by Deborah Lake
A section of UB 46 is to be found in Turkey; rumour suggests that a section of UC 13 may also appear there. Vienna has a portion of U 20.
Some forty-four Q-ships sank in the war against the U-boat. No accurate record exists of how many combats they fought. About seventy is the generally accepted number. A meticulous calculation from German records reveals that the decoys destroyed, at most, eleven U-boats, plus two more that fell to trawler/submarine combinations.
Despite the bravery, and the lavish awards of decorations that accompanied them, Q-ships did very little to defeat the U-boats. The real factors in containing the threat were, eventually, the convoy system and the late arrival of better mines.
Many hopeful and exaggerated claims dot the official records. The Admiralty’s largesse in paying a bounty for successful encounters led to some bad faith. Embellishment of combat accounts was not unknown. It was even rumoured that some Auxiliary Patrol vessels were not above depth-charging recently sunk Scandinavian ships in the hope of persuading a body to float loose. Scandinavian uniforms looked very similar to those of the Germans. And £1,000 bought a lot of beer.
For the British public, the men who served on Q-ships deserved every decoration, every honour, every privilege that came their way. Each one was another Saint George or Beowulf. Every man was a hero who fought sea dragons.
For Germans, the U-boat men were champions of freedom. They, too, fought dragons, especially the British one that wanted to destroy their country. It is dispiriting to realise that xenophobic propaganda has changed little in a century.
Perhaps the final words should come from a member of Campbell’s crew on the Dunraven:
As so many VCs were given to ships in the Q boat service I think the captain of the U boat that attacked the Dunraven deserved the VC or Iron Cross. He knew we were a Q boat or armed ship but he carried on fighting. I would like to have met the captain.
When we sunk a U boat you give a hurray when she was sinking but inside of you, you were sorry. It might have been the opposite way round. They were only serving their country.
From the other side of the wire come the words of von Spiegel, commander of U 93, the man who fought Prize. Captain Albert Spencer, a close friend of Sanders, recorded:
Von Spiegel and Sanders used to play cards in the evening. They were quite friendly. Von Spiegel asked Sanders, ‘After the war, you must come to my place in Bavaria and spend a month’s holiday with me. We will go shooting in the forest.’ And Sanders said, ‘No fear. You get me over there, and you’ll shoot me.’ And von Spiegel looked at him in great surprise and said, ‘Why? Why should I? You have treated me very well on board here, and after the war we can be friends. I am fighting for my country, and you are fighting for yours. That’s right and proper for both of us.’
Duty. Honour. Sacrifice.
Still words with meaning.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES
The First Battle of the Atlantic has, in many ways, been overshadowed by the grimmer affair of the Second World War. No writer about the period, however, can ignore the work of Robert M. Grant, whose lifetime study of the U-boats of the Kaiserliche Marine is both an inspiration and a daunting example.
In these days of internet access, even a simple research yields tens of dozens of sites. Many of them repeat inaccurate information from another site. Others yield a remarkable amount of carefully checked information, including such delights as a complete list of the officers of the Kaiser’s Navy. I have, however, only mentioned a few sites that do provide consistently accurate information; these are of great value to any author of the period.
BOOKS
Auten, Lieutenant Commander Harold, ‘Q’ Boat Adventures, London, 1919 (reprinted Penzance, Periscope Publishing, 2003)
Beaverbrook, Lord, Men and Power, London, Hutchinson, 1956
Bridgland, Tony, Sea Killers in Disguise, Barnsley, Pen & Sword, 1999
——, Outrage at Sea, Barnsley, Pen & Sword, 2002
Brown, Malcolm and Meehan, Patricia, Scapa Flow, Allen Lane, London, 1968
Campbell, Rear Admiral Gordon, My Mystery Ships, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1928 (reprinted Penzance, Periscope Publishing, 2002)
——, Number Thirteen, London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1932
Chatterton, E. Keble, Q-ships and Their Story, London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1922
——, Gallant Gentlemen, London, Hurst & Blackett, 1931
——, Fighting the U-boats, London, Hurst & Blackett, 1942
Coles, Alan, Slaughter At Sea, London, Robert Hale, 1986
Corbett, Sir Julian (vols 1–3)/Newbolt, Sir Henry (vols 4–5), Official History of the War – Naval Operations, London, Longmans, 1922–8
Crompton, Kapitänleutnant Iwan, Der Baralong Fall, Berlin, Ullstein, 1917
——, Englands Verbrechen an U 41, Gütersloh, Bertelsmann, 1941
Crutwell, C.R.M.F, A History of the Great War 1914–1918, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1934
Dixon, Professor Norman, On the Psychology of Military Incompetence, London, Jonathan Cape, 1976
Dönitz, Grossadmiral Karl, Zehn Jahre und zwanzige Tage: Errinerungen 1935–1945, Frankfurt-am-Main, Athenäum-Verlag, 1958
Forstner, Freiherr Georg-Gunter von, Als U-boots Kommandant Gegen England, Berlin, Ullstein, 1916
Fürbringer, Kapitänleutnant Werner, Alarm! Tauchen!, Berlin, Ullstein, 1933
Gibbs, Philip, The Struggle In Flanders, London, Heinemann, 1919
Gibson, R.H. and Prendergast, Maurice, The German Submarine War 1914–1918, London, Constable, 1931
Gordon, Andrew, The Rules of the Game, London, John Murray, 1996
Grant, Robert M., U-Boats Destroyed, London, Putnam, 1964
——, The U-Boat Hunters, Penzance, Periscope Publishing, 2003
Gray, Edwyn, British Submarines in the Great War, Barnsley, Leo Cooper Reprint, 2001 of A Damned Un-English Weapon, London, Seeley Service, 1971
——, The Killing Time, London, Seeley Service, 1972
‘Griff’ (A.S. Griffith), Surrendered. Some Naval War Secrets, Cross Deep, privately published, 1927
Hoogendijk, J.H. (collator) and de Balbian Verster, J.F.L. (ed.), De Nederlandische Koopvaardij in den oorlogstijd (1914–1918), Amsterdam, NV Holkema & Warendorf, 1930
Horton, Edward, Illustrated History of the Submarine, London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1974
Ilsemann, Sigurd von, Der Kaiser in Holland, Munich, Biederstein Verlag, 1967
Jameson, Rear Admiral Sir William, The Most Formidable Thing, London, Hart-Davis, 1965
Jane, Fred T., Jane’s Fighting Ships, 1914, London, Sampson Low Marston, 1914 (reprinted by Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1968)
Kemp, Paul, U-Boats Destroyed, London, Arms & Armour Press, 1997
Lake, Deborah, The Zeebrugge and Ostend Raids, 1918, Barnsley, Pen & Sword, 2003
Lambert, Nicholas (ed.), The Submarine Service, 1900–1918, Aldershot, Navy Records Society, 2001
Langsdorff, Werner von, U-Boote am Feind, Gütersloh, Bertelsmann, 1937
Lipscomb, Commander Frank, Historic Submarines, London, Hugh Evelyn Limited, 1970
Lomas, David, Mons, 1914, Oxford, Osprey Publishing, 1997
Massie, Robert K., Castles of Steel, London, Jonathan Cape, 2004
Muhlhauser, G.H.P., Small Craft, London, Bodley Head, 1920
Niemöller, Oberleutnant zur See Martin, Vom U-Boot zur Kanzel, Berlin, Martin Warneck-Verlag, 1934 (published also in English as From U-Boat to Pulpit, London, William Hodge, 1936)
Ritchie, Carson, Q-ships, Lavenham, Terence Dalton, 1985
Roskill, Stephen, Hankey: Man of Secrets, London, Collins, 1970
Rössler, Eberhard, The U-Boat, London, Cassell, 2002
Salter, J.A., Allied Shipping Control, London, Clarendon Press, 1921
Satterthwaite, Susan, Bonner VC, The Biography of Gus Bonner: VC And Master Mariner SR Print Management, Aldridge, 2008
Scheffer, H.J., November 1918, Utrecht, De Bataaafsche Leeuw, 1918
Snelling, Stephen, VCs of the First World War – The Naval VCs, Stroud, Sutton Publishing, 2002
Terraine, John, Business in Great Waters, London, Leo Cooper, 1989
Thomas, Lowell, Raiders of the Deep, London, Heinemann, 1929 (reprinted Penzance, Periscope Publishing, 2002)
Toland, John, No Man’s Land, London, Eyre Methuen, 1980
Valentiner, Kapitänleutnant Max, 300,000 Tonnen Versenkt!, Berlin, Ullstein, 1917
——, U-38: Wikingerfahrten eines deutschen U-bootes, Berlin, Ullstein, 1934
Wiebicke, Karl, Die Männer von U 96 Errinerungen an Fahrten unseres U-Bootes, Leipzig, Kohler, 1934
Wiest, Andrew, Passchendaele and the Royal Navy, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1995
Williamson, Gordon, German U-Boat Crews 1914–45, Oxford, Osprey Publishing, 1995
JOURNALS, MAGAZINES, ARTICLES, ETC.
Boersma, M.Th.L.W., Uit Eijsdens verleden, Maastricht, 1979
Coder, Lieutenant Commander Barbara J, USN, ‘Q-ships of the Great War’ (a research report submitted to the Air University Faculty, US Air Command and Staff College, 2002)
Wills, Richard, H.L. ‘The Hunley In Historical Context’ (a paper of the Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC)
INTERNET SITES
www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk
www.britsub.net
www.history.rochester.edu
home.foni.net/~adelsforschung1/rall10.htm
www.kaiserliche-marine.de
uboat.net
www.u-boot-net.de
www.uk-muenchen.de
The Kaiser’s Heroes. Kapitänleutnant Otto Weddigen and the crew of U 9 after the sinking of HMS Cressy, HMS Aboukir and HMS Hogue, 1914. (RN Submarine Museum)
Lieutenant Commander Godfrey Herbert and crew of HM Submarine D5, 1914. (RN Submarine Museum)
Sir John Arbuthnot Fisher – ‘Chinese Jack’ – First Sea Lord, 1904–10. He was recalled by Churchill to replace Prince Louis of Battenburg in October 1914. (Royal Naval Museum)
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, 1911–15. (Royal Naval Museum)
Sir John Jellicoe, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, on board HMS Orion with Vice-Admiral Arthur Cavenagh Leveson, Scapa Flow, 1914. (Royal Naval Museum)
Oberleutnant zur See Iwan Crompton, hero or villain of the second Baralong incident, 1915. (Private Collection)
A ship’s lifeboat alongside an inquisitive U-boat. (Private Collection)
Sinking a steamer. A U-boat gun crew in action. (Private Collection)
Never mind the weather – a U-boat’s gun in heavy seas. (Private Collection)
The Flanders Flotilla. A UB I Class boat in Ostend Harbour. (Private Collection)
Deception is all. A gun position on a Q-ship. (RN Submarine Museum)
Cold, wet, vigilant. The life of a U-boat lookout. (RN Submarine Museum)
A gallant patriot to the British, a franc-tireur to the Germans. Captain Charles Fryatt, master of the SS Brussels, 1915. (Imperial War Museum)
Admiral Reinhard von Scheer, Commander-in-Chief, High Seas Fleet, 1916. (Imperial War Museum)
Lieutenant Commander Gordon Campbell. (Times History of the War via S. Snelling)
Lieutenant William Bonner. (the late David Harvey via S. Snelling)
Lieutenant Neil Stuart. (via Canadian Pacific Archives)
Petty Officer Ernest Pitcher. (Times History of the War)
Able Seaman William Williams. (Private Collection via S. Snelling)
Skipper Tom Crisp. (Private Collection viaS. Snelling)
Lieutenant Commander Willie Sanders. (Private Collection via S. Snelling)
Lieutenant Commander Harold Auten. (Times History of the War)
U 93 at sea, 1917. (Private Collection)
Kapitänleutnant Adolf Karl Georg Edgar, Freiherr von Spiegel und Peckelsheim, commander of U 93, 1917. (Private Collection)
Taken from USS Noma, this shows HMS Attack’s attempt to save Q-ship HMS Dunraven, 8 August 1917. (US Naval Historical Center)
On patrol. A U-boat’s bridge crew. (Private Collection)
The turning tide. An SS Zero Class airship patrols over a convoy, 1918. (Author)
The DH6, underpowered, unreliable, unloved by its crews. It still managed to deter U-boats. (Private Collection)
Five tons of peril for the U-boats. A Felixstowe F2A flying boat. Its long range and heavier bomb load prophesied the shape of things to come in the Second World War. (via Peter London)
Oberleutnant zur See Wolfgang Steinbauer, commander of UB 48. (Courtesy of Horst Bredow, Deutsches U-Boot Museum, Cuxhaven-Altentruch, Germany)
‘The U-boat War’. A mid-1918 German poster. The enemy’s average monthly shipbuilding – 270,000 tons. Sunk by U-boats, 600,000 tons. The balance is in Germany’s favour . . . (Private Collection)
The last victim of a Q-ship. J6 in port, 1918. (RN Submarine Museum)
End. Surrendered U-boats at Harwich, 1918. (RN Submarine Museum)
Kapitänleutnant Klaus Hansen and some of the crew of U 41. All submariners have their photograph taken by the conning tower, much as aircrew stand in front of aeroplanes. (Private Collection)