An excerpt from A Test of Wings: The seaplane and the submarine. . . . ". . .The boat's shape became more distinct. He saw the identification on the conning tower, UC 531. The dirty Channel waters began to hide his enemy in a brown-green swirl. [Sublieutenant] Rose was twisting left and right in his seat now, hammering on the fuselage; as the wind whistled past the cockpit, he was swinging his binoculars from one end of the target to the other, screaming possibly helpful but unintelligible comments at O'Neil. The U-boat was slipping away. O'Neil slanted the Short toward it. . ." "Then, when the 230-pound bomb exploded, air under great pressure immediately hissed powerfully up to the surface along the still-visible afterdeck, O'Neil thought his bomb had split the boat open. As insurance, he let loose the other 100-pounder, but by that time he was past his target. "Rose was yelling at him and banging on both sides of his cockpit. O'Neil, shouting triumphantly back to him, turned the Short to fly again over his disappearing victim. He bade farewell to the Huns aboard UC 531, convinced that neither the men nor the sub would ever come to the surface, never aim a torpedo at another ship." And in the U-boat below. . . . "UC 531's officers and enlisted men alike froze in place, looking upward. With alarms ringing, seawater invading, small fires flaring all around, and the damage control petty officer screaming, there was no time to stop and think, to look, or worry, or pray. Still, though, none of them could do otherwise. . ." "They all looked up in those brief moments following the hits, and what the young pilot had imagined seconds earlier became reality. The images came to life. There were white sweaty faces, black caps, smeared overalls and leather jackets, fingers holding mugs of tea, hands on gauges and tools, men sitting on the sides of bunks; young and old men, fathers and lovers-and to a man, they were looking up through the metal skin of the submarine at the face of Ensign Aidan O'Neil, USNRFC. "But by then it was too late. They were looking at death, not Aidan O'Neil."