U-2 1 was part of the great surprise weapon of WWI, the submarine that gai•e Germany, the weaker naval power, the ability to challenge Britain's command of the seas. German U-boats came perilou!fly close to breaking the Allies' Atlantic supply line in both World Wars.
doubts were quickly di smi ssed from the Ge rm an co mm and e r 's mind as th e target's range closed. Two thousand five hundred meters . . . 1,900 meters ... 1,500 meters. At exactly 1645 hours, less than an hour since an attack course had been set, at a keel de pth of20 meters, Hersing electrically fired a single torpedo from one of hi s submarine's two bow tubes. The compressed air torpedo began its run , as Hersing immediately retracted hi s peri scope, which from all indications had not yet been seen by the Engli sh vesse l, despite the smoothness of the ocean 's surface. The seconds must have seemed intermina ble ... 10 ... 20 ... 30. Nothing .. . one minute ... still nothing. A mi ss, despite the care he had taken in calcul ating the shot, despite Hersing's reputation as the best scorer with torpedoes in the flotill a. One minute 15 seconds .. . much too long for a 1,500 meter run. And then the unbe li evably violent detonation as the torpedo struck the Engli sh ship! The micro-world of the German crew was turned nearly upsidedown by the severity of the bl ast, the entire submarine was lifted as if by some gigantic hand .
Hers ing's first thoughts after the tremendous ex plosion were of hi s submarine and crew: had the boat he ld together? had any of hi s men been injured? " A ll in o rde r, Kapitanl e utn ant," hi s he lmsman re ported . " Minimal damage, no visible leaking anyw here!" The periscope was raised and no trace of the cruiser cou ld be seen. Later Eng li sh reports of the attack indicated that the German torpedo had struck the vessel amidships, just below the first funne l, causing an explosion in the main ammunition magazine. Th is caused the funnel to literally fl y off the ship. The crui ser broke apart, the bow portion sinking first. The stern section rose, turned over and likewise slipped beneath the surface. Only I I ofnearly 350crewmembers, including the badly wounded captain , surv ived the tragedy . They we re later rescued from the water by the escorting destroyers. The luck less vesse l was the Pathfinder, a modern crui ser of 3,000 tons, mounting nine 4-inch guns. Ironically , the ship had recently been refitted at a cost to the British of nearly half a million pounds. At the time it was struck by U-2 1's torpedo, the Pathfinder had been the
flagship of the crui ser flotill a based in the Firth of Forth. Forth is ac tion , Captain Hersing, along with members of hi s crew, was awarded the Iron Cross Second C lass by direct order of the Kaiser. Yet surpri singly, it was not for hi s destruction of the first enemy vesse l by torpedo for wh ich he became so famo us as the war progressed, but rather for a later ex ploit. ln Apri l 19 15, Hers ingandU-2 1 were orde red to sa il from Wilhelmshave n, Germany , south through the Strait of Gibra ltar, and on into the eastern Mediterranean Sea to help s upport the Turkish fo rces at the Dardanell es. Despite the di stances in vo lved, the U- boat s uccessfully made the voyage, sank two British capita l ships in the process and dramati ca ll y he lped change the course of that campaign in hi s side's favo r. It was perhaps the most ironic twist of fate that the course of the war brought Otto Hersi ng, the first U-boat comm ander in hi story to sink an enemy vesse l by torpedo attack, to the Dardanelles, to nearly the same location where the first encounter between a submarine and surface vessels had taken pl ace only three yea rs before. t
A prof essor of German at Edinboro Univers ity in Penn syl va nia , Mr . Hajewski has published numerous articles on military topics, including "With U-53 10 America" in Sea Hi story 55 and 56.
HMS Pathfinde r, shown here anchored peacefu lly before the war, was literally blown apart by U-2 1's torpedo on 5 September 19 14-lhe firsl hit a/ World War I. A li11/e over two weeks later, three British cruisers were sun/.: in succession by one German U-boat--hecaus e two cruisers stopped to pick up the menfrom thefirst one hit. Th ereajier there was no stopping to t.=::_;~;;_~~_'.:~~~~~~~:=_:==:..=;::;;:;:~~~!!E~~~~'.____::::::_j pick up casualties.
SEA HISTORY 74, SUMMER 1995
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