Resumo de The Man Who Was Born Twice

During the First World War, while being in captivity on the Isle of Man, Otakar Batlicka met with a man who was one of the six people saved from submarine U-165. Listen to the story of a man who used to say that he was born twice.

It was at the end of 1917. Our ?jelly-fish? ? that is how we used to call submarine U-135 - was anchoring in its mother port. We were waiting for something. That ?something? appeared soon enough. It was a huge cargo steamer loaded with ammunition.
You know, the enemy press wrote about us, that we are pirates and that we are sinking ships without warning ? it was not true. Our ?jelly-fish? sent quite a row of them to the bottom and all of them were given a 15-minute warning so that crews could abandon the ship, before we attacked.
Suddenly an order was given out to come out. We emerged and were spotted straight away. We have given out an order through a flag ABC to stop. The steamer remained obediently stationery, but suddenly as if falling from the sky a motorboat appeared behind its back. It was small but an incredibly fast boat, which is excellent at approaching a sighted ship, dropping a torpedo on it from an immediate distance and as quickly as it appears as quickly it also disappears.
Two orders were given out almost immediately ? second torpedo chamber ? distance 1200 metres ? deviation 12 ? fire ? and second order ? sink!
In the torpedo chamber we did not have a single anticipation of what is going on up there, we were only amazed why, after firing a torpedo we were sinking so very quickly. The signal light illuminated red and the hand showed: CLOSE THE CHAMBER WATERTIGHT. At that time there was a new impact and we were all falling one over the other. The hand on the dial showing depth stayed stationery on 39 metres.
The leader?s and observation chamber is flooded and everyone who was there was lost. Now we clearly found out that we are sunk and drowned at the same time. I was trying to communicate with the other chambers but in vain.
After about quarter of an hour we calmed down so much that we could soberly reflect upon the situation. Apart from us there is no living creature in the jellyfish. Streams of water flooded all chambers so quickly that nobody had time to close the watertight doors, which were separating single chambers. We started to think how to save ourselves.
First, according to the instructions we let out a big boy, which when tightened on the cable turned the shaft and pulled with itself a telephone and light cable. The indicator of turns has stopped and confirmed the depth of 39 metres.
Then we found out how long we shall last with air and found that we shall suffocate in 4 hours. At times I have been listening with the earphones to the cable of the boy, whether something was happening up there but in vain. Time was advancing quickly. I was watching my boys and could read from their faces that they were full of despair. So far though they had control of the situation. We were either going to suffocate here in quarter of an hour or so or we shall beat our way to the sun. It would be worth the attempt.
The pressure will not be large; every one of us will take an oxygen mask. The first brave boy climbed into the barrel, lied down in it and stretched out as a ruler.
I closed the fastener, opened the inside safety valve, one could hear a humming voice when the water poured into the pipe ? and in the next moment the live torpedo was flying through the water to the surface.
I reached the telephone and listened and the first boy was already announcing he was all right and it is apparently nothing to worry about. I shot up the next three in the same way. But then there was the question of who will be last? Who will shoot him up through the torpedo pipe to the top? I was the leader of torpedo chamber number 2 and the leader of each single chamber must stay last, there were the regulations.
I had the only thing left. To open the fastener of the torpedopipe and let water into the whole chamber. Then wait till the chamber floods with the force of the water, get into the pipe and sail through with my own force. There was a problem however. The torpedo barrel was 6 metres long and its diameter was 70 cm. Can I swim through the barrel without moving my hands?
I opened the fastener. Water was nosily rushing into the chamber. Shortly it was reaching me into my shoulders. I put my mask on and went under water. I found the opening, pushed myself into the barrel and started to work, as far as possible with my legs. I nearly thought I was going to choke, when I felt the end of the pipe. I won! In a few more seconds I saw daylight.
In two hours time we were found by a boat and were taken on board ? that was how the war finished for us.

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