The Benson signal., 1918-05-18

doing! Are they active at all In nunr-
ing the German U-boats which are sink
ing our mercantile shipping?" Occa-
sionally cases are heard of German
submarines being sunk by destroyers.
The weekly Admiralty reports ten Of
q certain number of merchant ships
"unsuccessfully attacked" from which
one concludes that in some cases a o.
boat may have been "bagged" by the
merchantman's gun.
Nor has the American mosquito"
fleet been long in learning the game
of U-boat hunting. "Keen as mus
tard," said British naval officer re-
Gently in talking about the American
navy. They simply love scrap when
they can get it, but the Germans are
not so keen.
There is no end of stories about
the sinking and destroying of German
U-boats hidden away in the very brief
reports of commanding, officers which
from time to time reach the Admiralty,
If one could only get at them. OF
many of the highly successful meth
DDS of hunting and destroying the o.
boat it is, of course, impossible to tell,
but the Admiralty has permitted the
publication Of some recent records in
which American destroyers, British de-
stroyers, motor launches and subma-
rines have played distinguished parts.
Most Are Mere Boys.
The brave fellows engaged in the
work are, for the most part, mere. boys,
fresh-faced, clear-eyed youngsters, de-
void of nerves, always alert, cool and
confident, who have to make up their
minds and give their orders on the
instant, and who, in true navy style,
perform their allotted tasks and say
nothing about them.
Here is story Of a successful en-
gagement fought by two American de-
stroyers which were escorting a con-
voy of merchantmen. They sighted a
periscope, which however, quickly dis
appeared. Rushing to the spot the de-
stroyers dropped depth charge and
then wheeled back. The periscOpe
again appeared, as though heading for
ers full speed.
Once more the periscope disap-
peared, but not before three rounds
had been fired by the leading Destroy
er, who also dropped a depth charge.
The enemy's bow then came up rapid
ly, and it appeared that he was lying
at an angle Of thirty degrees, stern
down.
German Crew Surrendered.
He managed to right himself and
again the Americans opened fire, and
then the Germans came on deck, held
up their hands and surrendered. The
U-boat sank just afterward, the sur
vivors being taken on board one Of the
.destroyers.
Here is tale Of an English COM
mander Of a submarine just as 1t
reached Whitehall:
40 a. m.-Sighted hostile submarine.
Attacked same.
:03 a. m.-Torpedoed submarine.
Hit with one torpedo amidships. Sub
Surface to look for survivors. Put
down Immediately by destroyers who
fired at me-
But this young commander was a
little more explicit in his footnote, as
he might well be, for, having kept to
sea and his appointed duty under cir
cumstances of extreme difficulty and
hazard, he took his fate in both hands,
stalked the enemy and destroyed him.
During my attack" he wrote,
'there was just enough sea to make
depth keeping difficult I fired two
torpedoes, and one hit at forward end
of coming tower. A large column of
yellow smoke, about one and a half
times as high as the mast, was observ-
ed and the submarine disappeared.
The explosion was heard and felt in
our own submarine. On the previous
day the periscope had become very
stiff to turn, and in the dark hours l
attempted to rectify same, but while
doing so was forced to dive, and
thus lost all the tools and nuts Of the
center bush.
"While attacking it took two men be-
side myself to turn the periscOpe. For
this reason I did not consider it pru-
dent to attack the destroyer after hav-
ing sunk the submarine.
Lay on Bottom Amid Enemy.
"After torpedoing submarine I pro-
ceeded four miles northward and lay
on the bottom. Many vessels through
out the day were heard in close prox-
unity. Several explosions were heard,
especially one very heavy one. 1t must
have been close, as the noise was con-
siderably louder than that of the tor
pedo. On one occasion a wire sweep
scraped the whole length Of the boat
along my port side, and vessel was
heard to pass directly overhead"
That is all. The feelings Of these
gallant men, lying on the sea bed, while
death in it's most horrible form search
ed around for them, are left to the
amapinatiOn TheV made port safely