The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-10-12


sometimes reached 1000 tons. They
carried crews of seventy men, could
cross the Atlantic three or four times
without putting into port, and some
actually remained away from their
bases for three or four months. But
they were very unhandy vessels; 1t
/ took them relatively long time to
submerge, and. for this reason they
could not operate around the channel
and other places where anti-submarine
craft Were most numerous. In fact
these vessels, of which the Germans
had in commission perhaps half a dozen
when the armistice was signed, accom-
plished little in the war. They were
used mainly for strategic purposes. One.
or two were usually stationed off the
Azores, not in the expectation of get
ting much shipping-they sank few
merchantmen-but in the hope of d.
verting anti-submarine craft from the
main theatre of operations In this.
however, they dill not succeed; in fact, I
cannot see that these great cruisers ac-
complishd anything that justified the
expense and trouble involved IN build
ing them.
This, then. was the type of warfare
which the German submarines were
wagfng upon allied shipping. What
were the allied navies doing to check
them in this terrible month of April
1917? What anti-submarine methods
had been developed up to tina. time?
Everybody Had Plan.
The most popular game on both
sides of the Atlantic was devising
means of checking the underwater ship.
Every newspaper, magazine. public
man and gentleman at his club had
his favorite scheme for defeating the
U-boat campaign. All that any one
needed was a map of the North sea,
and the solution was as clear as day
light.
AS Sir Eric Geddes once remarked
to me, nothing is quite so deceptive
as geography. All of US are too likely
to base our conception Of naval prob
lens on the maps which we studied at
school. On these maps the North sea
Is such a little place! remember
hearing a young lady declare that she
didn't see how submarines could oper-
ate in the English channel. it was so
narrow. She didn't see how there was
room enough to turn around! The fact
that 1t is twenty miles wide at the
shortest crossing and not far from two
hundred at the widest is something
which it is apparently difficult to
grasp.
A glance at the map Immediately
suggested the way to handle the sub
marines. The plan which was most
popular in those days was TO pen them
UP in their bases and SO prevent their
egress into the North sea. Obviously
the best way to handle the situation
was to sink the whole German sub
marine fleet; as that was apparently
impossible the next best thing was to
keep them in their home ports and
prevent them from sailing the high
seas 1t was not only the man in the
street who was advocating this pro-
gramme. I had a long talk with sew
eral prominent government officials, in
which they asked me why this could
not be done.
sI can give you fourteen reasons
why it is impossible" I answered. |
I'VE shall first have to capture their
bases. and it would be simply suicidal
to attempt it, and it would be playing
directly into Germany's hands. Those
bases are protected by guns of Is, IL
and S-inch calibre. The guns are
secreted behind hills or located in
pits on the seashore, where no ap-
preaching vessel can see them More
over, those guns have range or 4o.-
900 yards. but the guns on no ships
have a range of more than $4,000 yards; /
they are stationary. whereas ours would
be moving For our ships to go up |
against such emp1acements would be /
like putting a blind prize fighter up |
against an antagonist who can see and /
who has arms twice as long as his
enemy's.
I'VE can send as many ships as we
wish on such an expedition, and they |
will all be destroyed. The German /
guns would probably get them on the |
first slave. certainly on the second /
There is nothing the Germans would /
so much like to have us try"
Why Not Barrage Across North Sea
Another idea suggested by a glance
at the map was the construction of a
barrage across the North sea from the /
Orlxneys to the coast of Norway The
distance did not seem so very great
on the map; in reality it was two hum !