The Washington herald., 1917-08-02
SOLDIERS CHEER SHOTS.

Accident Brings Attack.
The first contingent Of the Pershing
convoy ran into a fair mess OF Ger
man torpedoes fred from at least two
submarines. Admiral Gleaves be-
lieves the vipers had been trailing
the ships all during the day of June
p. when weather conditions were
ideal for such pursuit. 1t was 10:1;
at night when the attack was made.
Admiral Gleavss believes II was pre-
cipitated by an accident on our own
flagship.
Yet. fortIitous as the attack was
our warships and our transports
sprang into complicated and brilliant
action as a well-drilled football team
starts with the snap of the ball.
The convoy vessels at the time were
Zigzagging ahead Of the transports
scanning every inch of a dark sea full
Of phosphorescence and whipped with
INSTRUMENTATION ideal for torpedo
attack
The helm OF the flagship jammed at
this moment and she took a sudden
rigat angle sheer to stsrboard. She
sounded her whistle to announce this
sudden chanze-and immediately there
shot ,acrcss her bows the teIl-tale
wake Of a C-boat
Lurking there on the nank the un-
dersea commander evidently thought
he had been discovered and made his
strike.
Scatter U-Boats.
In an instant the fleet was in action.
Ships crisscrossed, guns barked. sig
nails flashed; again aud again torpe-
does were seen to PASS close aboard
but not one found its mark. The
great armada scattered C-boats as an
automobile might route a pack of
yelping ours.
One ship encountered two subma-
rines about a hundred miles OF the
coast of France. The bow wave of
the second U-boat was sighted at a
distance of 1-5OO yards and the ship
headed for it at a speed of twenty
fve knots.
The gun pointers at the forward
gun saw the periscope several times
for several seconds. but it disap-
peared each time before they could
get on. due to the zig-zagging of the
ship. which passed about twenty-five
yards ahead Of a mass of bubbles
which were coming up from the
wake.
Fire Depth Charge.
A dpth charge was let 90 just
ahead. Several pieces of timber,
quantities of oil. bubbles and debris
came to the surface. Nothing more
was seen OF the submarine.
Yesterdays announcement will prob
ably end the controversy over the
elaboration of the Gleaves report.
Secretary Daniels transmitted this
account to Senator Swanson. Of Vir-
zinia, acting chairman of the naval
affairs committee Of the Senate, in
response TO a request for data.
At that time Mr.. Daniels replied
that none of the departments infor-
NATION could be made public textu-
ally as IL had all been received in
coded cables, which the department
never revealed in order to guard the
code.
While the concern of the depart
rnent over the apparent knowledge by
the Germans of the location of our
armada is justified In the first read
ing Of Admiral Gleaves report. sub
sequent study of II has inclined off,
cials here to the belief that all the
Germans knew was that the ships
were on their way.
II definite knowledge Of the course
they we're following had been in the
hands of German commanders 1t Is
believed that the submarine line
would not have been stretched out
from the Azores for at least two
hundred miles. as indicated In the
Gleaves report. Instead a powerful
fleet of submarines might have been
at q rendezvous within certain strik-
ing distance @ our ships.