Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Part 16

Herr Schmidt reported that Germany was constructing submarines 25 per cent larger than anything the United States had ever seen or heard of.

His information was to the effect that Germany had a building capacity for ten submarines a week. The ability to produce these boats with such rapidity is due to the process of standardization--the practice of modern efficiency which has made it possible for American factories to turn out such big quant.i.ties of automobiles in a limited period.

All parts of the German U-boats are made in standard sizes and from the same original pattern. Consequently, these parts are turned out by machinery in replica, and the building of the finished boats is merely a matter of a.s.sembling them at points to which the various parts have been s.h.i.+pped. The Diesel oil engine, which is regarded as the ideal power-producing engine for submarines, has been developed to its highest state of efficiency by Germany, and is made at the famous Krupp gun works, the great engine works in Augsburg, Emden and Nuremburg, and other less well-known places in Germany.

It has been estimated that Germany has anywhere from 250 to 500 submarines, and it is said that the aim is to produce 1000 of these craft, to absolutely destroy the commerce of the seas and starve into submission England and France.

HOW SUBMARINES WORK.

According to Herr Schmidt, the submarines work in groups of four.

Because of the limited capacity of the boats for carrying provisions, supplies and fuel, it is necessary for them to have supply bases, to which they can return and secure torpedoes. In operation each group consists of four submarines, traveling along in a diamond-shaped formation, one in front, one on either flank and one in rear. Eight miles separate the boats. The leading submarine carries the extra gasoline and supplies and acts as a scouts.h.i.+p; she sights a vessel, reports its speed and direction and then submerges--her task is done.

The two torpedo carriers on either flank immediately change their courses so as to converge on the prey, and they arrive one on either side of her--they get her in between them. The boat in the rear keeps them informed as to the doomed s.h.i.+p's progress, and submerges at the last moment. She carries the extra crews for the fighting pair. The U-boats are fairly well protected against the onslaught of the light torpedo-boat destroyers and chasers, because the decks are protected by several feet of water at almost all times, while the commanding tower is covered with from two to three inches of the best steel armor plate.

It is related that at the outset of the U-boat menace, England ordered its commanding officers to ram the U-boats on sight. The length to which the Germans will go in an effort to win is ill.u.s.trated by the fact that, in consequence of this order, a Von Tirpitz council presented this answer: Attacking submarines were equipped with explosive mines containing 300 to 400 pounds of nitroglycerin or guncotton. To the top of this mine was fastened a fake periscope. This devilish device was attached to the submarine by a light cable, and towed along the surface of the water 1000 feet or more behind the submarine. The result that would follow any attempt on the part of a commander to run down one of these decoys is readily imagined.

DESCRIPTION OF A PERISCOPE.

The periscope is distinctly a submarine device which is worthy of brief description. It is, in effect, a long tube, with an elbow joint at the top and a similar one at the bottom. At the elbow joints at both ends are arranged reflectors. The reflector in the upper end catches the object which comes within the range of vision, and reflects the image down the tube to the mirror at the lower elbow, where the pilot sees it.

The principle of the periscope is the same as that of the "busybody,"

familiar to householders, and which is placed on the sill of an upper window, so that a person inside the house may see who is at the front door.

The Germans have recently devised a new form of periscope, designed to make the device invisible to the lookout of approaching boats. This device consists of two mirrors, put together like a "Y" lying on its side, the wide part in front. These skim through the waves and converge the image upon the low periscope's lens, which shoots the light down the tube to the receiving apparatus below. When looked at from a distance the mirrors reflect the surface of the sea, so that a lookout sees nothing but the waves as they are reflected in the mirror.

The Germans use the bottom of the sea as regular "land" for their supply bases, and when the submarines go to the surface it is precisely like an aeroplane mounting the air. The submarine fleet boasts also of "mother boats." They lie on the bottom of the ocean, in designated places, and rise at night to hand out their supplies. Crews are changed and tired men go back to the bottom to rest up, while fresher comrades take their places.

So, too, the submarine, with its ability to rest on the bottom of the sea, has become an efficient boat for mine laying. The mine layers work from the undersea boats without fear of disturbance, the divers walking out from the submarines to the floor of the sea without being seen or without ever coming to the surface.

TALES OF REMARKABLE EXPLOITS.

American citizens landed from vessels sunk by German submarines tell remarkable tales of the strenuous exploits of the U-boats. In one case three undersea boats appeared simultaneously alongside the s.h.i.+p, one being a submarine cruiser, 800 feet long, and the others old-fas.h.i.+oned submarines, with a length of about 120 feet.

In another case a German submarine wore an elaborate disguise of a fis.h.i.+ng boat. This submarine carried a gun which had a range of nearly five miles.

In at least two cases the crews of vessels sunk by submarines were rescued from open boats by pa.s.sing s.h.i.+ps, only to suffer a repet.i.tion of disaster when the s.h.i.+p on which they had taken refuge fell prey to an underwater boat.

A seaman from Pensacola, who was a member of the crew of a Swedish sailing vessel, said:

"We were almost within sight of land late in the afternoon when we observed a Norwegian sailing vessel in an encounter with a submarine eight miles away. Apprehending that our turn would come next, we prepared a lifeboat. A 300-foot submarine came up to us in due course and fired three warning shots from its heavy gun.

"We pulled our boat over to the lifeboat from the Norwegian s.h.i.+p previously sunk, and a dozen hours later were picked up by a British steamer. We had only a brief stay on the British boat, as she was torpedoed the same morning. After a few hours in the boats we were found by a British patrol and landed."

A Baltimore seaman from a Danish sailing vessel said:

THE s.h.i.+P ABANDONED.

"We abandoned s.h.i.+p in response to three shots from a submarine.

Thereupon the submarine fired twenty-two shots into the hull of the s.h.i.+p, sinking her. We tried to speak with the submarine commander, but he told us he was in a hurry, as he had to attend to a Norwegian bark which was waiting a short distance off.

"We pulled for the nearest land, and all our twenty-five men got ash.o.r.e safe, although both lifeboats were badly smashed up in the surf as we were beaching them."

A Philadelphian described the manner in which his steamer escaped being sunk.

"We were attacked by a submarine disguised as a fis.h.i.+ng vessel," he said. "She opened fire on us at five miles, sending fifteen shots at us, and smas.h.i.+ng our wireless. She pursued us for an hour. We did not use our gun. Finally a British patrol boat appeared. The submarine submerged, disguise and all, presenting a ludicrous sight as the carefully prepared equipment simulating a fis.h.i.+ng boat sank beneath the waves."

The captain of an American sailing s.h.i.+p which was sunk said:

"Submarines are lying along the sea lanes in regular nests. They keep well under the water most of the time, coming up now and then for periscopic observations, or on hearing the approach of merchant craft, which often can be identified readily by the sound of the engines. By thus conserving fuel the submarines are able to remain away from their base a long time, and also they find means of renewing their stores from s.h.i.+ps which they sink.

"The U-boat which sank us had been out for six weeks. She had one British captain on board. She renewed all her supplies from our boat and took all the nautical instruments. The submarine gave us a sharp signal to halt, with a sh.e.l.l from a distance of two miles. It was good marksmans.h.i.+p. The shot hit the s.h.i.+p squarely, but caused no casualties.

We stopped and took to the boats. The submarine came up in leisurely fas.h.i.+on, sank the s.h.i.+p with bombs and pa.s.sed the time of day with our boats. She had a crew of thirty-seven, and was 250 feet long."

"We were picked up by a Norwegian sailing vessel, on which we spent six days. She was then attacked by a 120-foot submarine. We all took to the Norwegian's boats. The submarine commander declined to look at the Norwegian captain's papers. We had another twenty-four hours in open boats, and then were picked up by a British patrol and landed."

CHAPTER VIII.

THWARTING THE U-BOAT.

NETS TO ENTANGLE THE SEA SHARKS OF WAR--"CHASERS" OR "SKIMMING-DISH"

BOATS--"BLIMPS" AND SEAPLANES--HUNTING THE SUBMARINE WITH "LANCE," BOMB AND GUN--A SAILOR'S DESCRIPTION.

The advantage which Germany gained by the development of what has been termed the super-submarine placed the other nations where it became absolutely necessary for them to concentrate their energies in an effort to counteract the devastation which the U-boats brought upon the seas.

England tried first to protect the English channel and many of its ports with mines, floating bombs and submarine nets, and while the latter served as barriers which prevented the submarines penetrating into some of the important waters and harbors, they could act merely in a protective sense.

The submarine net is a specially devised net with heavy iron or wire meshes, similar to a fis.h.i.+ng net. These nets--miles in length--were born of the nets originally devised to sweep harbors clear of mines. They are carried between two boats described as trawlers, which are a form of sea-going tug with powerful engines, that can draw a heavy load. A heavy cable runs from trawler to trawler, and from this the chain net is suspended in the water. It is heavily weighted at the bottom so as to hold it in a perpendicular position. The trawlers steaming along, side by side, sweep up with the net anything which may be placed in the water for the purpose of blowing up or injuring vessels.

The submarine nets in some places have been anch.o.r.ed to form a regular barrier against the pa.s.sage of submarine boats, and in this way were effective, but their use could in no way restrict the underseas boats in their work upon the open seas.

The most effective plan of overcoming the dire consequences of the U-boat warfare was found, therefore, to lie in the use of submarine chasers and airs.h.i.+ps, the two operating together in conjunction with the battles.h.i.+ps, cruisers and torpedo boat destroyers.

The submarine chaser is a light-draught, high-powered, skimming-dish type of husky motorboat, mounting rapid-fire, 3 or 4-inch guns. In order to prove effective against the submarine it is necessary to have many of these boats, and it is a matter of particular interest that the marvelous resources of the United States at the time of her entrance into the war enabled her to immediately begin a campaign for the construction of chasers, which would be able to guard the seas in the channels of traffic and along the ports into which the submarine might attempt to sneak.

NO EXPERT NAVAL KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED.

The operation of the chaser does not require the degree of technical skill and knowledge of naval strategy required in the handling of s.h.i.+ps of the naval type. A fleet of chasers is manned largely by naval reserves, who have a certain amount of training, but who are neither navigators nor experts in naval affairs. The operations are, however, directed by the naval authorities.

The submarine chaser is effective because it draws very little water, has high speed, can be quickly turned and diverted from its course and does not present any great depth of hull at which the submarine can fire a torpedo. It would be possible for a torpedo to pa.s.s under a chaser without hitting it--if the submarine cared to waste such an expensive weapon on so small an adversary. When the submarine attempts to come to the surface and use the rapid-fire gun with which she is armed she is at a disadvantage, because it takes her several minutes to emerge.

Additional time is required to swing the gun up through its automatic hatch while the men scramble to the deck to man it.

The chaser, with a speed of approximately 35 to 40 miles an hour, will travel somewhere between a mile and a half to two miles in this period.

Its gun has been ready from the start, and the chaser has had half a dozen shots or so with only a single hit needed to put the submarine out of commission. Even if the submarine is at the surface and has her gun mounted ready for action, she is at a disadvantage with the chaser. The chaser, taking advantage of her speed and small size, goes skimming across the water at the rate of 40 miles an hour, and it takes a mighty fine gunner to be able to hit a small craft, going in a zigzag course over the water at such speed.