Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-08

their commanders sent word back to London
that they had wiped out a German destroyer
The fact was that the British torpedo had gone
to the bottom and there exploded. The British
commander inferred from the circumstance
that he heard the explosion that he had hit the
mark. The German torpedo boat S-l20 made
a sufficiently accurate report of this affair.
The British. with their pair of submarines in
the Baltic, cruised around and about quite ruth
leSsly. Their successes were nevertheless slight,
for they hit very little and aboard our own boats
the watch was most keen. No British Subma-
rine so much as gave a thought to warning
merchantmen or any other commercial vessel
of its intention to fire shot or to launch
torpedo. Nobody on our side got at all excited
over that Not single German trading vessel
in the Baltic was armed.
German steamship engaged in commercial
voyages only sunk near Rugen by artillery
IRE from British submarine. On the German
side a submarine campaign against trading ships
was not carried on in the Baltic. In
pacity as masters of the Baltic. it easy for
us with our fighting forces afioat to control the
whole traffic. Only in the neutral sound in the
southern part of Sweden did we encounter diplo-
matte difficulties.
Our own armored cruiser Prinz Adalbert was
torpedoed by British submarine on the I'd
day of july in this same year, 1915 Into this
episode would like to enter little because il
brought out so clearly the fitness of our Ger
man crews
There was light snow. This cleared away
somewhat. At that very moment the subma-
rine, then plunged below the surface, found it
self in a good position to shoot. Suddenly,
aboard the armored cruiser, 1t became obvious
that torpedo was coming ManeuverS for the
purpose of evading it began at once, but in spite
of these the projectile must evidently reach its
mark in Is seconds. At the same moment the
enemy-now invisible-discharged a second and
q third torpedo.
MY whole thought" to quote the words of
the commander of the German Ship was di-
rected to one thing. Out of the three torpedoeS,
would be able to get off with only one hit?
The torpedo nearest to us seemed bent upon
passing us completely by far forward The far
thest torpedo could at most strike us far behind,
If that. paid little attention to it because 1t
went along lamely But there was the second
torpedo of the enemy. This sped straight to-
ward our broadside and must inevitably hit.
There was nothing more that we could do
stared, fascinated, as the projectie dashed to-
ward our freeboard and on right In front of
the bridge. The pair of torpedoboats that
acted as my convoy had by this time forced
the enemy to dive beneath the surface. No fur
Their measures could be taken just then and
water bombs had yet to be invented. 1t was still
the golden age of the submarine
WITH reference to this last observation 1
would like to say that we Germans most
unfortunately let this golden age slip by with
out making any proper use of it. We conducted
against the enemy no submarine campaign of
the ruthless and unrestricted kind Yet we had
things much easier for us at that time than
they were later on when formidable defense
weapons were invented and available.
The torpedo that struck the old German
armored cruiser went well home. yet the ship
kept afioat The forward torpedo broadside
ROOM munitions chamber, the forward galley
and the commanders signal room were at once
flooded. The signal apparatus for both guns