The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-17
EFFICIENCY OF SUBMARINES WAS DOUBTFUL UNTIL vON WEDDICEN
 SANK 3 SHIPS OF BRITISH NAVY
Destruction of Aboukir, Hogue and Greasy Marked First Acceptance by Naval Authorities of Undersea Boat as Deadly Weapon of Offence-Even Grand Admiral Won Tirpitz Had Little Faith in Graft.

ed.
 The submarine commander evident ly thought it his duty not to miss an opportunity of attempting to sink an enemy vessel; but, at the same tl1le' he must have known that there was little chance of a successful attack up- on a destroyer, and, in any case, II ne had permitted her to take off the sea- men from the raft, he might still nave endeayored to carry out his mlss!oh' Anyway, Great Britain learned her lesson, and afterwards the submarine menace was taken very seriously.
 The Cressys were of a type pecu- liarly liable to submarine attack. ihe much faster cruisers of later era' as Admiral Beatty showed in the Heh- goland Eight action, can baffle the U-Boats by rapid manoeuvring ana Pfrequent change of course; while the destroyers, in addition to this, present a much smaller target to the suomar- |ine They are the submarines worst enemy, as the German writer count Reventlow, has admitted. Running with oil engines, it takes submar- inc about minute to dive, put tn1s will not always save her from the ram of a pursuer travelling nearly sixty feet second.
 Captain Weddigen's own account or the attack on the three cruisers illus trates the early tactics of the under water craft. After leaving his oase' he travelled for some time on the sur face-that is, with his pilot house awash, it's hatch open, and probably the main hatch also, so that there would be a free circulation of air in the boat. When, however, the boat kreached the spot where 1t had previ- ously been reported the British shlps were likely to be found, she was pre- pared for submerging. The hatches would be closed, the wireless taken down, and water admitted to the bal last tanks until a very small reserve of buoyancy remained.
 The boat was now ready to go un- der. and on sighting the cruisers the surface-engine were shut off, the electric motors connected, and, by the manipulation of the hydroplanes, or diving planes, fitted to the bow and stern, whose name denote their use, tlfe boat dived until only the periscope the eyes of the submarine were some five feet above the water. In this position the captain could see about six or seven thousand yards, or be- tween three or four miles. The quar- Try was then within range of his tor pedoes, but his desire was to approach more ClOS0ly IO 0IlSuI0 d CCI tdAllty oA l striking.
 A few minutes passed. Then, al what he believed to be the propitious moment, the captain ordered his first torpedo to be fired, and apparently. from what he tells us, he inmdiately dived right under water, periscope and all. But curiosity soon brought ! him up again, and in the periscope mirror he saw that his first shot had gone home in the middle of the three l Moreover, the reverberations of the
 explosion shook his own boat from
 stem to stern. When he had sunk the
 other two cruisers, Weddigen return ed to find his countrymen jubilant at
 his unparalleled achievement. The Kaiser gave the Iron Cross to all the crew of U-9, and her commanders
 fame vied with that of Hindenburg as
 a. national hero. Widespread and deep was the grief at his death in
 March, 1915, when U-20, a new boat to which he had been transferred, was
 sunk by a British warship. A monu-
 ment to his memory was unveiled at
 Kiel on the first anniversary of the
 sinking of the Cressys.
 Although the British submarine flo-
 tilla largely outnumbered that of Ger
 many, the capabilities of the boats for offensive purposes were not immedi-
 ate1y taken advantage of. A memor-
 andum upon the services performed by the submarines in the early part of the war shows that they were used
 for scouting in the Heligoland Eight
 and elsewhere. They occupied the enemy's waters and reconnoitered his
 anchorages, and while SO engaged
 were hunted by torpedo craft, but suc- ceeded in obtaining useful information. It is possible, to reconstruct one of these initial enterprises.
 It is late in the evening when the
 boat leaves the port where she has
 been tied up alongside her parent ship. The moon in its third quarter,
 sheds only an occasional gleam as
 heavy, lowering clouds slowly drift
 across it eastwards. The freshenins breeze has raised Top, and outside 1 the shelter of the roadstead the wide expanse of sea is broken by tiny
 white-streaked waves.
 As the boat moves ahead, the wind flung spindrift covers her forward
 with smother of greenish-wI1ite foam, which breaks up against the base of the pilot tower, standing high out of the water. In the tower is the commander, with the helmsman and 3 lookout. Nor, we may be sure, are 1 there many asleep on board the little
 cfart. Not that the hazardous nature
 of the task before them lies heavy or
 the minds of any of the crew, fo1 they have been looking forward tc just such an opportunity from their boyhood, and no danger or peril car
 deprive them of the keen pleasure ot
 realization now that 1t is in view. All through the night the boa1
 makes her way across the misty seas running awash, the rhythmic throb oi her oil engines making noisy music
 as they force her through the water
 It is seldom necessary to deviate from the course, save, perhaps, to clear 2 coasting steamer or a bunch of fish ing craft, which are still pursuing their peace time avocatiohs.
 No sign of hostile cruiser or des troyer, no glare of searchlight, mar
 the passage, and 1t IS not until tht first signs of dawn appear that thu
 commander, pointing out the loom O.
 a bluff head1and on the port bow says: ''Time we went under. I think.
 A signal to the engineer, workin, : amongst his pipes and valves and key l f,, fJ,a oPf wi ~ -n xx,6o