This combination of sociopolitical and stylistic ambition makes it stand out like a sober existentialist among what passes for holiday programming, placing Peace On Earth alongside similarly daring but also underrepresented Christmas films like Richard Williams’s surreally sweet Ziggy’s Gift and Oscar-winning adaptation of A Christmas Carol. But Peace On Earth’s life-during-wartime dissonance is also brilliantly mirrored by its pioneering experimentation, as it phases between a hand-drawn animal paradise called “Peaceville” and the rotoscoped human brutality of endless battle. This cannot be true, however, as UC-3 was not reported missing until. On the same day as UB-13 is recorded as being destroyed, the Telesia (by this time called the Hobby Hawk) is credited with destroying U-Boat UC-3, using towed mined nets off Zebrugge. She was believed to have hit a contact mine on an anti-submarine net or possibly sailed into a British minefield. The records also state that two weeks later on 23 April 1916, UB-13 failed to return to Zebrugge from a patrol off the mouth of the Thames and was presumed lost with all hands. However, intriguingly official records show that the UB-13 went on to sink two ships after the date when she was apparently destroyed in the Albert Close cartoon! These were the Norwegian steamship Memento and the Danish sailing vessel Proven, on 31 March 1916 and 12 April 1916 respectively.

for their brave conduct in the confrontation with the German submarine. and two of the crew of the Telesia received the D.S.M. This description left little doubt that the U-Boat had been sunk. She was seen to turn over on her side and sink by the bows, showing her propeller as she foundered'. These shots appeared to hit the conning tower and the foredeck of UB-13 and 'burst her right open.

In response, the Telesia fired several shots from her deck gun before and after the submarine surfaced. According to the eyewitness report, the submarine 'rose out of the water and came for us with a rush', dispatching a torpedo which missed and passed astern of the smack. On 23 March 1916, the Telesia was fishing in the North Sea, over 30 miles south east of Lowestoft, when the crew sighted a German U-boat. On 16 March 1916, the submarine torpedoed and sunk the 13,911-ton neutral Dutch ocean liner Turbantia, the largest neutral ship lost during the war, an act which caused much angry criticism universally. UB-13 was a veteran of 36 North Sea patrols and had previously sunk nine vessels (including 7 fishing smacks). She was commanded by Oberleutnant Arthur Metz, had a complement of 17 men and was armed with torpedoes in two bow tubes and a deck-mounted 8 mm machine gun. The UB-13 was a UB1-type coastal submarine of 142 tons, launched in 1915 and she served all her career as part of the Flanders Flotilla, which patrolled the North Sea. Records show that very few submarines were actually lost in combat against Q-Ships but they acted as a significant deterrent. The introduction of the Q-ships made operations far more dangerous for the U-Boats as any unarmed and vulnerable-looking merchant vessels could potentially be equipped with concealed armament. These ships, filled with concealed armament (in this case a 3-pounder gun), were used as decoys to draw U-boats into surface action against seemingly vulnerable merchant and fishing vessels. However, she had been converted into what was called a Q-Ship as part of the war effort. The Telesia, whose home port was Lowestoft, was a 46-ton vessel built in 1911. The two vessels shown in the cartoon were the British fishing smack Telesia and a German submarine, the UB-13. Prominent artists were often commissioned to produce images that highlighted successful actions undertaken by the armed forces. On the outbreak of hostilities, British propaganda was the responsibility of the War Propaganda Bureau under the journalist Charles Masterman. However, evidence of the incident indicates a different story to that shown in the cartoon.ĭuring the First World War, both the British and German governments utilised propaganda to mould and control the attitude of their respective country’s populace. The encounter between the Telesia and German submarine or ‘U-Boat’, UB-13 did actually happen and the propaganda message promoted by the illustration would serve as encouragement to those fearful of the hidden menace of the enemy commerce raiders: the triumph of the small but gallant fishing boat over her malevolent foe. This drawing was published by the journalist Albert Close and is a good example of the type of propaganda material that was issued during the conflict by the British government.

Ww1 submarine cartoon