Thank you, Michael. Most interesting observation and I bow to your experience.

I quarter-hoped that I might have found a damaged u-boat for your searches. I do admit to a nagging worry. The report by the Le Gard skipper is two-and-a-half pages of closely typewritten material, followed by several pages of the official interrogation form and, finally, a naval assessment of the likelihood of a sinking. The report is at all times measured, careful even, and certainly not excited as others I have read. The assessment takes the 'two submarines' claim seriously, noting they were at 4,000 and 7,000 yards, firing simultaneously. However ...

Back to your observation which you have noted 'numerous' times. I was intrigued by motive. In these cases, either there were two submarines or there was only one. If there was only one then possible reasons for the wrong report span the spectrum from genuine and understandable error to outright invention. Tricks of the mind in combat? Emotional compensation for failing lost crew? Self-aggrandisement? Reward for success? I wonder whether there are any other consistent lies / exaggerations in u-boat encounters that can only be noticed from an overview of the whole? I did read once that if all the men who claimed to have served in the SAS actually had, the regiment would have been over ten times its actual size.

And then, of course, there are all the claims by Royal Navy vessels to have actually sunk U-boats. One suspects in some cases there was official collusion in order to promote naval success in the great battle. You may not know that UC 61 was involved in one such. On 12 May 1917, UC 61 was lured in by the Q-ship Maristo near Anvil Point. As a torpedo attack was being lined up, HM Trawler Maristo (originally Caldew from Fleetwood) saw the conning tower, disclosed her guns, open fire, and then dropped three depth charges. UC 61 was forced to the bottom. When she later surfaced, a ventilation valve on an oil tank was found forced open and there was leakage. Maristo's log noted much oil on the water (ADM 53/48473). For the 'probable' sinking of the (unidentified) UC 61, Lieutenant Peter Nicholson, RNR, was awarded the DSC; Second Hand Alexander Robertson and Leading Seaman George Bremner each received the DSM; and the eighteen-man crew were given a £200 bounty, of which Nicholson received £40 12s 6d and the two RNVR Ordinary Telegraphists £4 18s 9d each.

Postscript: Maristo [Esperanto for 'seaman'] was sunk by gunfire off the Faroe Islands by U 33 on 24 September 1939. After rescue, the crew were later removed by German destroyer and interned in Germany - the first civilian ship's crew to be captured in WW2 and the only British fishermen to be held as POWs during the war (www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?12881).

Best wishes
Chris