No problem at all, Michael, just grateful, as always, that you give of your time and expertise.

Thank you for the detailed information which, sadly, leaves me in a quandary. I am waiting for some more papers from Freiburg on this subject, so I think I'll get on with the book and give Boyardville a short time to rest and assimilate.

My basic problem remains. The French papers from Cherbourg strongly suggest that Suadicani (now found to be Bartenbach's chief of staff), did send two u-boats to the French Atlantic coast in January 1918 in connection with Commander Gerth's planned escape: one to get him and another to check landing sites for further escape attempts (which were planned). As you say, this might have been reduced to just one u-boat. In his escape attempt, Gerth was joined by a u-boat officer Schwertfeger (or similar), of which named there are three in the Ehrenrangliste, none of whom was a prisoner of war.

Best wishes
Chris