The Project Gutenberg EBook of Diary of a U-Boat Commander, by Anonymous
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Title: Diary of a U-Boat Commander
Author: Anonymous
Posting Date: January 28, 2011 [EBook #7947]
Release Date: April, 2005
First Posted: June 4, 2003
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIARY OF A U-BOAT COMMANDER ***
Produced by Eric Eldred, Marvin A. Hodges, Charles Franks,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
We rammed a destroyer, passing through her like a knife through cheese
The Diary of a U-boat Commander
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND EXPLANATORY NOTES BY ETIENNE
AND
18 Illustrations on Art Paper by Frank H. Mason.
BOOKS BY ETIENNE
STRANGE TALES FROM THE FLEET
A NAVAL LIEUTENANT
1914--1918.
"In collaboration with Navallus.
Five Songs from the Grand Fleet."
...they are so black and swift I don't go near them
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"We rammed a destroyer, passing through her like a knife through cheese"
"...they are so black and swift I don't go near them"
"Steering north-westerly ... to lay a small minefield off Newcastle"
"He had suddenly seen the bow waves of a destroyer approaching at full speed to ram"
"We were put down by a trawler at dawn"
"The torpedo had jumped clean out of the water a hundred yards short of the steamer and had then dived under her"
"A moment later there was a severe jar; we had struck the bottom"
"As the dim lights on the mole disappeared, the ceaseless fountain of star-shells, mingling with the flashing of guns, rose inland on our port beam"
"We hit her aft for the second time...."
"The track met our ram"
"In the flash I caught a glimpse of his conning tower"
"The 1,000 kilogrammes of metal crashed down"
"Good-bye! Steer west for America!"
"It is a snug anchorage, and here I intend to remain"
"A trapdoor near her bows fell down, the White Ensign was broken at the fore, and a 4-inch gun opened fire from the embrasure that was revealed on her side"
"I sighted two convoys, but there were destroyers there...."
"... when there was a blinding flash and the air seemed filled with moaning fragments"
"When I put up my periscope at 9 a.m. the horizon seemed to be ringed with patrols"
INTRODUCTION
"I would ask you a favour," said the German captain, as we sat in the cabin of a U-boat which had just been added to the long line of bedraggled captives which stretched themselves for a mile or more in Harwich Harbour, in November, 1918.
I made no reply; I had just granted him a favour by allowing him to leave the upper deck of the submarine, in order that he might await the motor launch in some sort of privacy; why should he ask for more?
Undeterred by my silence, he continued: "I have a great friend, Lieutenant-zu-See Von Schenk, who brought U.122 over last week; he has lost a diary, quite private, he left it in error; can he have it?"
I deliberated, felt a certain pity, then remembered the Belgian Prince and other things, and so, looking the German in the face, I said: