Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, Decoy Vessels, Special Service Ships, or Mystery Ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them. The basic ethos of every Q-ship was to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.

They were used by the British Royal Navy (RN) during the First World War and by both the RN and the United States Navy during the Second World War (1939–1945), as a countermeasure against German U-boats and Japanese submarines.

Following the First Battle of the Atlantic, by 1915 Britain was in desperate need of a countermeasure against the U-boats that were strangling her sea-lanes. Convoys, which had proved effective in earlier times (and would again prove effective during the Second World War), were rejected by the resource-strapped Admiralty and the independent captains. Depth charges of the time were relatively primitive, and almost the only chance of sinking a submarine was by gunfire or by ramming while on the surface. The problem was luring the U-boat to the surface.

Lieutenant Commander Reinhard Hardegen (born March 18, 1913) is a German U-boat Commander who sank 22 ships, amounting to 115,656 gross register tons (GRT) sunk, ranking him as the 24th most successful Commander in World War II. After the war, he spent a year in British captivity before running a successful oil company and serving in Bremen's Parliament for over 32 years. An efficient and effective combat Commander, he was never known for being a virulent Nazi supporter.

Born in Bremen, Germany, Hardegen dreamed of a career in the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) from an early age. Following his graduation from high school he enrolled in the Kriegsmarine as a Seekadett, sailing around the world in the light cruiser Karlsruhe in 1933. In 1935 Hardegen was transferred as a Marineflieger in the Kriegsmarine's air arm. He trained as a naval aircraft observer and, after, as a pilot, and was promoted to Leutnant on 1 October 1936. In early 1939, he crashed his aircraft and was hospitalized for six months. Later that year, Hermann Göring declared all aircraft in German service as belonging to the Luftwaffe, effectively canceling the Navy Air Arm. Hardegen was then transferred to the Ubootwaffe and began schooling as a U-boat commander.

Bill Williamson born William James Williamson (19 December 1922 - 28 January 1979) was an Australian jockey who enjoyed considerable success in Australia during the 1950s and in Europe during the 1960s. He was born in Williamstown Melbourne and named after his father William James Williamson, a machinist, and his wife Euphemia Agnes.

From a young age he showed considerable interest in horse racing and left Mordialloc-Chelsea High School aged 14 to take up a post as an apprentice jockey. He worked initially under trainer F. H. Lewis who was his great uncle who was the brother of Robert Lewis also a jockey. During this time he met Jack Holt the trainer. He won his first race in 1937 at Lilirene.

On 5 January 1942 was called upon to serve in the military, where he worked as a driver with the 119th General Transport Company. Willamson was released two and a half years later on 30 October 1944, when he once again turned to developing his horseracing career.

He married Zelma Ava Dickman, a hairdresser on 17 January 1949 at St Paul's Church of England, in Caulfield, Melbourne. Willamson won his first Victorian jockey premiership in the 1951-52 season and rode the horse Dalray to a victory in the 1952 Melbourne Cup. He went on to win five more, and won the W. S. Cox Plate and Brisbane Cup in 1953, a season where he set a Victorian record with 67 and a half winners. He later won the Duke of Edinburgh Australian Cup (1954) but faced a setback in October of that year when a fall nearly cost him his life and put him out of racing for nine months. Recovering from his injuries, he went on to win the Caulfield Cup in 1955 on the famous horse Rising Fast and Ilumquh in 1960 amongst others.