GIANT GERMAN SUBMARINE.

Otaki Mail, 31 December 1923, Page 4

GIANT GERMAN SUBMARINE.

WILL ivL\ OLU'riOJSISK NAVAL. .WARFARE. FAMOUS CONSTRUCTOR TALKS. LONDON, Dec. 20. "1 have at last, succeeded in solving! the most bailing ox ail problems in naval warfare, namely stabilising submarines,," saiii Proiessor Oswald Flainm, 01 the Technical University, Charloitenburg, to the Daily News beiim correspondent. Processor l-'iumiu lias a world-Wl.ae reputation as all eminent uavaJ constructor, lie said: "During the war we found wben we built submarines above normal size or armoured against aerial attack or equipped with long range guns, that we destroyed ths siuibiiitj ilis Li-g'-submarines we built towards the end ol the. war often took a list ol 35 degrees when submerging, wjiiuh played havoc with the crews" nerves ana sometimes ied to disaster. Daily and nightly 1 pondered over the problem oi stability. Suddenly during the summer ol I'.us a solution presented itsell hke a Hash of lightning, il 1 laid possessed this knowledge a year earlier Germany would undoubtedly have won the war. The Versailles Treaty forbids Germany lrom building submarines. It cannot prohibit naval designing - x 'y invention will be able to stabilise a submarine of the largest dimensions. 1 could construct a perfectly sea-woit'hy submarine cruiser ol ten thousand tons. ••Here are designs for a 7007-ton submarine, with a length el MB feet and a beam ol 4U feet. Never before ha* there been a ship of such a higldy offensive or defensive character, owing in the stability it is possible to give the deck, sides and conning tower live-inch steel armour without i.he slightest danger ol listing. Armour totalling 61V ions renders the snip

invulnerable to aerial attack. Ihe submarine could carry two 7J-iUCh guns, four smaller ones, SSOO rounds of aminunitiou, and forty-five torpedoes, compared with a. maximum ol six or seven so far, and is able- to tins turpedioes m any direction by infra us "Of swivelled tubes Without manoeuvring for position. The maximum surf ice speed is 2?, to ~-~ knots It has a radius of 23,0u0 miles with an under-Wiiter speed ol ten to eleven knots and carries a. crew ol one hundred men. It takes a minute to sub■inerge. Professor Klamnt showed the correspondent the design ol giant submarine mime-layers, carrying a. thousand mines each weighing a ton, whereas ten mines Have been the maximum s o far. The vessel Can lay mines at any required interval while proceeding on her course. She has a .radius of 23,000 miles and can circumnavigate the world without touching any port, and can sow mines Hi any part of the world. Professor Flaflim 'old the correspondent (he mine layer would revolutionise naval warfare. A belligerent, could in a single night mine the Thames estuary, the Panama or feuez Canals or the Straits of Gibraltar.