A MATTER OF LUCK.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17560, 17 August 1917, Page 9

A MATTER OF LUCK.

CATCHING THE U-BOATS. FIGHT CLOSE TO THE SHORE. "A Sea Slug" (a service name for the men on the.submarine chasers), in the course of an article on the work of these craft in the " Springfield Republican," wrote:— The catching of a submarine and its destruction is greatly a matter of luck. Sometimes the M.L.'s (motor launches) cruise around for days without seeing one. and then perhaps a U-boat will pop to the surface within a couple of hundred yards. The most important adjunct to luck is an all-seeing eye. One never knows where tho periscope is going to stick out above the surface, and you must be ready at any second to make it out at any point of tho compass. Just how many submarines were "gotten" while I was in England I am not at liberty to say, but I can go on record as stating.,that they are not easy to get, and the captives are fewer than generally supposed. A vast number of unita are necessary to combat them with any degree of success. Besides being invisiblo almost at will, the submarines are manned by men of nerve. The ideu-, prevalent among