“When I got within suitable range, I sent away my third attack. This
time I sent a second torpedo after the first to make the strike doubly
certain. My crew were aiming like sharpshooters and both torpedoes
went to their bullseye. My luck was with me again, for the enemy was
made useless and at once began sinking by her head. Then she careened
far over, but all the while her men stayed at the guns looking for
their invisible foe. They were brave and true to their country’s
sea traditions. Then she eventually suffered a boiler explosion and
completely turned turtle. With her keel uppermost, she floated until
the air got out from under her and then she sank with a loud sound, as
if from a creature in pain.
“The whole affair had taken less than one hour from the time of
shooting off the first torpedo until the _Cressy_ went to the bottom.
Not one of the three had been able to use any of its big guns. I knew
the wireless of the three cruisers had been calling for aid. I was
still quite able to defend myself, but I knew that news of the disaster
would call many English submarines and torpedo-boat destroyers, so,
having done my appointed work, I set my course for home.
“My surmise was right, for before I got very far some British cruisers
and destroyers were on the spot, and the destroyers took up the chase.
I kept under water most of the way, but managed to get off a wireless
to the German fleet that I was heading homeward and being pursued. I
hoped to entice the enemy, by allowing them now and then a glimpse
of me, into the zone in which they might be exposed to capture or
destruction by German warships; but, although their destroyers saw me
plainly at dusk on the 22nd, and made a final effort to stop me, they
abandoned the attempt, as it was taking them too far from safety, and
needlessly exposing them to attack from our fleet and submarines.
“How much they feared our submarines and how wide was the agitation
caused by my good little _U-9_ is shown by the English reports that a
whole flotilla of German submarines had attacked the cruisers, and that
this flotilla had approached under cover of the flag of Holland.
“These reports were absolutely untrue.
“I reached the home port on the afternoon of the 23rd and on the
24th went to Wilhelmshaven to find the news of my effort had become
public. My wife, dry-eyed when I went away, met me with tears. Then I
learned that my little vessel and her brave crew had won the plaudits
of the Kaiser, who had conferred upon my co-workers the Iron Cross of
the second class and upon me the Iron Cross of the first and second
classes.”