Drowning flotilla

Drowning flotilla: The name given in the Dover Patrol to the German Flanders Coast submarine flotilla, in consequence of its severe losses at our [Allied] hands. Hardly any of the U-boats survived its third cruise. Practically all met their fate at our [Allied] hands. One of the last was SMU UB-116, which, manned by a crew entirely of German Naval Officers, made a forlorn-hope attempt, ten days before the Armistice, to enter Scapa and attack the Grand Fleet. Detected at the entrance, it was blown up on the mine-field and all on board perished. Colonel Repington in his "First World War," Vol. II., p.290, visiting Admiral Sir Roger Keyes at Dover, in April, 1918, saw a chart showing where the U-boats had been dealt with. He says: "His graveyard shows the spots where twenty Boche submarines have been sunk since he took command in January. The trawlers and drifters fired on the U-boats, and small destroyers attacked them with depth-charges and drove them down upon the mines." .