WITH THE FRENCH FLEET

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 206, 20 May 1918, Page 6

WITH THE FRENCH FLEET

CONVOY WORK IN THE ATLANTIC

THE TERROR OF U-BOATS

(From "The Times" Special Corresnon dent with the French Navy.,

l'.v west of tho Western Front, removed lrom it l,y the whole breadth of trance, there is still another battle front hundreds of miles in length, along which the sailors of our Allies, with somo assistance from our own ahips and men, carry on day and night a constant running fight with the enemy. It U common knowledge that the great bulk of the French Fleet is in the Mediterranean, ihe smaller vessels that remain on the west and north-west coasts of France arc practically all engaged in one way or another in the fight with tho submarines. That was and is trno of every single one of the soa-going boats in tho inner harbour of the first of Hie great naval ports which I visited the other day on tho invitation of the French Admiralty. Lying alongside the massive stone quay, with their bows pointing seawards, was a long tow of slender, grey, grim-looking French submarines, among them n British bout, just arrived in port, no longer in her first youth, kit still full of life and of fight. Close by a bunch of American destroyers wero being wnrpeH. into position alongside each other against the high sea wall. Farther out two of the transports that the American destroyers had escorted across tho Atlantic, carrying vmops, were being unloaded. The bigger of the two transports, in other day a voll-tnown German liner, present;:, with U9 surrounding cluster o{ tugs and lighters, an indistinguishable jumble of hulls and masts and air-shafts, hnlf hidden in the sinolce of its forest of funnels. Inside it and beyond it towarils the lons breakw.it.er a number of graceful Amctoan yachts and French ■•ui'.l British trawlers were riding at an-r-lmr. and in and out between th«n went launches and gunboats of various sizes. Grjat Wireless Station. It was, not, however, till I had climbed j to the fop of a steep bluff that I began ; t'o see tfie thing in its right perspective. ; Below the Sniff in front was a channel: leading to the open waters of the At-1 lnntic on tho left, along which all ships: entering or leaving the port have to pass, j Behind and to tho right the glistening j waters nf tho bay stre'eh far away, wash- j ing against the tides of a handful of big . warships, a brown-sailed fleet of fishing ; smacks, and ten or a dozen tramp steamers. Overhead there was a constant humming of fish-like seaplanes. And—one more touch to complete the picture—far away out of sight on ihe mainland six grace- j fill columns of iron latticework, carrying long films of slender wire and held in i position by stout steel hawsers, towered j nearly fiOOft. into the air, tho outward , and visible sign of the great now wire-. less station erected in full working order by French naval engineers in six months.. from which France can talk halfway | round the world. !

Thanks to the co-operation of the agencies employed, it is more and more difficult and dangerous for the enemy submarines to stay long enough on tho surface to do the damage that they_ otherwise would. . Every time that one is seen, its position and the date of its appearance (if it is not sent to the bottom) are carefully charted, and the route anil timo of departure of the convoys of transports or tram pi arranged accordingly. The flotillas which pass up and down the French Atlantic eeaboard between England and Spain vary in number from two to 30, or even more, the principle being that the vessels in any given convoy must all be of the same averagespeed. Besides furnishing (with somo help from American boats) escorts to these convoys ,whilo in French waters, the French Navy also sends hrger destroyers several hundred miles out to sea to meet the transports coming from America and accompany them into port over the last and most dangerous part of the passage- across; so far not a Binglo one of these transports has been torpedoed on its way to a French harbour. Coastwise traffic has not been so fortunate, but that, on account of its much greater volume and lower speed, is only natural. When one thinks of the considerable number of U-boats that manage to creep down Channel or round the north coast of Scotland, and' then Ho off the French const right in the track of the convoys, the really astonishing thing is that they do not make themselves much more fslt than they do.

.•There are two main reasons for their comparative hnrmlcesness, their dread, first of all, of the fast gunboats ond aircraft by which they are constantly being chased, and. secondly, of the guns of the escorts accompanying the convoys. They are also bothered by tho numerous rocks and fierce currents of this pnrt of the coast—far more effective than nets—which prevent them from goim; as close inshore as they would like. Still, they are hound to bo-troublesome, and the difficulties of the men whoso business it is to protect the convoys are greatly increased by the fact that many of the boats belong to neutral nations, and are often as ignorant of the businesslike discipline of the "French Nnvy as they are of the Trench language and code of naval signals. In Dangerous Waters, In the course of a five or six hours trip in an 800-ton gunboat (with the admiral in charge of 'Ait whole organisation on board), we overtook and passed one flotilla and met another comuis in the opposite direction. It wao a .Tuno morning that had strayed into February, fresh ' and sparkling, with just enough swell as we put into the Atlantic to make an occasional handhold a grateful support. As we were [<aing through dangerous waters everything was prepared for action and possible emergencies, lifebelts lying handy on the mils and in the boats, guns ready loaded, nnd sinoke-fmlls and depth-charges in their proper places, There were five or six look-outs, eacli responsible for his own sector of the surrounding sea and liori- . smn, and five seaplanes circling round or scouting ahead and on either side of the bnnt. -After about an hour's run _ a smudge of smoke on the skyline, which rapidly thickened into a black cloud, showed that we were overtaking the binnll convoy which had left earlier in tho morning, and suou after we had overhauled and' passed them another larger cloud came into view, from which, little by little, first the hulls and then the ninsts and funnels of i> flotilla of about a dozen tramps emerged, steaming along in two columns, wirii au escort of sev- «•;•!>'. French and \mericim boats.

Prom the- point of view of Jfht'otv, the size of the. flotillii was just iibnut tho idea!. If nil Hirer mci'dinnl convuvs could bo planned on tho sunie jnotlel (lie number of looses would in all probability become still smaller than it is. Con-R-"'quenlly, tne pressing need of those who manage the convoys is n lai'f!?r supply of hunts suitable as escorts. T'rom tho fintoment made ii I'cv.- dnys ago in the Chamber, it appears that steps are tains tivken to reii'forre II"' present Kinmly of French chinping, and as soon (>•! thnfc is an ncmmpliriheci fact il spoms to ice that tho menace of the U-boat ill these wa'fMS will become a thing of lliii past. Meanwhile, (lie rjnict heroism with which lhi» sailors of France deal with if is worthy of tho best traditions of the French Navy.