ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1917, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

TWO U-BOATS DESTROYED. Received Oct. 17, .">.5 p.m. Paris, Oct. 17. The French destroyed two German submarines in the Mediterranean during the last week in September, ° FIGHTING U-BOATS. i SOME INTERESTING DETAILS. The' following incidents taken from Admiralty records, and cabled to Australian newspapers, are illuminating as showing the growing success of the offensive measures against submarines:— The first story Concerns one of our naval auxiliary forces which wus struck l)y a torpedo in the engine room, flooding several compartments. Then tlie periscopes and conning tower of a submarine appeared. ' We fired, hitting botli periscopes, ifany other hits were observed. Several men came out of a hatch abaft the conning -tower. The submarine wallowed along with her stern almost submerged, and oil squirting out from her sides. The crew waved in token of surrender. We ceased fire, whereupon the submarine started off at a fair speed. We fired again, and the enemy fell on lier side and slowly disappeared end up. Two survivors were picked up. One of our small craft sighted a submarine 10,000 yds away. The enemy came near, and suddenly submerged. Shortly afterwards a periscope appeared close on the starboard bow for a few seconds, and then disappeared. We ported the helm, circled round, and two explosive charges, causing two explosions, the latter shaking us from stem to stern. 'The water was blackened over a large area, and a considerable quantity of thick oil and flotsam came to the surface. One of our submarines saw an enemy submarine two miles off to starboard We dived. The enemy altered his course, and we lost him; but, his apparent objective being conjectured, we steered on the chance of cutting him off. 'Then we picked him up on our port bow, steering as we had surmised. We fired a torpedo, and j*. few seconds later the enemy was seen with his stern out of the water, surrounded by smoke. His conning tower was half submerged, and a minute afterwards he disappeared. A seaplane, seeing a submarine manoeuvring to fire a torpedo at a merchant' man, descended to the spot where the submarine had submerged. The seaplane dropped three bombs. Five minutes later a large upheaval, like a huge bubble rising above the sea level, was noticed ,where the bombs had been dropped. There was no further sign of the submarine. A patrol vessel noticed a considerable foam travelling parallel with her. She crossed the foam wake and dropped a bomb on the most likely spot, and then another. Two more patrol craft arrived and also dropped bombs. Thick brown oil rose to the surface for 12 hours afterwards. One of our naval forces, hearing gunfire steered for the position, sighted a submarine, and fired and hit her. A large explosion resulted. Nothing more was seen of the enemy. Two submarines attacked a defensively armed vessel. One fired a torpedo at close range, but missed. The ship then sank the submarine. The other attacked, but was damaged and 'driven .off. s Another defensively armed vessel encountered a submarine. Tim ship fired, hitting the submarine twice, and causing her to disappear vertically. The sea appeared to boil a considerable time after.