[Admiral Von Gerlach]

The E boats were indeed innovative and lucky ...but they were a disaster of design as all the way had to be taken off the boats mostly to fire and the placement of the tubes center of the boat was a nightmare for the crews in terms of how movement in the hull was impacted. The british innovations often took strange forms but were at the same time quite effectitve in their own way. The "boffins" as they called their experts were a inventive crew and these boats were part of their imaginings.

The Hela was a sad loss as she was a much beloved ship in the Baltic.