter initiated the final military action of the Great War, ordering all German ships at Scapa Flow to scuttle themselves, and on 21 June 1919, 52 ships scuttled, with the remainder beached.
Scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow
The German High Seas Fleet decided to sink as many of its own ships as possible to prevent them from falling into Allied hands. In total, 52 of 74 ships sabotaged to keep them from Britain, France, Italy and the USA. Most of these nations wanted a share for their navies, and knowing she could not have them all to herself, Britain wanted the ships scrapped to prevent other nations from gaining naval superiority.
Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter’s brilliant and final action of the Great War preserved the Honour of the German High Seas Fleet.
21 June 1919
On the morning of 21 June 1919, the British fleet left Scapa Flow for exercises, and Rear Admiral Sydney Freemantle, commander of the 1st Battle Squadron guarding the ships, planned to return two days later to board and seize the ships.
Already occupying Germany west of the Rhine, the Allied Powers expected Germany to accept all articles of the Treaty of Versailles by 23 June, and threatened to occupy territory east of the Rhine if all demands not met. German Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, following orders he had received after the breakdown of negotiations, seized the opportunity with the British fleet having just left the harbour, gave the order to scuttle all ships as his crews opened seacocks, torpedo tubes and portholes to flood them, and once again hoisted the flag of the Imperial German Navy.
Final Casualties
The final battle casualties of the Great War occurred on this day, with nine German sailors killed and sixteen wounded by the British during brawls when they refused to help save the ships. For his part, von Reuter imprisoned along with 1,800 of his men, but released the following year. Upon his return to Germany, praised as the man who had preserved the honour of the German High Seas Fleet (in typical fashion, Freemantle had angrily accused von Reuter of having behaved without honour).
Salvaging the sunken German Fleet at Scapa Flow (1924)
Salvage crews work to raise the Germany Kriegsmarine fleet, sunk at Scapa Flow during their interment.
Of the 52 ships scuttled in 1919, seven remain at the bottom of the sea today. Registered under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, and provide some of the best shipwreck diving in Europe.
Raising of a German Warship from the Scapa Flow (1935)
Surgeon Commander Frank Elliot Bolton
The transcript of Surgeon Commander Frank Elliot Bolton has been carefully and accurately produced in full.
Able Seaman James Woolley
Precognition against James Woolley
1920 High Court Edinburgh, February.
Pages 50-51 Edinburgh 17th December 1919 [date statement taken]
HS AGADIR spent most of her time with the Royal Navy attached to the Grand fleet based at Scapa Flow.
Frank Elliot Bolton. M.R.C.S, B.R.C.P.E., Surgeon Commander, Royal Navy, presently on board the Hospital Ship “Agadir”, age 41.
Declares
The Hospital-ship “Agadir” lying at Longhope, Scarpa Flow in June 1919. I was Surgeon Commander on board. An injured German-prisoner named Maschinist Kuno Eversberg brought to the Hospital-ship from H.M.S. “Resolution” on 24th June 1919 at 3 a.m. Suffering from gunshot wound through the lower abdomen on the left side. The wound of entrance on the left sacral region. The exit in the left iliac region.
He was immediately operated upon. Found to have two double perforations of the bowel, one found to have two double perforations of the bowel, one in the descending colon and one through the ilium. The same bullet had caused both perforations. The bowel badly perforated. The peritoneal cavity full of blood and faeces. The gut stitched up. No other bleeding points found. No other organs perforated so far as could be made out. The entrance and exit wounds not interfered with beyond being sterilized with tincture of iodine. Peritoneal toilet performed & the wounds closed.
Rebound
Two drainage-tubes put in one to the right kidney pouch & one to the pelvis. Maschinist Kuno Eversberg then taken to bed. Proper treatment continued. From the first I took a very serious view of the case. The patient’s recovery very doubtful owing to the extensive infection. For a time he did far better than I expected. Maschinist Kuno Eversberg perfectly conscious & at one time was bright. He asked for food. Vomiting was a troublesome symptom.
On the evening of 26 June a faecal-smelling discharge from the sacral wound noticed. Eventually a faecal fistula formed. The abdominal wound remained perfectly clean & there was no discharge from it. The fistula treated in the usual way. Peritonitis supervened. The patient took a turn for the worse & Maschinist Kuno Eversberg died on 29th June 1919 at 9-40 a.m.
Shot in the Back
From a medical point of view the cause of death was peritonitis supervening upon a perforating gunshot wound of the abdomen. Temporary Surgeon Pollock & I were present when he died. I know German & I spoke with the patient repeatedly. Maschinist Kuno Eversberg told me that while going to the Heads on board the Resolution he had been shot in the back. Told me that he had a sentry on each side of him. He did not say whether one of them fired the shot or not, but gathered from him that it was not one of the Sentries.
The deceased’s clothing had to be cut off him. Soaked in blood. Eventually sent with his body to the Floating-mortuary at Lyness Scarpa flow. No evidence to be obtained from his clothing & it was buried with the body. Deceased buried in Lyness Cemetery.
Plot of German graves (Maschinist Kuno Eversberg third from right) at Lyness Royal Naval Cemetery.
Deceased attended by two Surgeons as well as myself, Temporary-surgeon Pollock & Temporary-surgeon Watson – both demobilized. Mr Pollock now Internal House Physician at Glasgow Infirmary. I do not know where Mr Watson is. The death reported at the time to the Admiralty, London, The Senior Naval-Officer afloat and the Rear-Admiral Commanding Orkney & Shetland. I expect to be sent on foreign service about the end of January 1920.
All which is truth.
As part of the centenary commemorations of the scuttling of the German Fleet, held during 2019, Maschinist Kuno Eversberg’s gravestone altered to give the correct date of his death.
Remembered With Honour
Another gravestone at Lyness marks the death of Walter Schumann – a senior German officer who refused to order his men back onto the ships to stop the scuttling. He was shot in the face, just above his top lip, by a young British officer, Lieutenant JPFG Turner, with his body unceremoniously dumped into a guard boat.
