The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-11-02
WHAT THE DEPTH
CHARGE ACCOMPLISHED
Innocent Looking Missile That Wrought Havoc.
depth Charge Nerves Dreaded by U-Boat
Crews-How the Destroyers Hunted the
Submarines Weddingen's Disastrous At
tempt to Destroy the Neptune.

If a dozen depth charges were drop
ped, one after another, the effect upon
the men in the hunted vessel was par
ticularly disconcerting. In the course
of the war several OF our own subm ar
ines were depth charged by our own
destroyers and from the crews we OBJ
tanned life like descriptions of the re-
suItant sensations. It was found that
men who had passed through such an
1ordeal were practically useless for
Jseveral days and that sometimes they
were rendered permanently unfit for
service
"Depth Charge Nerves
The state of nerves which followed
such an experience was not unlike
that new war psychosis known as shell
shock One of our officers who had
had such an experience told me that
the explosion of single depth charge
under the water might be compared to
the concussion produced by the stimuli
taneous firing of all the fourteenth.
guns of a battleship. One can only
imagine what the concussion must
have been when produced by ten or
twenty depth charges in succession
Whether or not the submarine YVES
destroyed or seriously injured depth
charged crew became extremely eau
tious in the future about getting any
where in the neighborhood OF des-
troyer; and among the several In
fluences which ultimately disorgani-
zed the morale of the German U-boat
service. these contacts with the depth
charges were doubtless most impor-
tant The hardest underwater sail
~ co fhrnuUh such
: frightful moments a second time
This staten emit makes 1t appear as
though the depth charge had settled
tn5 fate of the submarine. Yet that
was far from being the case. for a.
gainst the ash can, with its three
hundred pounds of INT, the sbmarine
had one very powerful defensive
weapon. That was the invisibility.
Strangely enough the average lay
man is inclined to overlook this fairly
apparent fact. Indeed. the only re-
spect in which the sub-surface boat
differs essentially from all other war
vessels is in this power of getting out
of sight Deserving danger from afar
the submarine can disappear under the
water in anywhere from twenty Sec
onds to minute. And its great adj
>vantage is that 1t can detect it's enemy
long before that enemy can detect it.
A U-boat. sailing awash, or with only
it's coming tower exposed. can see
DESTROYER at a distance of about fif-
teen miles, If the weather is clear
Under similar conditions the destroyer
can see the submarine at a distanc OF
about four miles. Possessing this great
advantage the submarine can usually
decide whether it will meet the enemy
or not. If it decides that it is wise to
avoid an encounter. all 1t has to do is
to duck remain submerged until the
DESTROYER has passed on entirely I'M
conscious of its presence, and then re-
Stunning it's real work, which is not
that of fighting warships but of sink
ing merchantmen. The chief anxiety
of the U-boat commander is thus to
avoid contact with Its surface foe and
its terrible depth charge, whereas the
business of the destroyer commander
is to get within fighting distance of
his quarry.
How a U-Boat Betrays Itself
Ordinarily conditions favor the u
boat in this game simply because the
ocean is so large a place. But there
is one situation in which the destroy
er has more than fighting chance,
for the power of the submarine to keep
it's presence unknown lasts only SO
long as IL stays out of the action If
IL makes no attempt to fight, its pres
ence can hardly ever be detected. just
as soon however. as it becomes beIlig-
erent it Immediately reveals its where
abouts. II 1t comes to fhe surface and
fires its guns, naturally 1t advertises
t. its enemy precisely where 1t is. but