U-BOATS IN THE ICE.

Taihape Daily Times, 8 January 1918, Page 6

U-BOATS IN THE ICE.

DANISH EXPLOEEBS 5 STOEY. Something went wrong in the earlydays of Germany's submarine campaign, that is certain writes Mr. Archibald Hurd, in the Fortnightly Eeviewj What it was the Germans have not, of course, revealed, though probably the explanation is very generally known throughout the Empire. We may find,' possibly, a clue to the mystery in a letter which appeared in the Bystander of April 12 from its Copenhagen correspondent, quoting Knud Easmussen, the Danish explorer in reference to the imprisonment of 30 German submarines in the Sound. The explorer stated that the boats wer« trapped in the narrow part of the Sound, just above Helinborg, two days after the new submarine campaign began. They were all making north for the same Baltic base, evidently on their way to the '' war zone," when the east wind blew the loose ice together, and it was freezing hard—"l2 deg. Celsius at least"—soon all the submarines were in a solid pack. They were moving with only their periscopes up. Some of them smelt danger in time, and managed to rise. These got wedged in with their decks showing. Others were caught under the ice, only their periscopes showing." Easmussen continued:

"I myself Avalkeu across the ice to thcru, and my mate even tried to look down a periscope. Then the ice-slip —that is, loose ice, which always drifts under the pack,—snapped tho periscope tubes. The submarines perished miserably. Some, after three days' imprisonment trieel to get away were smashed in and all on board drowned.''

The explorer added that he had told Prince Harold of Denmark about the occurrence. Whether that is or is not the complete explanation of the miscarriage of German hopes we shall probably not know until after the war; but at any rate some detail in the enemy's carefully elaborated preparations, extending over a period of many months, went wrong, with the result that not only were German hopes not realised, but they wero shattered.