Underwood & Underwood This wonderful picture shows a German plane dashing through space to earth after being bombed by a French flier overhead As I reached my torpedo depth I sent a second at the nearer of the oncoming vessels, which charge was for the Hogue. The English were playing my game, for I had scarcely to move out of my position, which was a great aid, since it helped to keep me from detec tion. On board my little boat the spirit of the German navy was to be seen in its best form. With enthusiasm every man held himself in check and gave attention to the work in hand. The attack on the Hogue went true. But this time I did not have the advantageous aid of having the torpedo detonate under the magazine, so for twenty minutes the Hogue lay wounded and helpless on the surface before she heaved, half turned over, and sank. By this time, the third cruiser knew, of course, that the enemy was upon her and she sought as best she could to defend herself. She loosed her torpedo defense batteries of both starboard and port, and stood her ground as if more anxious to help the many sailors who were in the water than to save herself. In common with the method of defending herself against a submarine attack, she steamed in a zigzag course, and this made it necessary for me to hold my torpedoes until I could lay a true course for them, which also made it necessary for me to get nearer to the Cressy. I had come to the surface for a view and saw how wildly the fire was being sent from the ship. Small wonder that was when they did not know where to shoot, although one shot went unpleasantly near us. sent away my third attack. This time I sent a second torpedo after the first to make the strike doubly certain. My crew were aiming like sharpshooters and both torpedoes went to their bull's eye. My luck was with me again, for the enemy was made useless and at once began sinking by her head. Then she careened far over, but all the while her men stayed at the guns looking for their invisible foe. They were brave and true to their country's sea traditions. Then she eventually suffered a boiler explosion and completely turned turtle. With her keel uppermost she floated until the air got out from under her and then she sank with a loud sound, as if from a creature in pain. The whole affair had taken less than one hour from the time of shooting off the first torpedo until the Cressy went to the bottom. Not one of the three had been able to use any of its big guns. I knew the wireless of the three cuisers had been calling for aid. I was still quite able to defend myself, but I knew that news of the disaster would call many English submarines and torpedo-boat destroyers, so having done my appointed work I set my course for home. More than 1,200 men went down with the three cruisers-done to their death by a handful of but 26. Thirty-six thousand tons of modern steel warships, packed with heavy guns and equipped with all the latest devices for maritime warfare, were destroyed in an hour by a pigmy craft of 450 tons. What When I got within suitable range I Every conceivable sort of a cave or underground passageway is utilized to protect the helpless from the ruthless air raids of the Germans wonder that men the world over began to predict the abandonment even of the dreadnoughts, for all their weight of armor on their sides will avail them not a whit against attack from below. As the ironclad sides of the Merrimac, and the revolving turret of the little Monitor relegated to the scrapheap the "wooden walls of England," so the submarine, and its scarcely less sinister coadjutor, the airship, may put an end to the $12,000,000 floating forts of steel which the Powers have been building. Underwood & Underwood In a recent raid over England, these two German Gothas were destroyed and their six occupants made prisoners But no success of like extent and dramatic quality was won again by the German underwater-boats. After this bitter experience the British materially altered their naval tactics in water frequented by submarines. Vessels of the size of the three slaughtered cruisers were no longer employed as patrols in such waters. Trawlers, converted yachts and small swift motor boats called "chasers" were used instead, exposing the minimum number of men to peril. And out of this disaster sprang a new naval regulation that jarred sadly upon the gallantry of the service, for it was ordered that whenever one of a squadron was sunk the others instead of coming to the succor of the survivors should seek safety in flight-scattering far and wide to Underwood & Underwood every point of the compass. It was a prudent rule but one most repugnant to the chivalrous instincts of navy men. Because of these new regulations and of growing skill in the detection of submarines the operations of submarines against warships were not of great importance after the first ten weeks of war. Yet in that period seven British cruisers with a tonnage of 48,370 were sunk by the "vipers of the sea" with a loss of 2,298 men. The losses were mainly on the British side because British ships only were at sea-the Germans were locked up in their mined and fortified harbors. In such service as was open to them British submarine commanders gave a good account of themselves. In 1915 one of them took his boat from an English port, the whole length of the Mediterranean, through the Dardanelles, dived under five rows of mines and sunk the Turkish battleship Mesudieh. After the early months of the war German submarine activity took the form of a campaign against merchant ships of every nation, including the neutrals, in a vain effort to shut off the supplies of food and munitions that were pouring into England from every quarter. As it was this campaign that brought Germany into collision with the United States, ultimately forcing the latter nation into the war, its details I will be considered in the chapters dealing with that subject. When the outbreak of the war was announced by cables and wireless to the world there were scattered about Pacific waters seven German warships of considerable powerAeolus Dresden, Leipzig, Nürnberg, Scharnhorst, Emden and Gneisenau. At the moment they were widely dispersed, perhaps no two being within 2,000 miles of each other, and the way in which Vice Admiral Graf von Spee gathered them into a squadron was the admiration of naval men of the time. The Aeolus he was unable to get. She ran across a Japanese manof-war at Honolulu and was sunk. The Emden joined the rest at the appointed rendezvous but was at once detached for work as a commerce destroyer. The other five cruised southward in the Pacific. It was Britain's task to overhaul and demolish this squadron as speedily as possible. It had in waters near Cape Horn a fleet of three cruisers under Admiral Cradock -a force which proved utterly inadequate to cope with Von Spee's squadron. But it appears that there was some doubt as to whether Von Spee had the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau-new heavily armored ships with him. Hoping that they might not be, Cradock was or him. By way of safeguard the Admiralty ordered the Canopus, which was in Pacific waters, to his aid, but it proved a slow ship and arrived too late to take part in the battle. The two squadrons met November Ist off Coronel, on the coast of Chile. The British admiral must have seen at a glance that his case was hopeless, for the two new German ships were in the van, while his belated reënforcement, the Canopus, was barely within reach of the wireless. Nevertheless he flung out his battle flags to the gale that was blowing and went gallantly into action. The fleets as they went into the fight compared thus: FOURTH PHASE 6-00 P.M. O BATTLE CRUISERS THREE HIGH SEAS FLEET Monmouth. Good Hope. Glasgow. NIGHT 9-00 P.M. Otranto BATTLE CRUISERS WARSPITE TORPEDO 000 BATTLE CRUISERS FIFTH PHASE GERMAN LINES OF RETREAT HIGH SEAS FLEET dered to seek out the enemy and destroy answering fire from Good Hope's two 9-inch |