Hailed as an epic of self-sacrifia clandestinely armed fishing smack and a German U-boat 100 years ago masked ance and devotion to duty, the extraordinary clash between a clandestinely armed fishing smack and a German U-boat 100 years ago masked an enduring mystery in the ruthless battle between Q-boats and submarines. Mick Brooks charts a story of forlorn courage and tragedy in a fight against the odds.
GREAT WAR | THE WAR AT SEA
The unequal fight was, to all intents and purposes, over. One armed fishing smack, its hull ruptured, had already sunk, taking with her the mutilated remains of her valiant skipper. Another, her small gun having at last fallen silent, had been abandoned as their U-boat adversary closed in to administer the coup de grace. In truth, the result of the action fought in the grey waters of the Jim Howe Bank fishing grounds, some 40 miles north-east of Lowestoft during the afternoon of August 15, 1917, was never in doubt. Outgunned, out-ranged and, ultimately, out-smarted by their more powerful opponent, the smacks, the Royal Navy’s smallest and most feebly-armed decoy vessels in a motley fleet of Q-boats, had performed as well and as bravely as they could in the circumstances. Fo…
