The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-06-08
SURE GERMANS
HAVE U-BOAT
BASE ON COAST

Few York, June 1.-THE belief that
the submarines attacking shipping in
American waters are accompanied by
mother ships, which are nothing more
than specially large submarines built
to carry oil and supplies instead of
torpedoes, was voiced yesterday by
Lieutenant Lev A. Trofmov, formerly
commander of the Russian submarine
Leopard. Lieutenant Trofimoy said
that for three years he was stationed
on a submarine in the Baltic and
worked in conjunction with the Brit
ish submarine fleet. He came to this
city recently.
From the reports of passengers and
officers of the torpedoed vessels con-
corning the type of submarines OPP
Grating in Atlantic waters, Lieuten-
ant Trofimov said he was convinced
that they were of type that he be-
came familiar with through certain
sources of information in Russia.
'@These vessels are about $500 tons
displacement" he said, land carry
two guns of 5 or calibre. They can
not remain away from their base for
more than four weeks. 1t takes them
two weeks to Cross the Atlantic and
two weeks to return. 1 understand
that they have been reported in At
lantic waters for two weeks. This
would be absolutely impossible with
out some kind of base.
There are three methods by which
submarines are served with oil and
ammunition. One is to have shore
base. They pick out a deserted island
or waste piece of land and use that
as a base for their supplies. Another
base is what is known as the tenn
Z porary base A sailboat or other YES
sci may put out from some port os-
tensibly bound for one place, but
really to meet submarine at sea,
where transfer of supplies can be
y1ade. Signals are prearranged and
oil and even torpedoes are delivered
without much danger of detection.
1.-THE third kind of base is spe-
ciauy constructed submarine of 1000
tons that carries oil and munitions.
With the movable submarine base the
commander of an attacking U-boat
makes a rendezvous at a. certain time.
The supply submarine goes to the
designated place, which is generally
some quiet spot near the coast.
1.-THE base of these supply sub
marines is always near the scene of
action. For this reason and because
I am sure that the type of U-boats
described as operating in these
waters is the one with which I am
familiar and which cannot remain
away more than four weeks from a
base, 1 fell convinced that there are
supply submarines nearby
81 hardly thing it is necessary to
go to the coast of South America to
ferret out a secret submarine base
when there are hostile U-boats off
these shores. The secret rendezvous
for the U-boats is some place not far
from New York, I believe. The at
lacking U-boats must keep near their
supply vessels.
For this reason I say that it Is
more important to search the waters
off this coast than it is to have de-
stroyers put out to sea and attempt to
catch the German submarines A
constant watch should be kept on the
entire coast, even in the shallow
waters Constant watch should be
kept on your coast night as well as
day, not one hour of the night or
two, but every hour. Observation
should be made of the same spots on
the coast every hour of the night. The
defenses against submarines must be
on a large scale like those in British
waters.
above all, it is absolutely neces-
sary to search every vessel of what
ever nationality before it leaves any
port. This applies even to the very
smallest and apparently innocen
craft. We found in the Baltic tina
in the beginning of the war German
submarines were being supplied will
oil and remained at sea for long per
iods. Subsequently investigation re
vealed that small sailboats of neutra
nationality were leaving ports TO
rendezvous with German submarines
to which they transferred their oil.
ut seems to me also, from my eX
perience with the element of fatigu
among the crew, and the necessit,
for dropping activities frequently t
recuperate from the strain of TIL
work, that there must be more thai
two or three submarines operating il
these waters. I should not be sur
prised if there were fromSfive to ten.
"If you are to protect your shore
from hostile U-boats, you must ais
have a large number of vessels o
light draft. These must be equippe
with the instruments which detect tn
presence of a submarine lurking sew
eral miles away. We found that tn
Germans had a large number of sue
vessels in the Baltic, and it was diff
cult for US to get at them, while thei
instruments detected our presence an
made it hot for us when they could.
at was no use to launch a torpet
against a vessel of light draft, b.
cause it slid right under the vess
and went harmlessly sailing away
the other side. On the other han
II we rose to the surface to deal wit
NE vessel with our guns. we took II