1915: DINOSAURS' D-DAY
UFO ROUNDUP Volume 4 Number 18 August 25, 1999 Editor: Joseph Trainor Masinaigan@aol.com

During the evening hours of July 30, 1915, Unterseeboot (German for submarine) U-28 was on a wartime patrol in the Atlantic Ocean when a lookout in the conning tower reported an Allied ship on the horizon.

Immediately the klaxon sounded. German sailors rushed to their battle stations. The boat's skipper, Kapitanleutnant Freiherr (Baron) von Forstner ordered, "Secure the hatch and dive."

"Dive! Dive!" the coxswain shouted.

"Fifteen degrees down rudder. Level off at twenty meters," Von Forstner said, throwing the periscope switch. Instantly the steel tube rose from its steel well.

What happened next qualifies as the strangest incident of World War One.

Holding the periscope handles, Von Forstner peered through the eyepiece. Outlined in the faint moonlight was the silhouette of a British freighter, the S.S. Iberian.

"Range one hundred meters. Prepare torpedo."

"Jawohl, Herr Kapitan," the coxswain replied, "Torpedo ready!"

Von Forstner snapped, "Fire!"

Writing in U-28's ship's log, the German captain reported, "There was a violent explosion, 25 seconds after the Iberian went under, and a few seconds later, a gigantic sea monster was hurled, writhing and struggling, around 30 meters (100 feet) into the air. The monster was around 20 meters (66 feet) long, shaped like a crocodile. His head was long and pointed; he had four legs terminating in big fins. He remained above water for around 5 seconds, so there was no time to photograph him. Three other officers saw him."

Incredibly, on the same night, July 30, 1915, elsewhere in the Atlantic, another German U-boat reported an encounter with a seagoing dinosaur.

Aboard the U-20, Kapitanleutnant Werner- Lowisch reported, "Saw a sea serpent at 10 p.m., without possibility of doubt. The creature had a longish head, scales like a crocodile's, and legs with proper feet. The mate saw him, but when the captain came up from below, the monster had vanished. The monster was about 27 meters (90 feet) long."

July 30, 1915: D-Day for dinosaurs!? (See the book Strange Mysteries of the Great War by Harold T. Wilkins, London, 1935.)