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Show FOE'S SUBMARINES ARE MORE NUMEROUS TODAY THAN EVER French 'Naval Critic Says Bigger Drive Will Be Made Next Year, but Will Be Foiled. By HENRY G. WALES, Staff Correspondent of the International Nm Service. PARIS, Oct. 25. (By mail.) Oliver Oli-ver Guihcneuc, naval critic of Le Rappel, and an authority on submarines, subma-rines, lias accorded me an Interview in which he reviews the enemy U-boat campaign from the beginning of the year, and forecasts its scope and effectiveness ef-fectiveness in tb coming year. "Never at any time during Lhe war' has Germany possessed as many submarines sub-marines of such a powerful efficient type sls those which she will put into commission this winter and in the spring of 101S," he said. Admiral von Tirpitz-'s first submarine subma-rine campaign, begun in February, 191e, was carried on with thirty-eight thirty-eight submersibles, according to the statistics of M. G-uiheneue, who further fur-ther asserts that toward June and July of that year the enemy had in commission seventy U-boa ts, including includ-ing thirty of 800 tons burden. BEGAN 1917 DRIVE WITH 160 BOATS. "I estimate at 160 the number of submarines with which Germany began be-gan her 'ruthless' undersea warfare in February, 1917," said M. Guiheneuc. "I have It from excellent sources that the German fleet of U-boats numbered num-bered exactly 15S units ready to put to sea on February 1 last. Half of these boats were of very large tvpc. displacing 1200 tons each, and 2-5 per cent of them were of at least SC5 tons each. By tho last of May the situation situa-tion of the allies had become critical criti-cal through the depredations of these boats." 600 LAUNCHED SINCE WAR STARTED. 1 M. Guiheneuc estimates that . on September 1 of this year the Germans had completed S0O submarines, and that many of these latest boats were practically submersible cruisers of ! 1500 tons or more each, carrying six- i inch sui1-?, fifty torpedoes each, many mines and crews of fifty men. Through a deserter from the German Ger-man navy who made his way from Kiel to Amsterdam, M. Guiheneuc obtained ob-tained information which causes him to place at 600 the number of submarines sub-marines launched in German yards since tiie beginning of the wa r. Of these, he believes, 200 have been in constant service during1 the past few: months. NEW METHOD OF NAMING BOATS. "My informant had seen," haid M. Guiheneuc, "the V-200, the T-197, the V-203. This is the new German way of naming or designating her- stibma-rinea stibma-rinea The initial designates tile yards where the boats were constructed. con-structed. Before the war only two shipyards manufactured submarines German ia (Krupp) at Kiel, and the imperial government's arsen.al at Danzig. Today Blohm and Voss at Hamburg, Tecklenburg, Urania and still other shipbuilders have submarines subma-rines on their ways." SAYS ALLIES WILL FOIL SUBMARINES. M. Guiheneuc estimates that Germany Ger-many could have 200 submarines under un-der construction at the same time, but through delays in performing hand labor on delicate parts, construction would require at least six months. "By the middle or end of November of this year 1917 Germany will have in the neighborhood of 270 submarines ready for service," concluded M. Guiheneuc. "In the spring of I91S she may have from "SO to 400 sub-mersibles sub-mersibles in commission. But although al-though the coming crisis, through U-boat activities, may become grave, temporarily. I can state tliat I believe that Germany's next undersea offensive offen-sive will end in favor of the allies, as did her former efforts." |
