GERMAN U-BOAT MEN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3186, 10 September 1917, Page 6

GERMAN U-BOAT MEN

NO LACK OF CREWS (From the "Daily Mail"). One need not be an expert to understand that ships of every kind are useless unless there be available men to put m them. Quite frequently pcoplo who realise this much may be overheard arguing that Germany will eventually have to abandon her submarine campaign because ■ she can no longer find Crews for the boats. Never was a greater fallacy than this propounded. There exists no foundation in fact for such a belief. And it ought to be squashed promptly as a mischievous agent which tends towards perpetuating our national failing of under-estimating the enemy's resources.

"But," protests someone, "Germany cannot for ever go on finding men for fighting purposes/' Quite true; neither can the Allies, although they may be able to outstay 3ier in this irespect. That, however, affects the argument very little. Best assnred that when the time arrives at which Germany has to lay up her submarines from lack of personnel to commssion them the Allies will have becomo so war-worn and decrepit that Germany will not be worrying much about them.

In tho popular view the submarine still remains a mystery ship which needs a specialist crew to navigate it. As a mutter of fact she is nothing of tho kind. The more highly trained your crcw the better, but such a one is not indispensable. You can get along without it when you have to, and that what Germany is doing. The point of consequence is that she "makes shift" successfully, and therefore we need not look for any lull in her submarine activities for this reason, no matter what, comfortable theories may be afloat on tho subject. People who circulate them either forget or do not know that a submarine can be run by a few highlyskilled men assisted by a number who are almost devoid of special knowledge. That may not be the ideal method of manning nor the one with which Gormany started out, but it is the one circumstances have obliged her to adopt, and she is getting sufficiently good results to encourage her to continuo indefinitely. Standardised Sailors. livery li-ijoal carries skilled navigators and certain other specialist ratings. The remainder of the crew may bo marines or mere shipyard labourers. Sailors are not needed for the kind of work that falls to the lot of the "remainder." A long time ago Germany established a submarine training school ill the Baltic and probably has one in the Brunsbuttel neighbourhood also. Men "told off" for service in U-boats are sent lo these establishments and there put through a course of instruction. Owing to the system of standardisation introduced in building them, one U-boat resembles another so closely that "hands" drilled aboard the instructional craft at the schools can bo transferred to seagoing units without any loss of efficiency. These "hands" may not. reach British Navy standard—we know they do not — but. they are. good enough to get along with when leavened by a sprinkling of skilled ratings. And for the supply of them there are still great reserves. Do not forget that Germany has all the ships' companies of her High Seas Fleet to draw upon when she requires men for submarine flotillas, as well as any other classes she may cliooso to feelcct from. Ordinary coniderations of naval policy carry no weight with a country whose only naval policy is to keep a submarine offensive going as vigorously as it can. Germany is doing and will continue | In do this by every means in her power. We must not, therefore, mislead ourselves into the belief that U-boats will ( i•.v h" withdrawn from the sea through lack of men to n\an them. The supply ol Hun pirates is a very long way from being exhausted. Quito a lot of them go a-pirating unwillingly; but they do go, and there aro plenty more ready (if not very anxious) to follow them— ?o many, that Germany is assured of crews for alt the <■ •. arines she can send ;i<rnin=l us 'or ■> !nng time to come. But very few of tre%e crews possess the quality of the iWor ones. That much wo have f "WTr