GERMAN WAR INQUIRY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14041, 26 April 1920, Page 3

GERMAN WAR INQUIRY.

The specials-correspondent at Berlin of the "London Daily Telegraph" recently stated :- :

To-day's sitting of tlje National • Assembly Committee of Inquiry brought out some valuable contributions to the naval history of the war. Thus, Admiral von. Capelle, Von Tifpitz's successor as Minister of Marine, admitted that the Battle of Jutland was one of the main reasons why Germany built so few submarines' in 1916, and consequently was inadequately supplied with boats when she adopted the policy of ruthless sinking in February of the following year. So serious, he said, was the damage inflicted on the German fleet in that battle that it was necessary to take workmen away from submarine construction, and put them on to repair work. Other reasons which he gave for 'the delay in building submarines in 1916 were his own unfamiliarity with that : weapon when he took office, and the laying down of the British minefields in the North Sea, which necessitated the building of sweepers on a large scale to clear the exits from the German harbours. Yon Capelle said that altogether Germany gave out orders for 810 submarines. Von Tirpitz ordered- 45 of these boats before the war and 186 subsequently. Von Capelle came into office in March, 1916, and during the remaining nine months of that year he ordered 90 submarines. In 1917 he placed orders for 220. By cross-examina-tion, however, Herr Gothe-in elicited the fact that these imposing numbers only existed on paper, and that of eleven yards which eventually were employed on the construction of submarines only five actually .got to the point of delivering boats. Von Capelle said that two years or more were required to build the larger submarines, and a year for the smaller types. It appeared that several yards received their first orders for submarines only in the spring of 1917. Admiral von Capelle also gave the following numbers of submarines actually in active service during the first five months of ruthless warfare— , - •

Captain Bartenbach said that at the I-beginning of the ruthless campaign/Germany had altogether 109 submarined. The total number of boats at her disposal in the following nineteen months averaged 127, and of these on an average forty-seven were in service at. the .front. The fact that ruthless submarining was commenced with only twenty boats • at sea he explained by the prevalence of ice of! both the German ' and Flanders coast, which necessitated very cautious handling of the submarines, and actually caused damage to many of them. It was explained' by Von Capelle that five submarines were required for each station. .Of these, one was actually at work," another was 01# its way home, and th 6 third was coming out, and two were ■being overhauled in dockyards, A good deal of the proceedings was occupied ,by a discussion whether the Main Committee of the .Reichstag was deliberately misled by ■ the withholding of these details, and also "of the fact 'that many of the/submarines which it was told were being built, had not evon been commenced. Another : tonic of lively debate was the question whether the naval authorities hoped by ruthless submarining, to "bring England to her knees," or merely to "'incline her to nn accept-' able peace." Von Capelle asserted categorically, "No one in authority dreamt of starving England out," but official and semi-official utterances which seemed to prove the contrary were quoted by members of the committee. Von Capelle -said, that in 1916 it was the general view of naval men that the *'submarine cruiser warfare"' was not worth the losses it involved* though thoy amounted only to <i fourth part of the new construction. Tlw Commander-in-Chief of the Soiv Fleet was compelled by the Kftisov. to ■abandon his standpoint on this matter and to take up ■ submarino cruiser vw \ fare. ,

Minimum. Maximum, February . ... 25 44 March . ... 32 57 April ... . . ...- 39 58 'May ... . . ... 36 58 June ... . . ... 49 76