The Diary of a U-boat Commander
By Sir Stephen King-Hall
Long before we reached the vicinity of Verdun it was obvious to the most casual observer that we were heading for a center of unusual activity.
Hospital trains traveling north-east and east were numerous, and twice our train, which was one of the ordinary military trains, was shunted onto a siding to allow troop trains to rumble past.
As we approached Verdun the noise of artillery, which I had heard distantly once or twice during the day, as the casual railway train approached the front, became more intense and grew from a low murmur into a steady noise of a kind of growling description, punctuated at irregular intervals by very deep booms as some especially heavy piece was discharged, or an ammunition dump went up.
The country here is very different from the mud flats of Flanders, as it is hilly and well-wooded. The Meuse, in centuries, has cut its way through the rampart of hills that surround Verdun, and we are attacking the place from three directions. On the north we are slowly forcing the French back on either river bank—a very costly proceeding, as each wing must advance an equal amount, or the one that advances is enfiladed from across the river.
We are also slowly creeping forward from the east and north-east in the direction of Douaumont.
I am attached to a 105-cm. battery, a young Major von Markel in command, a most charming fellow. I spent all today in the advanced observing position with a young subaltern called Grabel, also a nice young fellow. I was in position at 6 a.m., and, as is common here, mist hides everything from view until the sun attains a certain strength. Our battery was supporting the attack on the north side of the river, though the battery itself was on the south side, and firing over a hill called L’Homme Mort.
Von Markel told me that the fighting here has not been previously equaled in the war, such as the intensity of the combat and the price each side is paying.
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Sir Stephen King-Hall
William Stephen Richard King-Hall, Baron King-Hall of Headley (21 January 1893 – 2 June 1966) was a British naval officer, writer, politician, and playwright who served as a member of parliament for Ormskirk from 1939 to 1945.
Early life and career
The son of Admiral Sir George Fowler King-Hall and Olga Felicia Ker; theirs was an artistic naval family, King-Hall’s sisters Magdalen and Lou also being writers. He married Kathleen Amelia Spencer (died 14 August 1950), daughter of Francis Spencer, on 15 April 1919 and they had three children, Ann, Frances Susan, and Jane.
He was educated at Lausanne in Switzerland and the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. He fought in the First World War between 1914 and 1918, with the Grand Fleet, serving on HMS Southampton and the 11th Submarine Flotilla. He gained the rank of commander in the service of the Royal Navy in 1928, before resigning in 1929. He wrote several plays between 1924 and 1940, including Posterity accepted by Leonard Woolf for the Hogarth Essays. He joined the Royal Institute of International Affairs in 1929, having previously been awarded their gold medal for his 1920 thesis on submarine warfare.
Bibliography
A Naval Lieutenant, 1914–1918 as Etienne
Diary of a U-Boat-Commander 1918, as “Etienne”, 1918[7]
Western Civilisation and the Far East, 1924
Imperial Defence
The China of To-day
The War at Sea, 1914–1918
Submarines in the Future of Naval Warfare, 1920. Thesis.
Our Own Times, 2 vols, 1935
London Newsletter (a.k.a. K-H Weekly News Letter Service, National News Letter), 1936.
Total Victory, 1941
Britain’s Third Chance, 1943
My Naval Life, 1952
History in Hansard (with Ann Dewar), 1952
The Communist Conspiracy, 1953
Defense in the Nuclear Age. Gollancz, London, 1958; Nyack, N.Y.: Fellowship, 1959.
Common Sense in Defence, 1960
Men of Destiny, 1960
Our Times, 1900–1960, 1961
Power Politics in the Nuclear Age. Gollancz, London, 1962.
Sir Stephen King-Hall
