Sailor’s WW1 diary and letters help find sunk German U-boat

On the morning of 19 February 1917, German submarine UC-18 opened fire on the Q-Ship the Lady Olive.

Q-ships were heavily armed decoy vessels used by the Royal Navy, made to appear like harmless merchant or fishing vessels. They were used to entice U-boats to the sea’s surface and then attack them.

As the U-boat drew near to assess the damage it had inflicted, the Lady Olive counter-attacked.

Mike Sandford, Mrs Sandford’s husband and a historian, explained neither ship had ever been found so there remained a mystery around the incident.

The British crew would get a prize for sinking a submarine, so there was “a motive to make this up”, he said.

Mr Taylor said some historians had questioned whether, in fact, the German submarine had escaped with light damage – but Mr Simpson’s diaries indicated otherwise.

He said: “James’s version of events and the way he wrote about it indicated that the crew were telling the truth.”

However, there was still no information about exactly where the battle had taken place.

Here, Mr Taylor said, the diaries had helped by allowing the dive team to rule out areas because they did not reference significant markers such as land masses and lighthouses.

“The fact those things hadn’t been mentioned in the diaries or the days leading up to them gave me some clues to maybe where they weren’t located at the time of the battle,” he explained.