?U-boats in World War One

The following are first hand quotes and diary extracts relating to U-boats. They are taken from Paul Allens book "Neath a foreign sky."

Extract: U-Boats over battleships The three large British cruisers, steaming in line abreast through the lens of Unterseeboot Nine?s periscope on that Tuesday morning of September the twenty second must have appeared in her commander?s eyes as a culmination of all his wildest dreams. He may perhaps for a few moments believed that he was indeed dreaming after the many days of fruitless patrolling of an empty North Sea following the beginning of the war in August. He may also have scanned the horizon for the tell tale plumes of smoke which would have been belching from the funnels of escorting destroyers, to his amazement there were non, all he could see were a few innocent fishing trawlers going about their business. He may have thought how can the British Navy be so foolish, or arrogant? Three of their large cruisers taking no evasive action as would be expected in hostile waters, and unbelievably no escorts, sheer madness. Moments later he had ordered his crew to action stations and began plotting a course that would bring his 6oo tons ?boat? into a position of interception...

...The British Newspapers had of course had a field day in the wake of the triple sinking; The ?Scarborough Mercury? had been no exception. In the edition for Friday September 25TH 1914 the newspaper had included photographs of the three missing seamen and in addition an extensive article containing much exaggerated information, which had allegedly come from the mouths of survivors;

?A British Naval Reverse - Three Cruisers sunk - Though not officially announced in England survivors assert that as the Cressy was sinking she succeeded in accounting for two German submarines. Though the Press Bureau states that only one submarine was concerned other reports state that five were engaged [Opinions differ as to their number]. Some place it as low as five. Other Seamen were positive there were a dozen. The white wakes of the periscopes frothed into view on a wide front. The Germans came along with the courage of full speed. Two or three of them were out of the water enough to have their conning towers awash. With real British cheers the gunners fell to their work on their guns. ?There?s one?, ?there?s another?, were the grunts as the submarines were spotted. Guns were worked with calm and deadly haste, but alas the submarines were too many. They were all around us at once said a survivor?...

...The bulk of the blame however had been directed at the Admiralty for persisting with a patrol that was dangerous and of limited value against the advice of senior sea going officers. One of whom, a submariner himself had written;

?Those three old cruisers which were sunk yesterday had been expected to be sunk everyday for weeks by us and our commodore had repeatedly warned the Admiralty that it was madness to allow ships to patrol up and down the North Sea practically on the on the same course and at the same speed. The North Sea is no place for big ships. I only hope the person responsible for putting them there gets hung?...

Source Paul Allen "Neath a foreign sky"