The Diary of a U-boat Commander

The Diary of a U-boat
Commander

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Title: The Diary of a U-boat Commander
Author: Anon
Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7947] [This file was first posted on

June 4, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE
DIARY OF A U-BOAT COMMANDER ***

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Distributed Proofreading Team.

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.

[Illustration: "We rammed a destroyer, passing through her like a knife
through cheese."]
* * * * *
BOOKS BY ETIENNE
STRANGE TALES FROM THE FLEET
A NAVAL LIEUTENANT
1914--1918.

"In collaboration with Navallus.
Five Songs from the Grand Fleet."
[Illustration: "...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:
"I can do nothing."
"Please."

I shook my head, then, to my astonishment, the German placed his
head in his hands and wept, his massive frame (for he was a very big
man) shook in irregular spasms; it was a most extraordinary spectacle.
It seemed to me absurd that a man who had suffered, without visible
emotion, the monstrous humiliation of handing over his command
intact, should break down over a trivial incident concerning a diary, and
not even his own diary, and yet there was this man crying openly
before me.
It rather impressed me, and I felt a curious shyness at being present,