Page:Victory at Sea - William Sowden Sims and Burton J. Hendrick.djvu/256

238 and immediately saw, not far away, a huge enemy submarine proceeding north at a leisurely pace, never once suspecting that one of its own kind was on its trail. In order to get within range and cut the German off, the Britisher dived again to forty feet, went ahead for twenty minutes with all the speed it could muster, and again came near enough to the surface to put up its periscope. Now it was directly astern; still the British submarine was not near enough for a sure shot, so again it plunged beyond periscope depth, coming up at intervals during the next hour, each time observing with satisfaction that it was lessening the distance between itself and its prey. When the range had been decreased to two hundred and fifty yards, and when the E-35 had succeeded in getting in such a position that it could fire its torpedo, the missile was launched in the direction of the foe. But this was only another of the numerous occasions when the shot missed. Had the German submarine been a surface ship, it would have seen the wake and probably escaped by flight; but still it sailed nonchalantly on its way, never suspecting for a moment that a torpedo had missed its vitals by only a few feet. Soon the E-35 crept still closer, and fired two torpedoes simultaneously from its bow tubes. Both hit at the same time. Not a glimpse of the German submarine was seen from that moment. A terrific explosion was heard, a mountain of water rose in the air, then in a few seconds everything was still. A small patch of oil appeared on the surface; this gradually expanded in size until it covered a great area; and then a few German sailors came up and started swimming toward the British vessel.

We Americans had seven submarines based on Berehaven, Ireland, whose "billets" were located in the approaches to the Irish Sea. The most spectacular achievement of any one of our boats was a curious mix-up with a German submarine, the details of which have never been accurately ascertained, but the practical outcome of which was indisputably the sinking of the German boat. After a week's hard work on patrol, the A L-2 was running back to her base on the surface when the lookout sighted a periscope. The A L-2 at once changed her course, the torpedo was made ready to fire, when the quiet of the summer afternoon was rent by a terrific roar and explosion.