75分钟的噩梦：一战U9潜艇击沉三艘巡洋舰

温丁根和U9

翻译：heinz1941

一战德军U9潜艇在75分钟之内击沉3艘英军老式巡洋舰，Aboukir,Hogue,和Cressy.

简介：
在一战前期，第三巡洋舰队，由老式的Cressy级装甲巡洋舰负责巡航北海及荷兰近海。资深的海军军官反对这样的巡航行动因为这样的行动会使三艘巡洋舰特别受到德军新型浅水舰的攻击。这次巡逻行动的代号是：“活钓饵巡航”。

我国的海军大臣仍然忽视了这个忠告，坚持实施这次行动,并坚持认为驱逐舰在海上频繁出现坏天气下是不能参加行动的，并且现代轻巡洋舰也并未被发明。

克雷西号

德军U9潜艇

这次巡航行动于1914年9月20日开始。
1914 年9月20日清晨, 巡洋舰Euryalis, Aboukir, Hogue和Cressy 在皇家海军少将Christian所在旗舰Euryalis的率领下准备离开进行巡逻。通常情况下这些行动是在Bacchantse的皇家海军少将 Campbell去指挥的，但是他不在,所以在这种情况下把这个任务交给了Christian。

由于驱逐舰参加此次行动非常艰难，因此Euryalis号在没有护航的情况下开始巡航，很快就因为缺少煤和无线电设备损坏而不得不而退出行动。（让Euryalis在没配有充足煤的情况下起航，看得出这次行动确实计划不周全以及工作人员的准备工作不到位）

恶劣的天气甚至不允许皇家海军少将在巡航中将指挥旗转移到另一艘巡洋舰上，他不得不把指挥权交给了Aboukir的舰长Drummond，但没明确地告诉Drummond在天气好转的时候下命令让驱逐舰出海航行，事实上21日晚些时候天气有所好转了。

因此，英军的老式巡洋舰失去了驱逐舰的保护，如果敌军潜艇在巡航区域内进行行动的话，这个不明确的命令将是致命的。

1914年9月22日。
三艘巡洋舰肆无忌惮的以10节的航速向东北偏北航性，并没有采取曲线航行的方式来规避附近的敌军潜艇。德军U9潜艇的艇长奥托·温丁根，当三艘（既不是一艘也不是两艘）英军轻巡洋舰出现在他的潜望镜里的时候，他都不敢相信他的好运气的。

U9艇长，温丁根上尉

清晨6：25，（U9发射）向Aboukir发射了一枚鱼雷,不久便击中了它的左舷，然后迅速漫水并失去动力，Durmmond舰长和他的船员被迫弃舰。最初，他认为他的船是撞上了一颗水雷，并指示其他两艘巡洋舰靠近协助。

当他意识到它的错误的时候已经太迟了，他的船是被鱼雷击中，看着它被U9击沉。Aboukir在30分钟内沉没，U9向Hogue发射了两枚鱼雷并击中船体中部，它在轮机舱内发生快速漫水。

U9因发射这最后的2枚鱼雷而失去了平衡，又被Hogue（的203mm舰炮）击中，所以暂时地失去了平衡（艇首突然下沉）。（温丁根命令所有人员到艇尾保持平衡）但并没有什么大碍，Hogue在随后的10分钟后沉没。

现在，U9驶向仍在航行的最后一艘巡洋舰，Cressy停下来，放下救生船去就落水者，这是一个重大错误，他出现在潜望镜里并再次进入攻击阵位，但是它是注定（要被击沉）的。上午7：20，两枚鱼雷再次射向他，一枚没有击中，第二枚鱼雷击中了他的右舷，但是不是很致命。

现在U9发射了他艇尾的鱼雷，艇长确认鱼雷不会偏离，并看着它（鱼雷）笔直的驶向目标，15分钟后，鱼雷击中了Cressy的要害，并使他沉没。

U9击沉敌舰的过程示意图

U9的第一观察官惊恐的望着潜望镜。
中尉Z·S·Johannes Spiesz,U艇的第一观察官发表了这样发人深省的评论：在潜望镜中，一幕惨剧展现在眼前，我们登上舰桥，试图控制脑海中的溺水人们的惨象，他们在残骸中为生存而挣扎，紧抓着摇摇欲坠的救生艇。

有些人获救了。

荷兰商船FLora和Titan,加上英国拖网渔船JGC和Corainder在遇难海域寻找幸存者，Flora就起286名英国水手到达荷兰，他们被遣返回英国，严格的说，荷兰作为中立国应该在战争期间拘禁他们,但是荷兰当局认为这是符合国际公约的。

总的来说，只有837人被从“大屠杀”中被救起，但是1459名英军官兵随舰身亡。

U9在战争中幸存下来。
U9见证了一战，在1918年11月26日投降，最终于1919年在Morecombre拆毁。

总结。
这次巡航以后，装甲巡洋舰的航行被停止了。一个调查组寻找责任人，许多高级军官受到起诉：Compbell舰长不进行曲线航行，并且不命令驱逐舰在天气转好的时候跟上。皇家海军少将Christian不发出清晰的命令给Drummond舰长，皇家海军少将Campbell在自己军舰的行动中没能出现及其在调查时本能的不好表现，他提出了一个很差劲的借口：他不知道他所指挥的目的是什么。多么悲哀呀！从一个皇家海军少将嘴里说出这样的话，在我看来他很显然不适合指挥。

这是一个高伤亡的悲惨事件，他们中间有很多军校生和预备役军人。对那些在战时掌权却在家中安全的人来说做出生死攸关的决定是很容易的，只不过把那些服役人员派出去送死。但是，在许多年以后的战备行动中又有多少真正的改变呢？

U9的艇员

绝大部分的责任应该是海军大臣坚持执行这次无论如何意义不大的巡逻任务（我相信这非常恰当），让老旧的巡洋舰出海是很危险的并且有很多有经验的高级军官反对。

德国颁发的奖章。

为了奖励这次胜利，德国颁发了一枚奖章，上面是奥托·温丁根中尉身着军装。

温丁根上尉

附言：
奥托·温丁根在1914年的10月击沉了英军装甲巡洋舰，他被调去指挥U29，并在1915年2月击沉了4艘商船。他出版了《潜艇的第一战》并被授予最高勋章蓝马克思勋章，但他并没有对自己的成功而感到快乐。他在1915年5月18日阵亡，当时U29被英军无畏级装甲巡洋舰撞成两半。

蓝马克思勋章

文中对应的舰名音译：
Euryalis：欧瑞亚利斯
Aboukir:阿布基尔
Hogue:霍格
Cressy：克雷西
Flora：弗洛拉
Titan：泰坦
Corainder：柯里安德

文中对应的人名音译：
Otto Weddingen：奥托·温丁根
Christian：克里斯汀
Bacchantse：巴克斯
Campbell：坎贝尔
Drummond：罗蒙德
Z·S·Johannes Spiesz：Z·S·约翰尼斯·斯皮茨

补充图片集：

克雷西被击中

温丁根

温丁根和夫人

U9

U9

U9返航

宣传画

温丁根

原文：

In WW1, German U-Boat U9, destroys three elderly British Light Cruisers, Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy in under 75 minutes.

Introduction.
In the early days of WW1, Cruiser Force C, made up of old Cressy class armoured cruisers patrolled part of the North Sea close to the Hook of Holland. Senior Naval Officers were opposed to this patrol on the grounds that these ships were very vulnerable to any attack from Germany's more modern surface ships, and advised the Admiralty accordingly. This patrol was nicknamed: "The live bait patrol."

Nonetheless, my Lords of the Admiralty ignored this advice, and persisted with this operation, insisting that Destroyers could not be involved because of the frequent bad weather that prevailed in the area, and also, because modern light cruisers were just unavailable.

The patrol set up on the 20th. of September 1914.

Early into the 20th. of September 1914, HM cruisers, Euryalis, Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy were about to leave on patrol with Rear Admiral Christian in his flagship Euryalis in charge. It was normal for Rear Admiral Campbell in Bacchantes to command these operations, but he was absent, so it was left to Christian to take over on this occasion.

It was too rough for the destroyers to be involved, and the cruisers sailed without any such escort, very soon after departure, Euryalis was forced to drop out from lack of coal, and damage to her wireless equipment. ( It does seem to be poor planning and staff work, to include Euryalis, and allow her to sail, when she carried insufficient coal.

The weather was too rough to even allow Rear Admiral Campbell to stay in command by transferring his flag to another cruiser, he had to delegate command to Captain Drummond in Aboukir, but did not clearly state that Drummond could order the destroyers to sea in the event that the weather moderated, which in fact it did towards the end of the 21st.

Thus, the elderly British cruisers were bereft of any destroyer support, and in the event of hostile submarines operating in the area, this lack of clear orders could prove to be fatal.

September the 22nd. 1914.
The three cruisers were steaming blissfully North North East at a leisurely 10 knots, and were not zigzagging to deter any hostile submarine in the vicinity. Otto Weddingen, commanding the German submarine U9, would not believe his luck when in his periscope appeared not one, not two, but three British light cruisers.

At 0625 ( 6.25 AM ) a single torpedo was fired at Aboukir, shortly after hitting her on the port side, she quickly flooded, and lost engine power, soon to be abandoned by Captain Drummond and his crew. At first, he thought his ship had struck a mine, and he ordered his two other cruisers to close and assist.

Too late he realised his awful mistake, his ship had been torpedoed, and he was merely setting them up for U9 to sink. Aboukir sank within 30 minutes, U9 fired two torpedoes at Hogue hitting her amidships, she flooded quickly in her engine room.

U9 lost trim from firing these last two torpedoes, and briefly broke surface, to be fired upon by Hogue, but to no effect, and in another 10 minutes Hogue had sunk.

Now, U9 went after the last cruiser still afloat, Cressy had stopped, lowering boats to pick up survivors, a big mistake, on sighting a periscope she quickly got under way again, but she too was doomed. At 7.20 ( 7.20AM ) of two torpedoes fired at her, one missed, but the second struck her starboard side but did not prove fatal.

Now U9 turned to loose off her last remaining torpedo, her Captain making sure he did not miss, it ran both straight and true, struck home to sink Cressy within 15 minutes. l?

U9's First Watch Officer watches in horror through the periscope.

Oberleutnant z. S. Johannes Spiesz, the U-Boats First Watch Officer made this revealing comment: "In the periscope, a horrifying scene unfolded. We present in the conning tower, tried to supress the terrible impression of drowning men, fighting for their lives in the wreckage, clinging to capsized life boats."

Some are rescued.

The Dutch Merchant ships Flora and Titan, plus British Trawlers JGC, and Corainder combed the devastated area looking for survivors to pick up, Flora arrived in Holland with 286 rescued British sailors, who were returned to England. Strictly speaking, Holland being neutral should have interned them for the duration of the war, but the Dutch authorities saw fit to flout that convention.

In all, only 837 were hauled from the carnage, but 1,459 Officers and men died from the three British cruisers.

U9 survived the war.

U9 saw out WW1, to surrender on the 26th. of November 1918, and was broken up at Morecombre in 1919.

Conclusion.

This patrol by armoured cruisers was later abandoned. A Court of Inquiry sought someone to blame, and most of the Senior Officers involved were castigated, Captain Campbell for not zig zagging, and for not ordering out the Destroyers after the weather had moderated. Rear Admiral Christian for not issuing clear orders to Captain Drummond, Rear Admiral Campbell for not being available and missing the action in his ship, and for his poor showing at the Inquiry, he had come up with the lame excuse: "He did not know what the purpose of his command was." How pathetic, and from a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy, he was obviously quite unfit, in my view, to be in command.

Most of the blame fell upon the Lords of the Admiralty ( quite properly I believe ) for persisting in ordering this patrol, that was dangerous with the old cruisers sent out, was of limited value anyway, and against all the advice of the sea going Senior Officers.
 
A sad affair resulting in such a high loss of life, many of them Cadets and Reservists.

It is so easy for those who are in charge in time of war, but who are safe at home, to make fatal decisions that wind up, sending service personnel to their death. But then, has anything really changed so many years and so many warlike operations later?

Medal struck in Germany.
To mark this victory, a Medal was struck in Germany, it was a bust of Captain Lieutenant Otto Weddingen, in uniform.

Post Script.

Otto Weddingen sank the British Cruiser HMS Hawker in October 1914, he changed command to U29, and in February of 1915 sank four Merchant ships. He had published his book: "The First Submarine Blow," and had been awarded the prestigious decoration Pour le Merite ( The Blue Max ) but did not live to enjoy his success. He died on the 18th. of March 1915, when U29 was rammed by the British HMS Dreadnought, and sliced in half.

后记

U9的战绩很大成份上有着许多幸运在里面，或者说是英国的舰长处理得不得当。只是一个偶然或者是什么原因。因为，一战时间，潜艇技术的发展还是十分原始和落后。还是缺乏主动挑战水面舰艇部队的实力。

时间仓促，定有不足之处，请各位指正，谢谢观赏！