["It is a snug anchorage, and here I intend to remain"]

["A trapdoor near her bows fell down, the White Ensign was broken at the fore, and a 4-inch gun opened fire from the embrasure that was revealed on her side"]

["I sighted two convoys, but there were destroyers there...."]

["... when there was a blinding flash and the air seemed filled with moaning fragments"]

["When I put up my periscope at 9 a.m. the horizon seemed to be ringed with patrols"]

INTRODUCTION

"I would ask you a favour," said the German captain, as we sat in the cabin of a U-boat which had just been added to the long line of bedraggled captives which stretched themselves for a mile or more in Harwich Harbour, in November, 1918.

I made no reply; I had just granted him a favour by allowing him to leave the upper deck of the submarine, in order that he might await the motor launch in some sort of privacy; why should he ask for more?

Undeterred by my silence, he continued: "I have a great friend, Lieutenant-zu-See Von Schenk, who brought U.122 over last week; he has lost a diary, quite private, he left it in error; can he have it?"