LOSS OF THE PALLADA

Evening Star, Issue 15662, 28 November 1914, Page 11

LOSS OF THE PALLADA

VICTIM OF SUBMARINE. NO LIVES SAVED. The first serious loss in the Russian Navy was reported in an official announcemem recording the loss of the. cruiser Pallada with all hands after an attack by a German submarine. According to the details available, the cruiser Admiral Makaroff, while on guard duty in the Bailie, was attacked by several of the. enemy's submarines, and successfully beat them off. The next day the Bayan and tho Pallada, while scouting, noticed a suspicious-looking vessel ostensibly under the Dutch flag, and on approaching they were each attacked by submarines. The Bayan was not hit. The Pallada was struck by a torpedo which, apparently, exploded the magazines, for she sank immediately, carrying down nil hands. The naval correspondent of the ‘ Bourse Gazette’ writes;—" The submarine attack on the Admiral Makaroff was made under tho most favorable conditions, inasmuch as the cruiser was .stationary, inspecting a suspicious-looking vessel. Nevertheless, all the torpedoes discharged missed. Knowing the capacity of the Or mi a mi to carry out all sorts of deception, it was assumed that the suspicious-looking sail

was despatched by them with the special object of attracting the attention of the cruisers on guard duty. On the following day the enemy evidently had determined the course of the guard ships, and the submarines lay in wait for the Bayan and the Pallada. In spite of timely detection by the cruisers and the heavy fire opened by the latter, it was evident that the attack was effected b several submarines. While successfully repulsing two or three submarines, the Pallada had neither observed nor even hud the opportunity of firing at a fourth, which crept up and assailed her during the .engagement. It is not known whether the Pallada was avenged, because during the fighting it was almost impossible to ascertain whether the submarine was sunk by a shell or whether she voluntarily submerged. The German fleet persistently conceals its losses, and until the end of the war we will know only cases of the destruction of German vessels which occurred before their assailants—indisputable witnesses. The almost instantaneous loss of an 8,000-ton cruiser indicates how torpedoes have improved of later years, their colossal destructive powers reseigbling the effect of mines, as instanced in the loss of the Hatsuse, the Yashima, and the Petropavlovsk. But a portion of the officers and crew of those vessels was saved, whereas nobody was saved from the Pallada. The obvious extraordinary force of the explosion and perhaps special gases which were given out partly accounted for this, while the icy water did the rest. The activity ■of German submarines in the present war irresistibly demonstrates the importance of the new weapon in naval operations. As on the occasion of the loss of British cruisers, i so in the attacks on the. Russians, the German submarines operated at a great distance from their base, cruising at least two days off the Russian coasts without convoys, since the Russian guardships did not detect any. It is permissible to assume that submarines of large displacement are able to undertake independent naval operations."