Here's a chestnut .... but some people mightn't have heard it !! On the 22nd of September 1914 ..... the German U-Boat U-9 sank in the space of just over an hour the British ships H M S Aboukir - H M S Hogue and H M S Cressy..... http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/cressy.htm That's an incredible fact in inself ... but here's the "kicker " .... 15 year old Wenham Wykeham-Musgrave was on board the Aboukir when it was torpedoed. He then swam across to the Hogue - but had barely got aboard when it was torpedoed. He then managed to get aboard the Cressy and was below decks when it was also torpodoed. He was therefore on 3 torpedoed ships ........... within the space of just over an hour !!
Sept. 22 1914 - the Konigsberg disabled the HMS Pegasus and packet ship Helmut at Zanzibar - then again went into hiding in the Rufiji delta. The British recruited H. Dennis Cutler and his pontoon seaplane to search for the ship - but the radiator of his aircraft failed and he was forced to make an emergency landing - the radiator could not be repaired - as there were no spare parts - but someone remembered seeing a Model T Ford at Mombasa - H M S Fox was despatched on a 200 mile trip northwards to get the radiator from the Ford which was then fitted to Cutler's plane ! Cutler found the cruiser 2 miles up the river, but then crashed - and became a prisoner. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww1/africa.html
Slightly more seriously, 1460 men perished from those three ships Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy - three times the number of men the Royal Navy had lost at Trafalgar. This action was the one which really demonstrated the potential of the submarine. The damage was done by Kapitanleutnant Otto Weddingen, commander of U9. On 5th October, he sank the cruiser HMS Hawke, with the loss of 524 men. Weddigen perished on 18th March 1915, commanding U29, when she was rammed by HMS Dreadnought - the only time that a battleship sunk a submarine.
Here's the Hawkes Captain ... that was a tragedy ! In Memory of Captain HUGH POWELL EVAN TUDOR WILLIAMS H.M.S. "Hawke.", Royal Navy who died age 40 on 15 October 1914 Son of Col. H. P. and Rosalie Ellen Williams, of Rhayader, Radnorshire; husband of Phyllis M. Williams, of Upper Culham Farm House, Henley-on-Thames. Awarded Royal Humane Society's Medal. Remembered with honour CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL http://www.cwgc.org/search/certificate.aspx?casualty=3050400
