The Italian Chapel and the Churchill barriers.

After our walk around Hoxa Head we went for a drive around over the Churchill barriers and stopped at the Italian Chapel.

A remarkable place and well worth a visit. The following text is taken from www.visitscotland.com and gives the background to the barriers and chapel.

On the 13th of October 1939 the German U-boat U47, under the command of Lt. Gunther Prien, slipped undetected into Scapa Flow. Prien launched a torpedo attack on the battleship HMS Royal Oak which was lying at anchor in Scapa Bay and within minutes the huge ship sank to the bottom of Scapa Flow with the loss of  833 crew. U47 slipped away undetected through Kirk Sound but the terrible loss of life and obvious failings of the defences to Scapa Flow prompted the call for a more substantial eastern defence of the naval port. 

In March 1940 Winston Churchill approved the building of ‘causeways’ to link the south isles to Mainland Orkney and so closing off the eastern approaches. (The Churchill barriers).

Blockships of Churchill barrier number 4. Sunk during WW1 but not very effective in defence of Scapa Flow. 

Work soon started and continued a-pace but a shortage of local labour was causing delays so in early 1942 Italian POWs were shipped in to work on the huge building project. Many camps were established to house these POWs. The Italians POW status changed however in September 1943 when Italy capitulated to the allies and the workers were given more freedom and were actually paid properly for their labours. The Italians requested a proper place of worship and with the help of padre Father Giacobazzi and Domenico Chiocchetti persuaded the then camp commandant, Major T. P. Buckland, to allow them to build a chapel on Lamb Holm. 

They were given two Nissen huts joined end to end to convert on the condition all work was carried out outside working hours on the barriers. 

One end of the hut was lined with plasterboard to form a sanctuary and an altar, altar-rail and holy water stoop were expertly  fashioned from concrete.  With the success of the adornment in the sanctuary it was felt the whole chapel should be lined and the entire interior of the chapel was painted to depict brick walls, carved stone, vaulted ceilings and buttresses.  All the materials for the decoration were scavenged from wherever possible. Wood was sourced from a wrecked ship for the tabernacle. A rod-screen and gates enclosing the sanctuary were expertly fashioned  from scrap metal.