The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-05-08
OPERATIONS OF U.BOATS.
No Bases in America, Says German
Commander.


base in America" said Captain Bar
tenbach, commander of submarine
bases in Flanders during the war to
an American correspondent in Berlin
few DAYS ago. "Nor did German
submarines, operating off the Amerl-
can coast, have a mother ship or re-
ceive any aid or supplies from
Shore"
CAPTAIN Bartenbach became identi-
fed with the submarine service in
Germany Is years ago, when it was
in it's experimental stages. He com
manded the first German submarine,
the U-1. He is still in the submarine
service and has his office in the Ad-
miralty building in Berlin.
I asked him the first question re-
garding the base of submarines in
America, because had often heard it
argued that German U boats could
not have operated off our coast un-
less supported by nearby base or
mother ships. Capt Bartenbach said
the submarines that harried the
American coast were outfitted and
sailed from Kiel and received no sup
plies on the voyage.
One submarine which visited Amel-
lea was absent five months. 1t was
commanded by Captain .Kopenhamel,
and reached America in August of
1918. 1t did not succeed in getting
back to Kiel until January of this
year. Captain Vonnoskit, VINO was
off the American coast last July and
August, was away from Kiel for
three months, while another of our
unwelcome visitors was Captain
Rose.
Captain Bartenbach said the La
coma was sunk by Captain Berger
and the Lusitaria by Capt Schweiger,
both of whom had died when then
submarines were destroyed during
the war.
Captain Bartenbach said the great
est enemy of the submarine was not
the depth bomb, but the anchored
mine. The exact figures are impossi-
BILE to give, but the captain said
about three U-boats were sunk by
anchored mines to every one sunk by
a depth bomb.
One of the most important duties
of submarines, said the captain, was
planting anchored mines. It was an
anchored mine, planted by German
U-boat, he said, that sank the Brit
ish ship on which General Kitchener
was a passenger. The mine had not
been placed especially to sink -Kitch-
ener's ship, but because the Ger
mans made it a practice promptly to
place mines along every new route to
which traffic would be diverted.
1 asked Bartenbach how long the
British tied up his operations by at
tacks on Ostend and Zeebrugge.
During the entire time of the
war;" he said, "the channel for the
passage of German submarine boats
at Ostend and Zeebrugge was never
closed for as much as two consecu-
tive minutes. The British attack was
a glorious thing, done With splendid
audacity and dauntless@-.y, but
it was an absolute failure from a
military standpoint. In the first at
tempt at Ostend two British boats
missed the channel and went ashore,
their bones are rotting there now,
while in the second attempt the Vim
dictive found the entrance to the
harbor, but was sunk almost imme-
diately. The wreck is still there"
I told Captain Bartenbach that
presence of an coil slick" on the wa
ter, after a destroyer had dropped
depth bombs, was hailed as concluu-
sive evidence of the destruction of
the submarine by the enemy. The
captain said oil and also fresh water
was carried by submarines in the
outer skin of the boat which was
thin and would be pushed in by the
force of the explosion of the depth
bomb. The oil would be released
and would ascend to the surface and
form an coil Slick" while the u
boat had receive no material damage.
If the depth bomb made clear hit
on the submarine, or exploded very
close alongside, it would of course
destroy the submarine.