Italy also lost several fine destroyers by attack from Austrian or German U-boats. The _Impetuoso_ was submarined in the Straits of Otranto on the 10th July, 1916, with small loss of _personnel_, but the fate which befell the _Nembo_ was more tragic and more romantic. The _Nembo_ was escorting a transport to Valona. The submarine was sighted on board the destroyer, whose commander at once changed course so as to cover his charge, which had some 3000 soldiers on board. He succeeded in doing this, and the torpedo intended for the transport struck the _Nembo_ with full force. She at once began to settle, but the indomitable officer swung his ship round with the intention of ramming his assailant. Loss of speed and gain of water on the part of the destroyer gave the U-boat time to submerge, but the commander still had another card to play. He ordered depth charges to be dropped overboard. There was a mammoth upheaval of water, followed by the reappearance of the enemy showing evident signs of distress. Shortly afterward destroyer and submarine went to a common grave, the _Nembo_ carrying with her most of her gallant crew, while eleven men from U 16 managed to scramble into one of the destroyer’s boats that floated by without a solitary occupant. Vienna newspapers, like those of Berlin, endeavoured to bolster up the naval cause of the Central Powers by deliberately manufacturing desirable news. In January 1915 the Austrians were told that their E 12 had sunk the French battleship _Courbet_, a Dreadnought armed with a dozen 12–in. guns. That was sufficiently wide of the mark in all conscience, for it was absolutely untrue, but the loss of the _Jean Bart_ by colliding with her when going to her assistance was tagged on to make the victory still more complete. E 12 certainly did succeed in hitting the _Jean Bart_ with a torpedo, but the material damage was of slight importance and was speedily repaired. At the time the _Courbet_ was many miles away from the scene of the imaginary action—“in excellent trim,” as the French Ministry of Marine stated. On another occasion the French battleship _Vérité_ was alleged to have been seriously damaged by a German submarine. This tale of disaster, terrible in the loss of great ships and greater men, is at the worst only a record of what is legitimate in modern naval warfare. Those who thought, like Nobel, that the more violent the agencies to be employed in conflict the more likelihood of preserving peace had their fond delusions shattered in the saturnalia of the centuries. Likewise those who sow the wind often reap the whirlwind. CHAPTER VI _Horton, E 9, and Others_ “_If the submarine had succeeded our Army in France would have withered away._”—D. LLOYD GEORGE.