World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations -- Submarine
The men noticed several chocolate-coloured bags hanging in the
submarine, marked U55. They were given tea, and at 5 p.m. the U-boat
submerged, and appeared to be stationary until 10 p.m., although the
engines were kept running. She then came to the surface and remained
there all night. The men were given hammocks to sleep in, but could not
sleep, so talked to the submarine's crew, who said they had sunk seven
sailing vessels that day. At 9 a.m. next morning they had breakfast; at
10.45 they were ordered on deck, and received their knives back. The
German officers kept eight shillings of their money. Finally they were
sent off in the boat of a French schooner, and were fortunate enough to
be picked up five hours later.
The worst feature of this case is the callous disregard shown by the
Germans when the master and cook fell into the sea. These two men were
allowed to drown right under the eyes of the Germans. After all, the
poor fellows were only trying to carry out the U-boat commander's
order when they fell overboard, and the dictates of common decency
would have caused any ordinary civilised man to have made at least
some sort of effort to rescue them. No great effort would have been
necessary; their own comrades could have picked up both men, if the
Germans had allowed this.
Instead, the commander preferred to leave the master clinging to the
side of the submarine until the icy winter water and his failing
strength obliged the wretched man to relax his hold and sink to
his death. It is a disgusting incident, which fills the mind with
indignation against the man who could permit such a thing to happen.
Unfortunately, we cannot put these Germans down as exceptional types.
From what happened afterwards, they appear to have been just ordinary
members of the U-boat service. They did not, for example, ill-treat
their prisoners while on board the submarine; and beyond the theft
of a few shillings by the German officers, the trawler's crew had no
ground for complaint. But the whole incident shows the low standard of
morality prevailing among German submariners. Two men allowed to drown;
eight shillings stolen from the survivors. That is all, and apparently
such trifling incidents are taken as a matter of course in the German
submarine service. What can be said for such men? How can normal people
understand their motives?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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