BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3030, 17 March 1917, Page 13

BOOKS OF THE DAY

Ssa V/arfaro, by Rudyard Kipling Macmillan aud Co.).

It is good to have in collected form the splendid articles entitled respectively "The. Fringes of the Fleet," "Tales of the Trade," and "Destroyers at Jutland," contributedAby Mr. Rudyard Kipling to tho columns of ,"The Times." In theso articles Mr. Kipling, who in his famous "Fleet in Being" showed how well he could mastor the tangled technicalities of destroyer manoeuvring, explains the working of the British submarines, wine-sweepers, and other small craft which so usefully supplement' the work ot tho battleships and cruisers, and gives us also an equally detailed and fascinating description of the part played in tho present war by tho British destroyers. The articles aro based upon actual documentary evidence in possession of the Admiralty. What Xipling has done is to take the records, and; omitting, of course, anything which could bo of use to the «neniy, clothe them with his own picturesque diction, making clear as the sunshine many points which 'to the ordinary publio would be incomprehensible .is a Cbaldaic inscription to,a fourth ■standard schoolboy. Naturally ono turns first to Kipling's accounts of the work done by the submarines. Submarines in port are one thing; submarMesat work are quite another. "Submarines," says tho author, "are like cats: they never tell who they Were with last.night, and they sleep as ranch as they can." But the records are kept, and those records relate some very wonderful things. Also, some that aro distinctly eerie.

Who a few months ago, could have anventcd on, having invented, would have toed to print such a nightmare as -this: There was a boat in the North hea wlio ran into a'.net and was caught by the nose.. She rose, still entangled, meaning to cut the thing away on tho surface.. But a Zeppelin, in waithi", saw and bombed-her, and she had to go down again .at ; onco, but not too wildly or she would get herself more wrapped up than ever. She went down, and by slow working and warping and wriggling, guided only by guesses at the meaning <if each scrape and grind of the net on »er blind forehead, at last she drew clear. Then she sat on the bottom and thought. The question was whether she should go back at once and warn her confederates against the trap or wait till • the destroyers, which she knew tho Zeppelin would have signalled for, should come out to finish her, still entangled, as they would suipposo, in the net? It was a simple calculation of comparative speeds and positions, and when it was worked out she decided to try tor the double event. Within a few minutes of the timo she had allowed for thorn, she heard tho twitter' of. four destroyers' screws quartering abovo her; rose; got Sier shot in; saw one destroyer crumplo; hung round till another took the wreck in tow; said good-hye to the spare brace (die was at tho end of her supplies) and reached the rendezvous in time to turn her frionds.

Mr. Kipling's account of the wonderful achievement of a submarine (E9) in the stormy 1 and icy waters or tho Baltic, and the yet more marvellous . exploits .of EU and Ell in the Rea of Marmora, diving under Turkish .mino field's. right intd.Ciho "harbour of the Golden-Horn, have already, been quoted from in the columns of this journal. Tho full narrative makes exciting reading. Then thero is tho story of E2, which, after "diving up the Dardanelles on business," had the bad luck to get "hung up in' tho wires and stays of a net."

She saw them through tho conning fowor scuttle at a depth of 80ft—one wire hawser round Die gun, ;uiothcr Iround tho coanin? tower, and so on. There was a. continuous crackling of small cxeplosious overhead which she thought were charges aimed at her by the guard boats who watch the net. She considered her position for a while, hacked, got up steam, barged ahead, and shoro through, the whole affair in ono wild surge. Imagino ; tho roof of a navigable cottage after it has snapped telegraph lines with its chimney, aud you will get n. small idea of what happens lo tlio hull of a suhmarine when she uses her gun to break wiro hawsers with.

That samo E2 lived to sink steaint?rs, to burn dhows, to "hit bottom freely and frequently," to shell railway lines and stations,; and'eo forth,! hut was all' tho time tormented by "a Tacked and', strained gun and mounting." ■ She went down to put things right and drilled .and tapped and adjusted, till /in a'-short 1 time the gun worked again, and "killed steamers as it should." Meanwhile, bowerr, tho whole boat loaked.

All the plates under the old sun-posi-tion forward leaked; she leaked aft through damaged hydroplane guards, and on her way home they had to keep tho .water down Dy hand pumps while she ■was diving through the nets. . Where she did not leak outside she leaked internal-. ,ly, tank leaking into tank, so that the .petrol got into the main fresh-water supply, flJid the men had to bo put on allowance. The last pint was served out when 6ho was in tho narrowest part of the Narrows, « placo whero ono's mouth may well go dry of a sudden.

Mr. Kipling's account of the doings V>f the British destroyers in the Battle of-Jutland is very thrilling. He emphasises the point that while much depends upon good strategy, _ collective strategy, Uio elements of private judgment and mere chance must always count for much. Thus:—

A flotilla of our destroyers sighted six (there had been eight the previous afternoon) German "battleships of KiQgly and Imperial casta very early in the morning of the Ist .Tune, and duly'attacked.' At first our people ran parallel to the enemy, then, as far as one could make out, headed them and swept sharply ■round to tho left, firing torpedoes from their port or- left-hand rules. Between them they hit a battleship, which went up in flame and debris. But ono of tho flotilla had not turned with the resl. She had anticipated that the attack would be made on'anothor quarter, and, for technical reasons, sho was not Tead.v. When she. was, she turned, and, singlehanded, the rest of the flotilla having finished and go'ne on, carried out two attacks on the five remaining battleships. She got ono of them amidships, causing a terrific explosion and flame above the masthead, which signifies that the magazine had been touched off. She counted the battleships when tho emoko had cleared, and thero were but four of £fc«m. She herself was not hit, though shots fell close. Khe then went her vay, and, seeing nothing of her sist*ra, s»'£\U«S up another flotilla and stay? Ed •«■.■>! i'- till' tho end. Do I make clear *J;i j''-ize of blind hazprd and wary jn-s»<i&n* in which our men of the Fv.'l nillst U,i'«'C?

1 should -.nstly like to quote from Mt. Hiding's account of the adventures <rf three_ destroyers, , Gehenna, ■Ebliu, aad Shaitan—in the same great batt?o. It is one of the most astonishing]} vivid and lifelike things I havo >»ver rand. • But space limits forbid furt'vir arfrracts from 'a book o.veTy paw of wbinb, is 'bound to make English hearts 'dagle with pride.-