The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-01-08
TO CURB u" BOATS
"Sea jitneys" Suggested for At
tack On German Bases.
Canadian Naval AirpIane Fighter,
Home to Recover From ShrapneI
Wounds Expresses an Opinion.

Theorizing about war conditions has
grown quite us tiresome, no doubt, tO
the people who read newspapers as il
! has to most of the people who write
! for them. Yet, now and then, you
meet Il man who theories from the
facts of experience and knowledge and
who points something out that gives
; food for thought. Such a case, II
seemed to several of US. when a quiet
little chap, son of Canadian million
aire, told US his view of the war in
: its present stage, u New York CORE
: spondent of the Cincinnati Times-St
writes. His brother was killed at the
Marine and he himself is home 10 re-
cover from shrapnel wounds received
when he was lying naval airplane
some thousands of feet above town
on the Belgian coast.
! The outstanding fact, just now,'
he said, lis that the German U-boats
are doing pretty nearly as much as
they were expected to do and that we
have no effective defense against them.
The Germans are almost justified in
believing that they are on the way to-
ward starving England into Submis-
sion. If we don't find new and sue
cessful way to combat the U-boats the
situation in England will soon be very
critical. OF course, l fancy way will
be found. But it must be something
entirely new in warfare. For my part,
| am convinced that success can be
obtained only by the apparently des-
perate undertaking of assaults by sea
upon the U-boat bases. l say 'appar-
entity desperate By any known or
tried method such assaults would be
simply useless and suicidal.
1.-THE German harbors are mined,
netted from end to end and fortified
with tremendous shore batteries OF
heavy and aircraft guns. How can the
bases be attacked? Well, Of course,
that will be settled by some one else
than I. but | have heard a theoretical
plan of attack proposed by one of our
naval men which made great impress
sion on me. He said we must build
thousands of small submarines-some-
thing like the sea jitneys' which man
ufacturers have talked about-and go
into the German harbors with swarms
of them. at the risk of losing ninety
nine out of every hundred boats and
crews. Barrage fire and bombing have
been the new and successful things in
land fighting.
This officers proposal is for some
thing like an undersea duplication of
this plan of attack. Most of the little
boats would be lost, no doubt, but most
of them would succeed in doing ma
terial damage with one or two torpe-
does. Nets would be blown away, mines
exploded, guard ships sunk and such
other disorganization Of the harbor de-
lenses accomplished as to give the big
ships a chance to complete the work.
Yes, it's true that a man would hardly
need to worry about his return trip
if he went in on one Of these little
boats. 1t would be work for volun-
teers. But the volunteers would be
plentiful enough. That l am sure OF.
IF such attacks promised to win
the fight against the U-boats. men
would be willing to go. 1t would be
enough for them to know that they
were striking the sea murderers at
their home, and that some OF them
might possibly get back"