New-York tribune., 1921-06-23
Dickerson Sends U-l4O TO
Bottom; l9 Hits Out of
SO Shots; Sicard Ends
U-l48 by 20 Hits i'm 40
Actual Firing Time
Under Five Minutes
TESTS Convince Navy Men
Submarine Warfare and
Transports Are Doomed
From a Stat Correspondent

u ,. ,. henderson, off Cape Charles,
Na.).-With remarkable firing pre-
clsion two American destroyers to-day
sank the remaining German submarine
targets--the U-140 and the U-148-
after seventy-nine shots from their
4-inch guns, completing the second
days experimental tests off the Vir-
ginia Capes with a repetition of the 100
per cent score hung up yesterday by
their aerial brethren.
The slaughter of the enemy sub
merslbles was accomplished in less
than five minutes of actual firing by
the American gunners. The U-14O, q
3O2 submarine, was attacked by the U.
S. S. Dickerson, commanded by Com
mander Claude B. Mayo. Nineteen of
her thirty-nine shots were officially
scored as hits. She sank in one hour
and sixteen minutes.
The U. S. S. Sicard, commanded by
Lieutenant Commander F. A. Laroche,
scored twenty hits out of her forty
shots registered against the U-148,
which went to the bottom in twenty-six
minutes.
Both destroyers fired all salvos at
a graduated range beginning at 5000
yards and closing in to ! 500 yards.
First of Program Completed
To-day's experiments concluded the
first phase of the joint army and navy
tests in which former German war YES
srls are to be targets. Except for tins
search and bombing exercises against
the U. S. S. Iowa, which will be opera ted
under radio control next Tuesday, fur
thcr tests against the former German
vo ssels will not be held until the At
lantic fleet returns from New York,
whore it will remain until July 10.
The remaining tests include the de-
struction of a German DESTROYER by
aircraft on July 13, gunfire attacks
against enemy destroyers on July Is,
the slaughter of the former German
cruiser Frankfort by aircraft and gun
fire on July 18 and the aerial and gun
merry tests against the battleship Ost-
flesland on July 20.
The gunfire attack against the sub
marines to-day was not as spectacular
as the speedy demolition of the U-117
by navy airships, although the engage
ment showed the same deadly efficiency
of the navy gunners. The fast moving
destroyers spat out their rain of shell
with an accompanying flash of fire; the
revolving cannon sped toward the tar
get, and then the resounding ,detona-
ton of the missile as it met its mark
had more of the element of war than
the instantaneous squirt of INT bombs
from the airplanes. 1t was naval war
fare on the surface without the ro-
nance of the new method of attacks
from the skies.
The U-140. a 302-foot underwater
serpent, which was SO long menace
to Allied shipping during the war
blows into her vital parts from the de-
stroyer Dickerson. All her vitality
was displayed in her savage resistance
TO the inrushing waters as she stag
gered, listed and rolled awkwardly
about for more than an hour. 1t was
exactly / hour and 10 minutes after
the first shell struck home that the
stern Of the U140 went under water
She poised there for minute or SO
and then plunged downward. Within
three feet of total submergence the
vessel wavered for moment and then
settled into the sands of the bottom.
U-148 Succumbs Quickly
The U boat 148 was less reluctant in
succumb bing to the American shell fire.
| After the Sicard gunners had put
twenty of their forty shots into the
hull of the submersible target only 181
feet in length, she gradually sank
lower and lower into the water on an
even keel. She disappeared completely
in twenty-six minutes.
Practically all the hits against the
submarines were below the water line
and ali penetrated the outer she'll be-
fore explosion. A few registered on
the coming towers. All hits made per-
feet punctures the size of the four
inch shells.
The experiments thus far have con-
WINGED both Navy and Army observers
that unrestricted submarine warfare
can never again be maintained with
any degree of success and that in the
/ future no nation can wage an offensive
war across water. The three plane
attack which the navies of the world
now possess has practically eliminated
the question of transports. No convey,
I high officers of both services declare,
can be protected against an aerial at
tack such as was staged against the
German submarine in Tuesdays tests
Troopships OF the future will be easy
/ prey to the deadly accuracy of aerial
bombers, and the consensus ofohserv-
ers OH the Henderson is that any ma
ton, no matter how small, can success
/ fully resist invasion from the sea it
! their aircraft is concentrated on this
coast and capable Of operating with
the accuracy and precision displayed
in the two days tests just closed.