Q-ship
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Q-ship_gun.jpg
The Q-ship or Q-boat was a weapon used against German U-boats during World War I primarily by Britain and during World War II primarily by the United States. They were ships disguised as civilian ships which would then attack, and were in response to merchant raiders by Germany, which were similar but attacked shipping rather then enemy submarines.
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World War I
In the First Battle of the Atlantic, by 1915, Britain was in desperate need for a countermeasure against the U-boats that were strangling her sea-lanes. Convoys, which had proven effective in earlier times (and would again prove effective during World War II), were rejected by the resource-strapped Admiralty and the independent captains. Depth charges were very primitive, and the only method of sinking a submarine was by gunfire or by ramming. The problem was to lure the U-boat to the surface.
The solution to this problem was the creation of the Q-ship, one of the most closely-guarded secrets of the war. These would be known to the Germans as a U-Boot-Falle ("U-boat trap"). The Q-ship would pose as a easy target for the U-boat but in fact carry hidden armament. A typical Q-ship would be an old-looking tramp steamer calmy sailing alone near an area where a U-boat was reported to be operating. Through being a suitable target for the use of the U-boats deck gun they would encourage the Captain to take his boat to the surface rather than use one of his expensive torpedoes, which were in short supply. The cargoes of the Q-ships would be wooden caskets and wood (eg balsa or cork) so even if torpedoed they would stay afloat, encouraging the U-boat to surface and use its gun. If necessary the crew could even stage an "abandon ship" routine. Once the U boat was in a suitable position the Q-ship would change rapidly, false panels would drop to reveal the hidden guns which would start firing. At the same time the White Ensign would be broken out. With the element of surprise the U-boat could be quickly overwhelmed.
The first victory of a Q-ship occurred on July 24, 1915, when U-36 was sunk by HMS Prince Charles, commanded by Lieutenant Mark Wardlaw RN. In August of that year, an even smaller converted fishing trawler named His Majesty's Armed Smack Inverlyon successfully destroyed UB-4 near Great Yarmouth. The Inverlyon was an unpowered sailing craft fitted with a 47mm cannon.
On August 19, 1915, Lieutenant Godfrey Herbert RN of the HMS Baralong sank UB-27 which had been preparing to sink a nearby transport ship. About a dozen of the sailors escaped the sinking submarine, and Herbert fearing they they would scuttle the civilian ship, ordered the sailors to be shot at as they swam towards the the transport and then sent a boarding party aboard that ship prevent any attempts at sinking it. The event came to be known as the "Baralong Incident".
Despite some spectacular actions and a great deal of romanticization, Q-ships were not particularly successful (see HMS Dunraven). In the course of 150 engagements they were only able to kill 14 U-boats and damage another 60, at a cost of 27 Q-ships lost out of 200. Q-ships were responsible for only about 10% of all U-boats sunk, ranking them far below the use of mine fields in overall effectiveness.
World War II
By January 12, 1942, the British Admiralty's intelligence community had noted a "heavy concentration" of U-boats off the "North American seaboard from New York to Cape Race" and passed along this fact to the United States Navy. That day, U-113 under Kapitänleutnant Reinhard Hardegen, torpedoed and sank the British steamship Cyclops, inaugurating Paukenschlag (literally, "a roll on the kettledrum"), known to the Allies as Operation Drumbeat. U-boat commanders found peacetime conditions prevailing along the coast: towns and cities were not blacked-out and navigational buoys remained lighted; shipping followed normal routines and "carried the normal lights." Paukenschlag had caught the United States unawares.
Losses mounted rapidly. On January 20, 1942, Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet (Cominch), sent a coded dispatch to Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier (CESF), requesting immediate consideration of the manning and fitting-out of "Queen" ships to be operated as an antisubmarine measure. The result was "Project LQ."
Five vessels were acquired and converted:
- the Boston beam trawler MS Wave, which briefly became the auxiliary minesweeper USS Eagle (AM-132) before becoming USS Captor (PYC-40),
- SS Evelyn and Carolyn, identical cargo vessels that became USS Asterion (AP-100) and USS Atik (AP-101) respectively,
- the tanker SS Gulf Dawn, which became USS Big Horn (AO-45), and
- the schooner Irene Myrtle, which became USS Irene Forsyte (IX-93).
The careers of all five ships were almost entirely unsuccessful and very short; all Q-ships patrols ended in 1943.
Fictional usages
Q-ships have appeared in the Honor Harrington books by David Weber, including the stories On Basilisk Station and Honor Among Enemies. The series is Space Opera and set in what fans refer to as the Honorverse.
Other usages of the name
The term (or "Q-car") has subsequently been used to describe cars that have much higher than average performance (often through extensive modification) but look like conventional, uninteresting family transport. As well as the ships, this term may also be reinforced from the United Kingdom's system of registration plate numbering - the first symbol on a British plate is a letter code for the year of manufacture, but for vehicles of uncertain or mixed age, a plate beginning with "Q" is used.
See also
External links
- Für Kaiser und Reich (http://uboat.net/history/wwi/part3.htm), His Imperial Majesty's U-Boats in WWIpl:statek-pułapka