SECRETS OF GERMAN SUBMARINES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 96, 15 October 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

SECRETS OF GERMAN SUBMARINES.

As in most things, Germany followed the lead of other countries in the matter of submarines. England, France, Italy, and the United States showed the way and when they had demonstrated the utility of submarines, Germany copied their ideas. That is why the Germans did not really start building submarines until 1906, at whiich time France had twenty-five and England nearly the same number. No one, of course, except the Germans themselves, knows exactly what their submarine strength is at present. It was estimated, however, at the beginning of the war that Germany had a fleet of thirty "sea-wasps," as submarines have been termed, and another dozen on the stocks. The first German submarine, the U 1, was built in 1906. German submarines are numbered in order of their date of launching. Thus the U 9 would be the ninth in point of age. It is possible that, however, the new submarines being launched in Germany to-day will be given low numbers in order that their proper strength shall not be known to us.

The newest German submarines might be termed the super-Dread-noughts of the undersea boats. They will be nearly • a thousand feet in length, and armed with a 14-pound gun on a disappearing mount and a one-pounder on a fixed pedestal, it having been found possible to expose this gun to salt water without 6enous disadvantage. The disappearing big gun on the latest type of submarines is a marvel of ingenuity. Gun and platform are carried snugly inside the submarine while it is cruising, but it can be brought into action with the utmost rapidity. Two men take their seats on the elevator platform besiae the gun. A pull on the lever, and the platform shoots up carrying the gun with it. As it rises from the boat, the gun lifts off a hatchway which automatically forms a protective shield for the gun and the men who work it. One of these men trains the weapon round in whatever direction it is required, while the other elevates or depresses and also fires it. Another pull of tho lever and down drops the gun again, the hatchway closes automatically above it, and the submarine is ready to dive.