When I revised my historical novel, Without Warning, I decided to start the book with the moment when a German submarine launches a torpedo at the British passenger liner Athenia. It is a short, critical scene on which the story will pivot and cause a life-and-death crisis for all the principal characters. I wanted to highlight this moment by showing the simple physical action taken by the submarine’s commander that creates the subsequent chaos.

There was, however, one big problem. I had no idea what the World War 2 commander of a U-boat did to fire a torpedo. Did he pull a lanyard? Push a button? Flip a switch? Did he even fire the torpedo, or did his command to “fire” tell another crew member to take some action that launched the torpedo? If I didn’t get this detail right, U-boat aficionados would raise concerns about the novel’s overall veracity. Read More