November 28, 1914. 
Xand and WATEE^ 
/ 
Tho strictest orders have been issued on the matter, and 
certain steamers have been forbidden Chilean ports. The 
historical island of Juan Fernandez has been ascertained to 
have been used as a temporary base by the Germans. There is 
not the slightest reason to suspect the Chilean Government of 
any complicity in the matter — and its attitude is strictly 
<»rreot. 
THE NORTH SEA. 
At tho time of writing there are no operations to record, 
except rumours to the effect that the Germans attempted a 
small raid without convoy (along the line.3 anticipated as prob- 
able last week), and that the operation was not a success. 
Pending official confirmation, it is, however, idle to comment 
on the matter. 
From correspondence received, I gather that quite a num- 
ber of readers have taken more or less seriously the rumours 
that the reason why the German battleships remain inside is 
that they are substituting Ij-inch guns for their 12-inch and 
11-inch. 
The rumour is one of tho.?e stories which the Germans havo 
originated for psychological reasons of their own. The only 
comment which one can make is that it would be mors or Ies3 
possible to reconstruct to the extent of substituting a lesser 
number of 15-inch guns for more numerous smaller pieces, but 
80 to treat the fleet would take several yeart, cost an abso- 
lutely enormous sum, and when done — if past experience be 
any criterion— be an utter failure. 
Tho story is, if anything, even more mythical than that of 
the monster guns which were to destroy Dover from Calais. 
For that matter, there seems now to be considerable doubt as 
to whether even those famous 17-inoh howitzers of which 
we have heard so much have any but a legendary eiistonoe. 
On Monday, November 23, at 12.20 p.m., the German 
submarine U IS was rammed by a British patrol vessel oflf the 
north coast of Scotland. An hour afterwards the submarine 
appeared on the surface flying a white flag — the first ship to 
surrender in the war. Unfortunately, she sank just as the 
destroyer Garry came aloni^side her. One of the crew waa 
drowned, the rest were made prisoners. 
U IS was a modern boat, one of the earliest of the large 
German submarines, surface displacement 650 tons (750 tons 
submerged), fitted with four torpe-do tubes and having a 
nominal surface radius of 2,000 miles. She was more than 
double the size and importance of the U 15, sunk early ia the 
war somewhere in the same locality. 
It will be remembered that the Germans asserted that 
the submarine rammed some little while ago by the toypeda 
boat destroyer Badger was " merely damaged " and managed 
to get home. The U IS incident suggests that this may be 
true. It seems likely enough that V 18 being too damaged to 
undertake the long voyage home was sunk by her own crew. 
It certainly raises the question whether ramming can bo relied 
on as absolutely effective, at any rate against modern boats, 
constructed as the Germania craft are, and the incident will 
probably lead to future destroyers being fitted with a spur ram 
on the linos of the ironclads of many )-ears ago. 
A contact mine has been found by fishermen off Deal and 
towed ashore. It may be a mine that has broken adrift ; but 
on the face of it, it looks rather like indiscriminate mine 
strewing. 
THE BALTIC SEA. 
Here the Germans appear to be making considerable efforts 
to entice the Russian Fleet into action against odds. These 
efforts, the Russians have, with admirable strategy, ignored. 
Russia's correct " reply " is to do to the Germans just what 
tho German Fleet is doing to us — i.e., play a waiting game. 
Various German bombardments of Libau and other places 
have been reported, but they carry no meaning. 
On November 22nd, a Danish mercantile steamer, the 
Anglo-Dane, collided v/ith and sank the German torpedo boat 
destroyer 812^. in the Sound. 
THE SAPPER AT WORK. 
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE ENEMY'S FIRE. 
By COL. F. N. MAUDE, G.B. (late R.E.). 
WHATEVER may happen in Poland during the 
coming week, one thing is certain, viz., that 
it will break up the existing deadlock in 
the West, and initiate a forward movement 
on the part of the Allies. If Bussia is 
driven back to the Vistula, we must attack 
to relieve the pressure upon her. If she is victorious Belgium 
will have to be denuded of troops by the Germans to defend 
their Eastern frontier. 
In either case, we shall still have many entrenched posi- 
tions to attack, but fortunately under far more favourable 
conditions. For one thing alone, we shall be out of the 
marshy, in places almost water-logged, districts, which havo 
contributed so much to the discomforts and sufferings of our 
troops, and for another we are now at last much better 
equipped for this style of warfare than we were in the begia- 
ning. 
It must be remembered that for years past no one ever 
anticipated this return to the methods of Queen Anne's days. 
Both the French and Germans were so saturated with the idea 
of mobility that everyone looked forward to seeing this war 
decided by a series of big field battles. Certainly the Ger- 
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