WAR TIME REMINISCENCES

Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1930, Page 7

WAR TIME REMINISCENCES

SINKING OF GERMAN U BOAT.

AUCKLAND, July 1.

The master of the. steamer Polzella, which has just arrived at Auckland with a cargo of sugar from Cuba, served for three years with the Q ships during the war and his experiences of the desperate warfare waged against German submarines round the coasts of Scotland and Ireland would fill a book were he in Hie r.iocd „to write on©. Captain G. B. James, 4/;h'P is. silill comparatively young, was a. mere youngster when lie os flung into the vortex of war, and ,he was in hospital suffering from wounds when the Armistice was declared.

“The way in which w© bagged our first submarine came 'about in rather peculiar circumstances,” said, Captain James, in the course of some leminiscences. “My first post was, gunnery officer on Ql4, which was a small steamer of about 1000 tons, built at Stockton-on-Tees towards the end of 1915 specially to the Adin'ralty’s orders. She was a proper mystery ship, fitted out with every conceivable ‘gadget’ for deceiving enemy submarines, and 1 guarantee that no one on a eursory inspection would pick her to be any other than an innocent tramp steamer. “There were 99 men on. board, all in civilian dress, and we had the Norwegian colours painted on the hull, with the sides of the ship hinged so that they could be let down covering the flag the' moment - we opened fire. Concealed on board we had one 4-inch gun and seven 12-pounders. We were a pirate ship in every sense of the form,

“We wlere aH young chaps, absolutely new to active service conditions. After leaving the dockyard we went straight to our destination on the west coast of Ireland and got < 4 ur first submarine the first Jay out. We would be about 50 miles from the coast and the officers decided 'that we must have our first rehearsal, which consisted in going through oil the operations that would he necessary should we sight a submarine. -We did everything except actually fire the guns, We let down the trap doors and worked all the ‘gadgets,’ and had just restored everything to its normal innocent appearance when the lieutenanft turned round quite calmly and said, ‘There’s your first Fritz over there.’

“Sure enough, a German submarine was coming straight for us on the surface, (Everyone rushed back to their stations and we had the rehearsal all over again, only this time it was the real thing. We hove to and put 15 mon in a lifeboat to fool the hun. The next minute down went the trap doors and rails, up went the White Ensign and our guns opened fire. We sank /the submarine in a. few minutes, crew and all. That was the usual thing, by the way, as we wow told the Germans gave no quarter to our Q boats. Our captain got a D.S.O. and the ship earned £IOOO in prize money,”