112 SUBMARINES IN GENERAL— 



and construction of submarines and to the necessary war-time secrecy of their move- 

 ments, the public has been led to hold wrong opinions of the efficiency of subma- 

 rines and the very important part they played during the war just ended. 



Most of the reports of value about submarines were suppressed by the allied 

 governments, and very little true information reached the public. In addition to 

 this, the methods of warfare waged by Germany with its submarines have tended 

 to cause an impression in the public mind that the submarine as a weapon of war 

 should be done away with. The part that the submarines of the Allies played dur- 

 ing the war places the submarine in a different light and reveals its true value not 

 only as a defensive weapon, but particularly as an offensive weapon. Prior to the 

 war, the opinion was prevalent, even among many intimately connected with sub- 

 marines, that the submarine type of vessel was essentially a defensive weapon and 

 of little value as an offensive weapon. The facts revealed by the experiences of 

 the war have changed this opinion since the submarine has so efficiently proven its 

 worth as a very powerful offensive weapon. Its ability as a scout was truly mar- 

 velous, as it was able to gain a maximum of information at a minimum of expense. 



Among the things accomplished by the submarine one fact stands out as par- 

 ticularly noteworthy, namely, that more men-of-war were destroyed by submarines 

 than by any other type of war craft. Likewise the submarines proved their effi- 

 ciency in being the most effective means for watching the movements of the Ger- 

 man fleet ; in fact' much of the information obtained regarding the activities of Ger- 

 man war craft was obtained by submarines on picket and patrol duty ; furthermore, 

 few movements of German war craft escaped their vigilance. 



During the war, the British maintained a picket line with their submarines in- 

 side Heligoland Bight. This proved to be an extremely dangerous post to maintain, 

 and the picket line was later withdrawn outside of Heligoland. The British lost 

 six submarines in six weeks during one period of picket duty inside Heligoland; dur- 

 ing the entire war they lost twenty-nine out of fifty-eight of their "E" class of 

 boats. Owing to the very dangerous duty performed, it was considered that the 

 normal life for these picket boats was twelve patrols, yet the "waiting list" at Har- 

 wich was the longest ; this proves the metal of the British Submarine Navy. 



The Germans had about thirty submarines at the beginning of the war ; dur- 

 ing the four and one-half years following they produced or had in process of con- 

 struction at least six hundred and fifty more, making a total of approximately six 

 hundred and seventy. Of these, two hundred and three were lost during the war. 

 The number of allied surface craft engaged against the German submarines was 

 in the approximate ratio of 200 to 1. 



The German submarines destroyed about 15,000,000 tons of shipping and killed 

 about 16,000 people during the war. During the last three months of the war they 

 destroyed about 1,000,000 tons. It was only in October, 1918, that the construction 

 of allied vessels covered the current losses caused by the German submarines. 



After we entered the war some of our submarines were located off the south 



