THE ENEMY'S MISSING SUBARINE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 March 1916, Page 6

THE ENEMY'S MISSING SUBARINE.

VALUE OP BBITISH SILENCE. In the recent complete breakdown of the German submarine attack on merchant shipping, we witness another ol those silent victories over the German Xavy of. which the present war has been so fruitful. The first and greatest of these, of course, was the complete im. mobilisation of the German High Sea Fi«et, whose twenty or more Dreadnoughts and battle cruisers haVe been shut up helplessly in German Xorth Sea ports and in the Baltic from the very day that war was declared. To what are we to attribute the sudden collapse of the German submarine raiding expeditions The answer (says a writer in the Scientific American) is to be found in the two fields of mechanics and psychology. We. stated many months ago, when the submarines were at the -height of their activities, that the experience of past naval wars justified the expectation that some effective means would be discovered for defeating the U boat attack; and the event has proved that we were right. It is safe to say that no branch of the great and military operations of this war has been the subject of more thorough investigation by the scientist and the inventor than that of submarine warfare on its defensive side. Very fruitful has been the study o,f this problem and most efficient have been the means adoptedHOW IT TS DfiXT. Xot until the history of the war comes to he written, probably, will it be known which oE the defensive measures have proved to be the most successful. Probably more submarines have been accounted for by nets than by any other means; although a large number have been sunk by destroyers and swift motor boats rushing in upon and ramming them or destroying them with their rapid-gun fire . We arc informed that not a few boats have been lost when they came to the surface at night to recharge their batteries. Die exhaust from the oil engine is very noisy and can be heard over a great distance, ■tol'd, naturally, the submarines choose the night- time for battery charging. The destroyers and armed motor-boats gather in the submarine-infested area after night has fallen, and by careful listening detect the location of the submarines, creep upon them quietly, and then make a final dash to get them with the gun or the ram before they submerge. THE VALUE OF SILEXCE. The contemplation of a lingering death in a sunken submarine may well strike terror to the stoutest heart, and the British Admiralty have made deadly use of the psychology of the situation by refraining from making any mention of the time or place of the destruction of the U boats. When the disturbance of the floats at the top of a torpedo net showed that a submarine was entangled, the II boat was hauled to the surface, shot full of holes and put out of action without a word being published of the occurrence. The psychological elect upon the pesonnel of the submarine service of this absolute silence as to the fate of the submarines after they have left Wilhelinshaven or the mouth of the Elbe must be simply anpalliny. So long as the fate'of the II boats which were destroyed or captured in the* earlier weeks of the war was made known, the horror of uncertainty was missing; but during the past few months over half-a-hunured boats have failed to return. They saluted as they steamed out from their naval base, and that was the last that was seen or heard of any of them. Von Hindenbnrg has said that the present contest is one of nerves. Tf so, it may well be a question whether this portentous silence which has followed the passage of the U-boats upon the high seas lias not been a powerful factor in breaking down the German submarine warfare. 1