SEATING U-BOATS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 May 1921, Page 10

SEATING U-BOATS.

Thrilling naval story.

ADMIRAL SIMS’ BOOK.

Reviewing “The Victory at Sea,” Admiral Sims’ book, a writer in the Daily Mail says:— Admiral Sims writes in this book as he talked and fought—supremely well. On almost every phase of the later naval operations ho sheds new light, and in his thrilling account of anti-submarine operations —far the best yet published—there is the living touch of human interest.

He came in civilian disguise, in one of the darkest hours of the war, when the submarine sinkings were approaching a million tons a month. All our secrets were at once unhesitatingly revealed to him. He discovered “there was a general belief in British naval circles” that the ruthless submarine campaign “would succeed.”

“One of the men who mqst keenly realised the state of affairs was the King. I met his Majesty first in the vestibule of St. Paul’s on that memorable occasion in April 1917 when the English people held a thanksgiving' service to commemorate .America’s entrance into the war. Then, as at several subsequent meetings, the King impressed me as a simple, courteous, unaffected English gentleman. He • was dressed in khaki, like any other English officer, and his manner was warm-hearted, sincere, and even democratic... .About the submarine campaign the King was just as outspoken as Jellicoe and the other members of the Admiralty. The thing must be stopped or the Allies could never win the war.”

The Brtiish Navy, under the terrific double strain of facing the yet intact High Seas Fleet, and combating the submarines, found its resources altogether inadequate. “I think history records few spectacles more heroic than that of the great British Navy, fighting this hideous and cowardly 'form of warfare in half a dozen places with pitifully inadequate forces, but with an undaunted spirit which remained firm even against the fearful odds,” writes Admiral Sims. Arid he telegraphed at once to Washington, the grave message: “We are losing the war;” a few days later he reported: “Allies do not now command the sea.”

WHEN HELP CAME.

But help was given, and quickly, by the United States in that dreadful hour of need. At the crisis of their fate the British people learnt with a strange thrill of emotion that American destroyers had arrived at Queenstown. They would have been yet more thrilled had they been permitted to know the brief dialogue which passed between Admiral Bayly, the British commander at Queenstown, and the American commander of the flotilla. Admiral Bayly’s first question was; “When will you be ready to go to sea ?” The answer came swiftly. “We are ready now, sir,” and it won Admiral Bayly’s heart. The Mayflower had returned, and — “The arrival /of our destroyers informed the British people that all this youth and energy of a nation of more than 100.000.000 souls had been thrown upon their side of the battle.”

Yet in Ireland the American seamen had disagreeable experiences: “They were disgusted at the large number of able-bodied men whom they saw in the streets, and did not hesitate to ask some of them why they were not fighting on the Western Front. The behaviour of the American sailors was good, but the mere fact that they did not openly manifest a hatred of Great Britain and a love of Germany infuriated the Sinn Ferners.”

SINN FETNERS' ATTACKS.

Attacks on the Americans followed: “Occasionally an American sailor would be brought from Cork to Queenstown in a condition that demanded pressing medical attention. When he regained consciousness he would relate how he had suddenly been set upon by half a dozen roughs and beaten into a state of insensibility. Several of our men were severely injured in this way.” As the American seamen took steps to retaliate orders had to be issued that no American or British seaman should go to Cork. Even that was not the limit of Sinn Fein treachery.

“With the assistance of the Sinn Fetners, German .agents and German spies were landed in Ireland. At one time the situation became so dangerous that I had to take experienced officers whose services could ill be spared from our destroyers and assign them to outlying air stations in Ireland.” How the submarine attack was neutralised by the convoy system Admiral Sims, tells brilliantly. Almost all the British merchant captains agreed that convoy was impossible. But the thing that “couldn’t be done” was done, and done with complete success. The secret of it was that it made “the submarine come to the anti-submarine craft and fight in order to get the merchantmen.” The American seamen were impressed with the weird characteristics of the war:

“It was the invisible rather than the visible evidences of warfare that specially impressed them. The air all round them was electric with life and information. One had only to put the receiver of the wireless to his ear to find himself in a new and animated world. The atmosphere was constantly spluttering messages of all kinds coming from all kinds of places... .Our wireless operators had no difficulty in recognising the ‘spark’of the German instruments.” When they lowered their hydrophone® or listeners, in the water—“lt was discovered that the underocean, which we usually th,ink of as a silent place, is in reality ».xvicmelv v0ca1....A submarine running at full speed was audible from 15 to 29 miles. .

. .Then a rapid humming noise would come along the wire; this was the whirling propeller of a destroyer. A faint moan caused some bewilderment at first: but it was ultimately learnt that it came from a wrdck, lying at the bottom, and tossed from side to side by the current; it sounded like the sigh of a ghost.... Our listeners after a little training could indentify a whale as soon as the peculiar noise it made in swimming reached the receivers.” Among the most interesting facts which he reveals is that, contrary to all expectations, the submarine proved the deadliest enemy of the U-boat.

MYSTERIOUS ENCOUNTER.

One such encounter between an American submarine (AL 2) and a German is described by the admiral: “After a week’s hard work on patrol the AL 2 was running back to h?r has*

on the surface, when the look-out sighted a periscope. The AL 2 at once changed her course, the torpedo was made ready to fire, when the quiet of the summer afternoon was rent by a terrific roar and explosion. It was quite apparent that something exceedingly distressing had happened to the German submarine; the American turned and made a steep di,ye in an attempt to ram the enemy, but failed. Listening with the hydrophone, the AL 2 could hear now the whirring of propellers, which indicated that the submarine was atttempting to gain surface and having difficulty in doing so, and now and then the call letters of the German signal set sending appeals for aid.” What happened, was never known, whether two German submarines were there and one torpedoed the other, or whether a German torpedo was fired at AL 2 and returned—as torpedoes sometimes did —and hit the vessel which had fired it. All that was known was tbat one U-boat remained on the bottom and was never seen again.

CREW OF SUICIDES.

One of the grimmest tales is that of the struggles of a dying German submarine, heard through these instruments:

“There was a lumbering noise, such as might be made by a heavy object trying to drag its hulk along the muddy bottom; this was followed by silence, showing that the wounded vessel could advance only a few yards. A terrible tragedy was clearly beginning down, there in the slime of the ocean floor. The chasers listened for hours without hearing a sound; but about five o’clock a sharp piercing noise came ringing over the wires. It was a sound that made the listeners’ blood run cold.... The crack of a revolver. The first report had hardly stilled when another shot was heard; and then there were more in rapid success!-m.” The crew of the submarine killed themselves as 25 shots were heard. It, is an inspiring book, generohs and just to the British Navy and people, and its contents will be a perfect revelation to both. —Daily Mail.