Q Ships and Their Story 14

Q Ships and Their Story 14

‘While this circus was going on, a number of T.B.D.’s were reported on

our starboard quarter, and three light cruisers and then T.B.D.’s swept

into sight and seemed to fill the whole horizon. They went on, ignoring

our request for a doctor, and disappeared in the mist, but their place

was taken by other T.B.D.’s. The place seemed full of them. Where they

all came from I do not know, or what they were doing, but everywhere

one looked one could see some of these beautiful vessels rushing along.

It was a fine, stirring sight. Finally we got one of them to stop and

lower a whaler with a doctor. While she was stopped her companion ships

steamed round to ward off attack. The doctor came on board, and decided

that Ryder ought to go in at once, and the T.B.D. _Torrent_ agreed to

take him in when asked by signal. So away went poor Ryder in great

pain, I fear, in spite of two morphia pills which we gave him. The C.O.

was afraid that we had given him too much, but one did not seem to do

him much good, so we gave him another one.

 

‘While we were transshipping him, the _Halcyon_ came tearing past, and

shouted that there was a hostile submarine 3 miles to the southward.

This, however, did not worry us with all these T.B.D.’s around. We were

in a scene of tremendous, even feverish, activity. There were sweepers,

T.B.D.’s, P-boats, and our own submarines all about. At 6 a.m. the

world held us and a very nasty, large, hostile submarine, which could

both outrange and outmanœuvre us, and the game seemed up. At 6.30 a.m.

we were as safe as one could wish to be, with a considerable portion of

England’s light forces around us. “Some change!”’

 

 

[Footnote 2: H.M.S. _Halcyon_, torpedo-gunboat, 1,070 tons.]

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VIII

 

SUBMARINES AND Q-SHIP TACTICS

 

 

In order properly to appreciate the difficulties of the Q-ships,

it is necessary to understand something of the possibilities and

limitations of the U-boats. No one could hope to be successful with

his Q-ship unless he realized what the submarine could not do, and how

he could attack the U-boat in her weakest feature. If the submarine’s

greatest capability lay in the power of rendering herself invisible,

her greatest weakness consisted in remaining thus submerged for a

comparatively short time. On the surface she could do about 16 knots;

submerged, her best speed was about 10 knots. As the heart is the vital

portion of the human anatomy, so the battery was the vital part of the

submarine’s invisibility. At the end of a couple of hours, at the most,

it was as essential for her to rise to the surface, open her hatches,

and charge her batteries as it is for a whale or a porpoise to come up

and breathe. It was the aim, then, of all anti-submarine craft to use

every endeavour to keep the U-boat submerged as long as possible. Those

Q-ships who could steam at 10 knots and over had a good chance then of

following the submarine’s submerged wake and despatching her with depth

charges. If she elected not to dive, there was nothing for it but to

tempt her within range and bearing of your guns and then shell her. To

ram was an almost impossible task, though more than one submarine was

in this way destroyed.

 

The difficulty of anti-submarine warfare was increased when the enemy

became so wary that he preferred to remain shelling the ship at long

range, and this led to our Q-ships having to be armed with at least one

4-inch against his 4·1-inch gun. The famous Arnauld de la Périère, who,

in spite of his semi-French ancestry, was the ablest German submarine

captain in the Mediterranean, was especially devoted to this form of

tactics. Most of the German submarines were double-hulled, the space

between the outer and inner hulls being occupied by water ballast and

oil fuel. The conning-tower was literally a superstructure imposed over

the hull, and not an essential part of the ship. That is why, as we

have already seen, the Q-ship could shell holes into the tower and yet

the U-boat was not destroyed. Similarly, a shell would often pierce the

outer hull and do no very serious damage other than causing a certain

amount of oil to escape. Only those who have been in British and German

submarines, and have seen a submarine under construction, realize what

a strong craft she actually is.

 

The ideal submarine would weigh about the same amount as the water

surrounding her. That being a practical impossibility, before she

submerges she is trimmed down by means of water ballast, but then

starts her engines and uses her planes for descent in the same way

as an aeroplane. The flooding tanks, as we have seen, are between

the two hulls, and the hydroplanes are in pairs both forward and

aft. The U-boat has been running on the surface propelled by her

internal-combustion motors. Obviously these cannot be used when she

is submerged, or the air in the ship would speedily be used up.

When about to submerge, the German captain trimmed his ship until

just afloat; actually he frequently cruised in this trim when in the

presence of shipping, ready to dive if attacked. The alarm was then

pressed, the engineer pulled out the clutch, the coxswain controlling

the forward hydroplane put his helm down, the captain entered the

conning-tower, the hatch was closed, and away the steel fish cruised

about beneath the surface.

 

The U-boat was now running on her electric batteries. By means of two

periscopes a view was obtained not merely of the sea above, but also

of the sky, so that surface craft and aircraft might be visible. The

order would be given to submerge to say 10 metres. Alongside each of

the two coxswains was a huge dial marked in metres, and it was the

sole duty of these two men to watch the dials, and by operating a big

wheel controlling each hydroplane maintain the submarine at such a

depth. Horizontal steering was done also by a wheel, and course kept

by means of a gyroscope compass, a magnetic compass in this steel ship

with so much electricity about being out of the question. The batteries

were charged while the submarine was on the surface by turning the oil

engines into a dynamo by means of the clutch, the hour before dawn and

the hour after sunset being favourable times for so charging.

 

The reader will have noted the preliminary methods of attack on the

part of the submarine and his manner of varying his position. He

divided his attack into two. The first was the approach, the second

was the attack proper. The former was made at a distance of 12,000

yards, and during this time he was using his high-power, long-range

periscope, manœuvring into position, and ascertaining the course and

speed of the on-coming Q-ship. The attack proper was made at 800 or

400 yards, and for this purpose the short-range periscope was used.

Now watch the U-boat in his attempt to kill. He is to rely this time

not on long-range shelling, but on the knock-out blow by means of his

torpedo: he has endeavoured, therefore, to get about four points on

the Q-ship’s bow, for this is the very best position, and he has dived

to about 60 feet. During the approach his torpedo-tubes have been got

ready, the safety-pins have been removed, and the bow caps of the tubes

opened. The captain has already ascertained the enemy’s speed and the

deflection or angle at which the torpedo-tube must point ahead of the

Q-ship at the moment of firing. When the enemy bears the correct number

of degrees of deflection the tube is fired, the periscope lowered,

speed increased, and, if the torpedo has hit the Q-ship, the concussion

will be felt in the submarine. This depends entirely on whether the

Q-ship’s speed and course have been accurately ascertained. The torpedo

has travelled at a speed of 36 knots, so, knowing the distance to be

run, the captain has only to look at his stop-watch and reckon the

time when his torpedo should have hit. If the German was successful

he usually hoisted his periscope and cruised under the stern of the

ship to obtain her name. If he were an experienced officer he never

came near her, after torpedoing, unless he was quite certain she was

abandoned and that she was not a trap. During 1917 and onwards, having

sunk the Q-ship, the submarine would endeavour to take the captain

prisoner, and one Q-ship captain, whose ship sank underneath him, found

himself swimming about and heard the U-boat’s officer shouting to the

survivors, ‘Vere is der kapitan?’ but the men had the good sense

to lie and pretend their skipper was dead. After this the submarine

shoved off, and my friend took refuge with others in a small raft.

But frequently a submarine would wait a considerable time cruising

round the sinking ship, scrutinizing her, examining the fittings, and

expecting to find badly hinged bulwarks, a carelessly fitted wireless

aerial, a suspicious move of a ‘deckhouse’ or piece of tarpaulin hiding

the gun. This was the suspense which tried the nerves of most Q-ship

crews, especially when it was followed by shelling.

 

We have seen that the U-boat sought to disguise herself by putting

up a sail when in the vicinity of fishing craft or patrol vessels.

The submarine which torpedoed one ship disguised her periscope by

a soap box, so that it was not realized till too late that this

innocent-looking box was floating _against_ the tide. At the best the

submarine was an unhandy craft, and it took her from three to six

minutes to make a big alteration of course, inasmuch as she had to

dive deeper lest she should break surface or disturb the surface of

the water. Again, when running submerged, if she wished to turn 16

points—_e.g._, from north to south—the pressure on her hull made it

very difficult.

 

It may definitely be stated that those who went to their doom in

U-boats had no pleasant death. When the Q-ship caused the enemy to be

holed so that he could not rise and the water poured in, this water,

as it moved forward in the submarine, was all the time compressing

the air, and those of the crew who had not already committed suicide

suffered agonies. Moreover, even if a little of the sea got into

the bilges where the batteries were placed there was trouble also.

Sea-water in contact with the sulphuric acid generated chlorine, a very

deadly gas, which asphyxiated the crew. There is at least one case on

record of a U-boat surrendering to a patrol boat in consequence of

his crew having become incapacitated by this gas; and on pulling up

the floorboards of a British submarine, one has noticed the chlorine

smell very distinctly. The dropping by the decoy ship of depth charges

sometimes totally destroyed the submarine, but even if this was not

accomplished straight away, it had frequently a most salutary effect:

for, at the least, it would start some of the U-boat’s rivets, smash

all the electric bulbs in the ship, and put her in total darkness. The

nasty jar which this and the explosion gave to the submarine’s crew

had a great moral effect. A month’s cruise in a submarine in wintry

Atlantic weather, hunted and chased most of the way from Heligoland

to the Fastnet and back, is calculated to try any human nerves: but

to be depth-charged periodically, or surprised and shelled by an

innocent-looking tramp or schooner, does not improve the enthusiasm of

the men. Frequently it happened that the decoy ship’s depth charges