Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-04-11
Writer Warns
America Of
U-Boat Peril
Recalls Smelling of U. s.
Shores in July 1918
BY EDWIN c. HILL

1T WAS on the bright Sunday
morning of July q. 1918.
when the church bells were ring
ing that the German submarine
U-156 started Smelling Province
town, Mass.
These were the first enemy
shells TO fall on our soil after
more than a century or more or
less complacent reliance on our
protecting stretch of ocean.
One of our airplanes tried to
drop a monkey wrench on the
sub we had no bombs. The
monkey wrench missed its mark.
The Chatham Naval Air Base
was nearby, but the boys were
having baseball game and.
what with one thing or another.
the Smelling went on for hours.
At the naval base at Province
town was a fleet Of Il submarine
chasers but by the time they
got untracked and moved out in
battle formation the sub had
moved on, after popping Off
some tugs and row of bargeS.
Such was the sum of our re-
~tStaffce- ~ this uCw anti novel
attack from overseas.
TNifS- historic but little noted
l. episode IS reviewed in minute Z
detail in the book German Subs
and Yankee Waters. published
last Summer by Henry James.
James. aS a schoolboy. saw the
one-way shooting match was
impressed by IT and put in the
next 20 years rounding up that
little known and lightly regarded
story OF the surprising activity
and depredations OF the German
U-boatS on our shore during the
World War Hence the book.
James thinks the Germans
have been busy and efficient in
submarine planning since the
World War and that il IS quite
possible that the U-l56 was Just
d Toy compared with what they
have now
We bring the book forward in
the files today aS pertinent TO
dispatches from various quar-
terS, possibly speculative, but
none The less dlsquieting in their
stories Of troop-carrying subma-
rlnes being readied by the Ger
mans.
Ever, If this is far-fciched,
I 4i4tfe no ttt-f7f71ii ttfTat American
coastal II not land operations
have figured heavily in the Ger
mans interim plans. and there
Is much IN this book that flares
INTO headline interest today.
JAMES IS superintendent Of
- schools al SlmShlll.X- Conn
lie is a trainer Of Sea Scouts,
and many Of the boys he has
trained are N the navy or the
merchant marine He Is skipper
of the oldest Sea Scout ship in
Connecticut and vice commodore
Of the Charter Oak Council.
He has woven into this back
ground Of training and expert
cnce his long and intensive study
OF what the Germans did once J
and what they may do IN the
future II WAS long before the
Battle OF the Atlantic began
f00T7T1g T1aT ne urged TEaf we'd
better mobilize our best fechni-
cal brains against whatever may
come
He is convinced that for A
knock-down and drag-out war.
the Germans have shrewdly
prepared plan of penetration Of
New York harbor by mammoth
submarines and domination of
the Atlantic states industrial
region.
We read the book when il
appeared and now find that il
takes on vastly heightened in
terest IN the light of what Is
happenlng TODAY.
HERE are the German subs
II which in 1918 ranged around
our front yard. sinking ships
with no retaliation. U-53. U-I5I,
U-l56, U-l40, L III, U-155,
U-152. U-139.
What about today with The
tremendously increased range
and power of the German I'M
dcrsea boats? There's nothing
10 get jlttery about. and our
defensive resources are by no