The Kitchener conspiracy
Episode description
In June 1916, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum was on board HMS Hampshire, heading for Archangel in Russia for top-secret talks.
About 1 mile from the Orkney Islands, HMS Hampshire exploded and sank to the bottom of the sea, killing 737 of the 749 souls on board, including Kitchener himself. For the Great War generation, this was their 9/11 or Kennedy assassination. There was a genuine fear that without Kitchener, there was no hope that the war would be won.
But, no sooner had the Hampshire sunk than rumours began circulating about the events of that evening. Why did armed soldiers stop people from heading to the shore to try and rescue the survivors? Why did the Stromness lifeboat not launch? In this episode, we look at one of the great conspiracies of the Great War and try to get to the bottom of exactly what happened that night.
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