SMOKE AND MIRRORS: Q-SHIPS AGAINST THE U-BOATS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Author: Lake, D.

The Q ship an ordinary merchant vessel with concealed guns came into its own during the First World War when used by the Royal Navy to trap and destroy German U-boats. Deborah Lake uses a wide range of primary and secondary source material drawn from archives in the UK Germany and the USA to tell the compelling story of the Q-Ships and their U-boat adversaries. The Q-ship operations themselves are covered by following the careers of the eight men who won the Victoria Cross on Special Service Operations and by accounts of the German U-boat crews on the receiving end. No book on Q-ships can avoid the Baralong incident in which a Q-ship's crew allegedly executed the survivors of the German submarine U27 on 19 August 1915. In a subsequent encounter with U41 more British atrocities were alleged by the only two German survivors. Revealing extracts from the diary of a Royal Marine who served on board the Baralong are reproduced in the book together with other first-hand accounts. With charge and counter-charge this incident provides a fascinating story.