GERMANY’S STRONGEST CARD.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 37, 15 May 1917, Page 4

GERMANY’S STRONGEST CARD.

America appears to have quickly recognised the directions in which she can render effective assistance to the cause of the Allies. If we arc to behove recent cable messages, the inven tive genius of the United States is at ■work to solve the submarine problem, end already, it is reported, great remits have been achieved. Developments will be watched with interest by ile whole anti-German world, for the submarine is certainly the strongest card Germany has yet played. According to recent statements made by naval writers about 300 enemy submarines are in commission, and newer and more formidable types are probably being built at a greater rate than the number at present being accounted for by Britain. The task of effectually coping with the submarine evil will therefore be no light one. According to Mr Archibald Hurd, the naval correspondent of the London '' Daily Teleggraph, ’' who is among the two or three best-known and most reliable of naval writers, Germany is turning ou f i o fewer than three complete submarines each week. This great output in supposed to have been reached by standardising the type of vessel and employing upon its manufacture practically the whole of Germany’s naval resources. All over the German Empire standardised U-boats are bcinv made, and then the various parts sections of hulls, the oil engines, the decide batteries, the guns, and mountings, the torpedo tubes and torpedoes are assembled and rapidly put together. The result is an extreme of swiftness, and at the same time, by an elaborate organisation, officers and men are being given courses of intensive training. If one may believe German claims, 300 represents only a fraction of the number of U-boats in commission- A German naval deserter —but, of course, deserters’ stories have to be received with caution—declared the other day that there were 200 U-boats always on active service, the number in commission being three times as great. The same man said that recent U-boats were nearly 200 feet long, and carried three .'1.5-iuch guns, though the very latest carried one 6-incher. He also said that the U-boats' were so numbered that it •o as difficult to read their numbers from, a distance at sea, though it was easy enough when they were in port. The cbject of this would be obvious, and it i might be effected by painting the nunv ber in a scries of different colours, or perhaps in a shade but little darker or lighter than that of the rest of the hub. The latest U-boats are said t.. be able to travel submerged at a speed of from eight to ten knots for some 18 hours. That would mean tha’. they could travel from 100 to 150 miles at anything from 20 to 100 feet below the surface. After that they would have to re-charge their batteries, which could be done at leis- -, ic, and probably at night with the oil engines that they use for travelling along the top. Some idea of the difficulty of catching a U-boat may be gathered from these facts.