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Show RECORDS TELL HOW AMERICAN DESTROYERS SIHK SUBMARINES Vessels Guarding Convoy Forced Germans to Surrender After Depth Charge and Shell Fire "Mosquito Fleet " With Crews of Youths, Does Great Work in Danger Zone Nelson Touch in One Fight. cheerful disregard for anything but duty. For not only must our undersea under-sea craft run the risk of being fired on by enemy ships, but they have also to chance shots from British cruisers and armed vessels, who "let fly" whenever when-ever they see a periscope which they cannot Identify. Nelson Touch in One Fight. There was a Nelson touch about the destruction of one U-boat which would have appealed strongly to the little admiral ad-miral who looks down from his lofty eminence in Trafalgar Square upon the Admiralty building in Whitehall. Sighting the German, the Britisher dived and gave chase, worked blind on the course her commander laid and trusted somewhat to luck. Now and again her periscope broke water for a second or so pnly long enough for her skipper to confirm his course and bearings. Then the British navigated into shallow water, so shallow indeed that to avoid being seen she had to scrape the bottom, bumping uncomfortably uncomfort-ably and dangerously all the while, and had also to dip her periscope. Luck, was with her, and she avoided breaking surface until she came to a position favorable for attack, between 500 and GOO yards from the U-boat, which, unsuspecting, was lying awash, her conning tower open. Some of Iter crew were indeed spreading the wind screen in preparation for a trip on the surface. Little did they dream that in a few seconds they would be on their way to "Davy Jones's Locker." But so it happened. hap-pened. Away with a hiss went the torpedoes from her tubes, and as they sped on their errand the Britisher was shifted so that another tube was brought to bear on the enemy. The commander was taking no chances, and if the bow tubes missed he was ready to have another go. But the bow tubes had been "well and truly laid" on the target, and twenty seconds after the torpedoes had been fired a dull explosion was heard by the British Brit-ish crew. Oily Substance on Surface. But there was no sign of the U-boat. There was a great disturbance upon the water where the pirate had last been seen, and when the Britisher reached the spot the sea was found covered with a thick- layer of oily substance. sub-stance. A wireless to the depot port and another red dot went on the chart which records the fate of the pirates. In the dawn of a bright morning a British submarine sighted an enemy. U-hoat running on the surface and nt once dived to get Into a favorable position po-sition for attack. As the navy would say, she "proceeded as requisite" for fifteen minutes and, rising until her periscope was above water, picked up her quarry again. The skipper wanted to make sure of his game. Carefully and expertly he maneuvered maneuver-ed his boat into a favorable position. Then a quick order and out of the tube a shining "tin fish" sped toward the Hun. In less than n minute the explosion explo-sion was heard, and up to the surface came the Britisher to look for results. Right ahead the sea was covered with a big patch of oil, in which three men were swimming. Two were picked up by one of the submarine's boats ; the other sank before he could be reached. Another of the kaiser's pets had "gone west." . London. Often the question has been asked, "What are our submarines doing? . Are they active at all in hunting hunt-ing the German U-boats which are sinking sink-ing our mercantile shipping?" Occasionally Occa-sionally cases are heard of German submarines being sunk by destroyers. The weekly Admiralty reports tell of a certain number of merchant ships "unsuccessfully attacked," from which one concludes that in some cases a U-boat U-boat may have been "bagged" by the merchantman's gun. Nor has the American "mosquito" fleet been long In learning the game of U-boat hunting. "Keen as mustard," mus-tard," said a British naval officer recently re-cently In talking about the American navy. They simply love a scrap when they ean get It, but the Germans are not ho keen. There Is no end of stories about the sinking and destroying of German U-boats hidden away in the very brief reports of commanding officers which from time to time reach the Admiralty, if one could only get at them. Of many of the highly successful methods meth-ods of hunting and destroying the U-boat U-boat it is, of courts, impossible to tell, but the Admiralty has permitted the publication of some recent records in which American destroyers, British destroyers, de-stroyers, motor launches and submarines subma-rines have played distinguished parts. Most Are Mere Boys. The brave fellows engaged In the work are, for the most part, mere boys, fresh-faced, clear-eyed youngsters, devoid de-void of nerves, always alert, cool and confident, who have to make up their minds and give their orders on the instant, and who, in true navy style, perform their allotted tasks and say nothing about them. Here is n story of a successful engagement en-gagement fought by two American destroyers de-stroyers which were escorting a convoy con-voy of merchantmen. They sighted a periscope, which however, quickly disappeared. dis-appeared. Rushing to the spot the destroyers de-stroyers dropped a depth charge and then wheeled back. The periscope again appeared, as though heading for the convoy, and off went the destroyers destroy-ers full speed. Once more the periscope disappeared, disap-peared, but not before three rounds had been fired by the leading destroyer, destroy-er, who also dropped a depth charge. The enemy's bow then came up rapidly, rapid-ly, and It appeared that he was lying at an angle of thirty degrees, stern down. German Crew Surrendered. He managed to right himself and tried to get away on the surface, but again the Americans opened fire, nnd then the Germans came on deck, held up their hands and surrendered. The U-boat sank just afterward, the survivors sur-vivors being taken on board one of the destroyers. Here is a tale of an English commander com-mander of a submarine Just as It reached Whitehall : "10 a. m. Sighted hostile submarine. Attacked same. "10 :03 a. m. Torpedoed submarine. Hit with one torpedo amidships. Submarine Sub-marine seen to blow up and disappear. Surface to look for survivors. Put down Immediately by destroyers who fired at me." But this young commander was a little more explicit in his footnote, as he might well bo, for, having kept to sea and his appointed duty under circumstances cir-cumstances of extreme difficulty and hazard, he took his fate in both hands, stalked the enemy and destroyed him. "During my attack," he wrote, "there was just enough sea to make depth keeping difficult. I fired two torpedoes, nnd one hit at forward end of coming tower. A large column of yellow smoke, about one and a half times as high as the mast, was observed observ-ed and the submarine disappeared. The explosion was heard and felt in our own submarine. On the previous day the periscope had become ve:v stiff to turn, and In the dark hours I attempted to rectify same, but while doing so I was forced to dive, and thus lost all the tools and nuts of the center bush. "While attacking It took two men beside be-side myself to turn the periscope. For this reason I did not consider It prudent pru-dent to attack the destroyer after hav- I Ing sunk the submarine. j Lay on Bottom Amid Enemy. "After torpedoing submarine I pro-reeded pro-reeded four miles northward and' lay on the bottom. Many vessels throughout through-out the day were heard in close proximity. prox-imity. Several explosions were heard, especially one very heavy one. It must have been close, as the noise was considerably con-siderably louder than that of the tor- j pedo. On one occasion a win; sweep scrnped the whole length of the bout along my port side, and a vessel was heard to pass directly overhead." That Is all. The feelings of these gallant men, lying on the sea bed, while dentil In Its most horrible form searched search-ed around for them, are left to the Imagination. They made port safely and, after refitting, put off to sea again. This deadly game of submarine against submarine Is the blindest and worst, of sen lighting. The hazard la the highest that can lie Imagined, but It is aeceplod by splendid men of Ihe British and American navies with a |