SUBMARINES IN WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17229, 21 December 1923, Page 1

SUBMARINES IN WAR.

UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES AS TO SIZE. HANDICAPPED BY VULNERABILITY. By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.—Sydney “ Sun " Cablo, (Received December 21, 9.50 a.m.) LONDON, December 20. The naval correspondent of the “Daily News ’ pays a tribute to Professor Flamm as the doyen of German ship architects. He contends that British constructors are capable of designing a 10,000 ton submarine if ordered. There is no technical limit to size. The difficulty is in running a submerged submarine so that it could be efficiently managed. s Professor Flamm’s submarine, with thick armour and powerful guns, would be a formidable opponent against smaller patrol ships, states the writer, but it would be unable to successfully engage any large surface warship. The inherent and irremediable weakness of all submarines is that they dare not fight at close quarters, because one hit might destroy their power of diving. Professor Flamm’s submarine might do extensive damage to commerce in a few months, continues the article, but its success would be short-lived. It would be almost as vulnerable to depth charges and heavy aerial bombs as the smaller submarines are. The cruising radius of 23,000 miles is illusory. The vessel might be able to carry sufficient fuel and stores to circle the world, but the crew could not keep fit throughout. Six weeks is the outride period that a submarine can remain at sea in war time. A giant mine-layer would be more dangerous to shipping than a fighting submarine, but such large vessels would be useless in narrow seas owing to their enormous draught asd their limited powers of manoeuvring. It can be confidently stated, concludes the writer, that British constructors are ahead of all others in technical knowledge and experience in all features of submarine design.