OUR SUBMARINE EXPLOITS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 253, 13 July 1918, Page 8

OUR SUBMARINE EXPLOITS

$ 40 GERMAN WARSHIPS ATTACKED UNSLEEPING VIGILANCE , Although tho onemy rarely ventures his vessels—except his U-boate—beyond the safe limits of his ofrn protected waters, British submarines have successfully attacked forty of his worships. This fact, j di?closnd in a recent Admiralty statement, indicates the vigilance, of tho watch kept by our submarines and I heir quickness to 'takn advantage of tho few i opportunities of attack. It mu.'fc also be remembered that a fast steaming warship on a zig-zag course is not the same easy mark as the .slow merchantman on which the German submarine makes war. Tf thn chances of attack are few. tho difficulties when they come are many, i as (lie following accounts of oubmanno successes show:— I'irst take the story of a failure—of an attemnt by a" submarine to pass through the Sound into the Baltic. It was known that the German Fleet was exercising ir. the Baltic, and three submarines. X, Y, and Z, wore detailed to make the passage of the Sound and to attack. It was essential that the three vessels should pass through on the same nj?ht, but unfortunately X developed certain defects, anil shn did not reach the entrance to the Round until,the night after Y and Z had successfully made the passage. Their presence was discovered in the Baltic, and the enemy took all ' possible steps to prevent them from getting out. or others from getting in, X found four merchant ships in line abreast proceeding through the narrow entrance to the Sound, and from the accurate station they kept it was evident that they were sweeping. Beyond them were destroyers. Those ships wore> all showing navigation lights, and accordingly X thought it would be best to do 60 too, hoping to pass without attracting attention. She had not proceeded far, however, before ehe was detected by a destroyer, which tried to rani her. Her only course was to divo, and as Bho submerged she heard the thrashing of the enemy's propellers abovt her. To make the passage with lights burning was clearly out of the question, but, nothing daunted, she returned, stealthily creeping ( on the surface, until she got into the wake of a vessel proceeding through tttfl Sound, trusting to be able to follow unobserved. For a while it seemed afl It the plan would succeed, but suddenly the vessel ahead stopped. As luck would have it she, too, was a destroyer; at once she endeavoured to ram, but again the submarine dived and escaped. A. third and a fourth attempt brought no greater euccess. Another effort would not only have been hopeless, but would have unjustifiably risked the boat and the lives of the crew, so she returned to nor base, as her commander expressed it in his report, "prior to making a iurther attempt." I Successes on Patro|. A submarine on patrol between the mouths of. the.Eastern Ems and tho Weser had better luck. She sighted two patches of destroyer 6moke to South-east-ward, and two anxious hours were spont manoeuvring for position, to attack. Then, at a range of 500 yards, two torpedoes were fired, one at tho bow ana tho other at the.storn of one of the destroyers, Tho submarine then uived to avoid detection, but a loud explosion tola that one torpedo had reached its niarlc. Eight minutes later tho destroyer was seen sinking by the stern, 15ft. of her bowe still standing vertically out of the water. It frequently happens that a submarine does not actually see her victim struck, but she invariably hue the satis- ' faction of hearing tho explosion if the torpedo gets homo. On one occasion a single submarine attacked four battleships of the Kaiser class while she was patrolling off the Danish coast. After gotting into position to attack the submarine brokp eurface oving to the heavy swell, und it was necessary to go full , speed to get her under agom. Just before the periscope dipped tights were got on to the third ship in '.holme, and four torpedoes were fired. T-he range : was estimated at 4000 yards. Two loud ."ox-plosions were heard, and the cora- ! mandiiig officer, was of opinion that the , third and fourth ships in the lino were , each hit by a , torpedo. On another occasion a submarine on '. patrol one morning off the Ems sighted an enemy destroyer, and fired both bow ' tubes at a range of 350 yards. As the . submarine dived on firing the result was not seen, but after a lapse of a few I second? there was an exceedingly loud • explosion, which was distinctly heard 2a miles away. A quick otcob round with . the periscope two or tWminuta later ■ revealed no sign of the destroyer which - had been fired at.. In view of the vio- ■ lence of tho explosion it is probable that . the magazine blw up, and that would . account for the rapi-2 disappearance of ■ the ship. Another instauco ot tho total . disappearance of a, vessel may be given i One of our sub.Tiannes sighted an enemy . submarine ahead of her, *nd, giving ' chaee, reduced the range to 400 yards. ; Two torpedoes were fired, and one was ■ seen to hit. When the smoke dewed ■ away there was not a vestige of thehos- • tile! vessel to bo geon. Winter Hardshins. Tho hardships suffered by submarine ' crews in stormy weather fre terrible. ' During the winter westerly galas were s frequently experienced in ,lhe Bight and j these gales were invariably accompanied , by high, steep seas which made it im-. possible to opon the conning tower hatch. ' Vision was limited' to that through the J periscope, and its range was only a cable • or two between the seas continually \ breaking over the vessels. There was no rest at the bottom, even at 22. fathoms, ' as the vessels rolled and bumped dan--3 geirously. They were, consequently, compelled to keep under way at a depth clear of the keels of possible ships. "The seamen got vory little sleep owing to cold." "With these words the captain of a submarine concludes hia leport . on' a cruise in the North Sea, waking j no reference to the fact tnat while the crew had got very little sleep he had .got very much less himself. The weather liad iot been Kooil, and throughout the ! eix days of the oruifio the cold had been . intense. At times ice formed on the J periscope very quickly and obscured I ' vision so that it had to be dipped every ! fiv minutes. On the surface, the thnrj mometer gave no reading though it had a minimum of 18deg. of frost, lo ief ! ceive mewfcw by wirelem was !mpo - i i sible, as the »P«y f«*e «i ".« atrial, t ■■ forming a coating of ice 2m. thick. I 1 TrZ time to time it was necessary to I ,' divn to vemoYP the icidra, over a foot \l™ "-hi-li depended from portions of heVpmtrncturo The ™te«™ S monte had been hung up below. li i In the Bight. o ! The following extracts are.taken from I- I an official report of operation., u> the n is submerged her o ; captain alone is able to see-what is ■- : takine place; the success of the entcrd priso S and the safety of the vessel depend 8 . on his skill and nerve and he promnj, 0 precise execution of his order,.by th. «■ officoTß and rnon under his «™g; « : Our submarinee have been _ piouoeiri in n . waters which have been mined. my .1 ■ have boon subjocted to Ailf..! and wclly i thought-out anti-submarine tactics by a h ! highlv-trained and determined enemy, h I'thtv 'have been attacked by gunfire and 1 ! torpedo, driven to lie at the bottom nt «:,ren(. depth to preserve e i hunted for hours at a time by bos e n , tornndn craft, and at times forced to due ,t' , nl der our own warships' to avoidl inters : ferine- with their movements. Sudden i. ; alterations of course and depth, the i, I "hU swish' of propellers overhead and is I tho. concussion of buratinp shells give an t> indication to the crew of the risks to it whirh they "e being exposed, and it f P»nks wfli for the. moral. of these yo»i|g o omcers and men, and their gallant faith o in their captain*, that they have nis arinbly cariwl nut their duties quietly, o ke Sv and confldwiHy nmW condition* ill Hut might wpII have tried thn most il I hni'donod' veteran." • ' , it The enemy practises many tncks, and j. his innocentlnoking decoy ships somed times sucked in deceiving our men. One d™» mbmnrine sighted what appeared

to he a merchantman and gave chase, showing the signal "stop engines" and "Send a boat." When the submarine had oloend to about a. mile, the steamer hoisted the German naval ensign and opened flro with fi-inch guns, nt Hie samo tim.fi increasing speed and altering so as to ram tho siibmariiir , . At. Uie time the submarine's gun was manned, the signals wore still flying and there were altogether about 12 men on her , deck, but sho inst managed to dive in t.lmo. Two or three minntiw lalijr jn-o loud explosions were heard overhead, but. beyond slinking tho boat violently they di<l no damage.