DEPTH CHARGES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 12, 9 October 1939, Page 7

DEPTH CHARGES

Effect On Submarines Described Dominion Special Service CHRISTCHURCH, October 7. If they do nut score direct . bits, depth charges can be relied oti to upset Hie morale of submarine crews, according to -Mr. A. -I. Bevan,- who gave an address on torpedo work at. a Businessmen’s Club luncheon. ’lf enough depth charges arc dropped it can be said witli safety that a submarine will come to the surface and surrender,” tie said. A deptli charge, which was a form of time bomb, was either projected from a gun or dropped from tlie side of a ship, and would drop 50 feet in about 11.1 seconds. When it exploded (he bomb would totally demolish a submarine within a radius ol (>•> loci. A submarine within a radius ot 100 feet would be partially demolished and Hie morale of the crew ol a submarine within a ratlins of 1-”>O feet would be seriously affected. Mr. Bevan explained the method used for counteracting attacks made by submarines on ships being convoyed. Convoys were arranged according to Hie speed of tlie ships, and when an attack was made by a submarine four destroyers would go to points about the spot where the submarine had last been seen. Depth charges would then be dropped about that point. A submarine’s chances of success with a torpedo were very high, he sttid, but only about 11 per cent, of the torpedoes tired from ships scored direct hits. Of the 107 torpedoes fired from German ships during the Battle of

Jutland, one bad been successful. Ten torpedoes, each ot which cost about £2OOO, were carried in a submarine. i 'Die speaker outlined the parts of a torpedo, saying that the three types of torpedoes used iu the British Navy were of 18 inches, 21 inches, and 241 inches iu diameter.