Evening star., 1942-06-07
Navy Expects Weapons by July
To Cut Off>Shore Torpedoings
Vessels Nearing Completion to Go Into Service
Then, but Some Sinkngs Will Be
Suffered Despite All Efforts
BY Marquis ". ChIds.

This time large numbers of submarines
are in the Atlantic and the Caribbean.
The Navy estimates that Germany has
at least 500 submarines in operation to-
day. How many are in service on this
side of the Atlantic is not known, of
course. They operate in cycles, with
long rests granted to the crews.
Included in this number are powerful
U-boats with a cruising range Of from
$4,000 to 5000 miles, more than twice
that of the attack submarines of the
last war. This gives them such an op-
portunity for rowing along American
coasts that the secret refueling bases
may be entirely myth.
They Are Sought, However.
Nevertheless, there has been an in
tensive search for such bases and it still
continues Authorized American OBJ
servers have been allowed to make an
extensive search on the Vichy French
island of Martinique. Each report Of
secret base on Martinique, no matter
how dubious the source, is run down.
One theory Is that the German sub
marines are refueling from secret caches
of oil and provisions established on un-
inhabited British islands in the Carib-
beam Information in the files of the
State Department shows that German
sailing vessels frequented the Caribbean
in 1898 and the first part of 1889, before
the outbreak of the war. There are
hundreds of uninhabited islands, and
such secret caches would be entirely pos
sible, it is thought.
Still another theory is that the Ger
mans are using new type Of submarine
that does not depend on petroleum. Re-
ports have reached the Navy of motor
that draws hydrogen from the water for
its energy. No evidence has been found
to give any substantiation to this theory.
In 1918 amateur sailors and yatchs-
men were recruited by the Navy for help
with the submarine patrol. They op-
Grated extensively inshore waters all up
and down the coast. While undoubtedly
they were helpful, naval officers today
intimate that that help was very minor
III q SlJudtlOIl "IliCIl WdS liOb AlCoiS cO
grave as the one that exists today.
Pressure on Navy Now.
Some refitted yachts are being used
now, 1t was said, but the number Is
small in comparison with 1918. The
Navy has been urged to pull in numerous
other small craft and their owners
cabin cruisers, fast speed boats and small
yachts with eager amateur commanders.
The Navy points to difficulties in such
a program These boats must be re-
fitted with equipment for lowering
depth charges and with complicated and
costly listening devices. The depth
charge is, of course, the chief weapon
of such small vessels, since they are too
light for any gun except heavy ma
chine gun.
But depth charge equipment and lis
tening devices are needed for fitting out
completed destroyers and E-boats. They
cannot be spared for these lighter anna
teur patrol vessels which, in any event,
can be operated only in relatively good
weather. A cabin cruiser, said one naval
officer, cannot lay offshore "a to So hours
in bad weather in the winter, which Is
a prime requisite.
Moreover, the available trained men
are needed for the destroyers and the
E-boats which are being commissioned.
Hunting down submarine from either
the air or from a surface vessel is job
that takes both skill and experience.
Below go feet the submarine cannot be
detected from plane. Even at 20 or 80
feet it is discernible merely as black
bulk in the water unless wind and
weather conditions are ideal. To send
amateurs out in small, hastily equipped
vessels to face the formidable menace
of today might be merely to sacrifice
men and materials badly needed else
where.
The Navy, summing up the Atlantic
submarine war of 1918, could say that
no ship was ever held in port because
of the presence of U-boats. That can
not be said today. Both American and
Canadian ports have been closed to out
going traffic for days at time by the
known fact that long-range submarines
were waiting of the coast and of the
major sea lanes.