AEROPLANE AND SUBMARINE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1342, 31 December 1914, Page 4

AEROPLANE AND SUBMARINE.

When one hears of the activities of submarines, one’s mind reverts to the remarkable results that were achieved by areoplanes in the pre-war days in way of detecting submarines. In the last Navy League Annual, for instance, there appeared an article by an authoritative writer, who declared : —"The air-scout can see the submarine when no one else can, and generally when the submarine cannot see him. In 19x2, when a submarine attack was made up the Firth of Forth, the submarines got up to Rosyth unseen by anybody except the aeroplane pilots, who had them in sight all the way. Into anything like clear water an air-scout can see vertically to any depth to which most submarines can dive at present, and when a submarine is running with her periscope showing, the shaft of the periscope leaves a wake which is easily seen from above, though not from any distance at an angle. Thus, both on the high seas and for coastal defence, the aeroplane as a detector and destroyer of submarines has a distinct place in the scheme of things." There have been no instances so far made public of aeroplanes detecting submarines in the present war, but it may be takeu for granted this is not due to lack of enterprise by British airmen.