Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-01-26
MINING SQUADRON RETURNS WITH
 STORY OF FEAT
Laid 10000 Death Traps for
 German Submarines.

German Submarines.
 Washington, Jan. 25.-The Ameri- can mining squadron, which. in con- junction with the British navy blazed 230-mile trail of mines across the North sea from the Orkneys to the coast of Norway, has returned homo with the story of now this great achievement in the campaign to contributed.
 Captain Reginald R. Belknap, com mander of this fleet of ten ships two light cruisers and eight convert ed merchant craft-graphically de- scribed in statement today the work of laying the 70,1O0 mines which made up the so-called North sea barrage and announced that at least 17 enemy submersibles were known to have come .c grief in at tempting to pass through this field.
 The American ships laid 56,570 of the total of these American-invented and manufactured engines of destruc- tion. The field averaged 25 miles iii width and nowhere was it less than 15 miles across, an hours run for subma rine. If a safe course were sought underneath, several lines of mines would be found there equally deep, and if the submarine went down even deeper, mines were ready for them there, too, and one touch was, enough.
 Before the barrier was half way V coiI Cortoir Ro1lnon Hfhp barrage began to yield results. Early in July, 1918, after the second ex- cursion of the mine layers and from time to time reports would come of submarines damaged or disappearing in that area From the nature of the case it may never be known def initely how many actually did come to grief there, but the best informa- tion gives a probable ten before the middle of October, with final total of 17 or more In addition to this toll the squadron should be credited with two submarines lost in the fields of British mines laid by the Balti- more off the Irish coast"
 Started In June.
 The American squadron arrived at Iverness last May 26 ready to begin operations and 12 days later started on its first mine-planting excursion. On these trips which lasted from 40 to 80 hours, the squadron was part of the British grand fleet. and for protection against submarines and raiding cruisers. it was accompanied by British destroyers and battleships or battle cruisers.
 cor, tho. cocOn6 rniniO ovcurSiOn " said Captain Belknap, 'the sixth bat tie squadron was the support con- sisting of four American battleships, commanded by ear Admiral Hugh Rodman of the United States navy, ia the flagship New York. One may im- agine with what feelings we saw our own ships file out of Scapa Flow form line and slowly disappear in the haze as they. swept southeastward. It will be readily understood that the way had to be made smooth for the mine planters. A single we'll placed torpedo or mine, or a few enemy shells would certainly finish one ves- sel. and probably destroy all ten of them. Each mine planter carried from 24 to 120 tons of high explo- sive, a total of nearly 800 tons in the. squadron. many times more than the amount that devastated Halifax. :
 s'The operation as q whole was done in conjunction with a British mine-laying squadron O. four vessels, which worked from base at Grange mouth, Edinburg, under command of Rear Admiral Clinton-Baker of the Royal navy. The American and Brit ish mine squadrons often went out at the same time, under the protec- tion of the same heavy squadron, but except on two occasions they always worked separately, in different parts of the barrage area.
 Altogether the American squad ron made 15 excursions, the British squadron II and the barrage was fin ished at the end of October. On the first excursion the squadron plant ed a mine field 47 miles long, con- taining 3,400 mines, in three hours and 36 minutes. Everything went without a hitch. The new mine in- stallations worked perfectly. On the first operation one ship emptied her. self of 675 mines without single break. one mine every il 1-2 seconds through more than two hours, the longest series ever planted any where.
 The squadron was always ready to make excursions as fast as the mines could be furnished and never failed in any operation.
 Casualties Few.
 ''Not only that, the casualties were very few. One man fell overheard at sea from the Saranac and there were four other deaths among the 4,000 men which might have occurred under any conditions. There was no loss of life nor other injury and, de- spite the close navigation, near mine fields, no ship ever came to grief,