On Oct. 3, 1918 four German destroyers were searching the Heligoland Bight for survivors from a convoy
that had been attacked the day before. During the search SMS S-34 hit a mine and began to sink, the other
ships immediately came to her aid, even though the danger of hitting another mine was ever present. Seventy of her crew would be lost and she was only the first casualty.

Some eight hours after S-34 hit the mine the HMS L-10 observed the cluster of warships, whether her
commander, Lt. Commander Alfred E. Whithouse knew a rescue operation was underway or not is not known,
if it would have mattered or not is also not known. After four years of brutal war at sea the chivalry of earlier days was in short supply. The L-10 fired a torpedo at the enemy ships hitting the S-33.

The Germans probably thought they had also hit a mine and the other German ships might also have
assumed that as well. There would have been no search for an enemy submarine if the L-10 had not been so
close to the surface. After the torpedo left her tube her bows broke the surface and exposed the culprit. S-33,
V-28 and V-29 opened fire on the L-10. The S-33 and S-34 ultimately sank in the action but so did L-10,
she went down with all hands.