THE NORTH SEA MINEFIELD NAVY'S BOLD SCHEME TO FOIL THE SUBMARINE.
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 10TH. 1918
been reported in naval circles that one of the first things that officer did on going to the Admiralty from the Grand Fleet, specifically, as was stated at the time, to fight the submarine, was to turn atten. tion to the improvement of mines. The necessity for that action should not be regarded as involving & œensure upon officers who had hitherto been responsible for British naval policy.
[BY ARCHIBALD HURD.] The carefully guarded secret is at laat out. Official "announcement is made of the establishment of a "prohibited area in the North Sea.
dangerous to all shipping." Probably few persons in this country would read into the notice. The Power which holds and uses the the significance which it really carries, scag does not need many mines. Nelson but the Germans will realise its full always explained that he did not block meaning. It may be suggested that ade the enemy in his ports or entertain probably the urhappiest and most con- any idea of preventing him from coming fused man in Germany at this moment out, but merely waited off big ports in ia Admiral von Capelle, the Naval Secre order. to join issue at the earliest op tary. The British Navy has thrust itself portunity compatible with the tactics he into the Cattegat, sinking fourteen intended to employ. The position of the auxiliary craft almost under the eyes of Grond Fleet since the opening of the war the Germans, and it has raided Ostend has been the same. In the strict sense and Zeebrugge with amazing daring. And of the term, there has been no navnl now he must learn from the official an-blockade of Germany, but, on the con- nouncement published by the Admiralty that the northern exit from the North Sen is being, if not completely, at any rate partially, closed to him. The naval authorities could not keep any longer the secret of their intentions, because it has
THE KILLING POWER OF INFANTRY,
IMPORTANT PART OF THE LEWIS
GUN.
During the course of the present war improvements in the nature and quantity of artillery have brought about complete changes in the technique of battles, but while public attention has been much 9 cupied with this aspect of the war the corresponding increase in what one may call the killing value of the infantry has passed almost unnoticed,
At the beginning of the war the infan. try battalion represented one thousand rifles and bayonets and two machine guns, These gung were battalion property, and were munaged by the machine-gun section, a specialist unit recruited from the battalion itself. Today the whole system has been changed,
The machine-gun power of battalion added to its rille power is to all intents and purposes doubled. If the calendation have a stock of special machine gunners the quite independent of the infantry, it works out that a brigade to day cen fro im-about three times as many bullets in the same time aga brigade of the 1914-15 period.
trary, the Grand Fleet has been pati-is made out the basis of a brigade jeho ently waiting for the day of battle. But the advent of the submarine changed conditions of naval warfare in one portant respect: a vessel that can steam under water, and therefore out of sight,
ones apparent to seamen who studied the matter that the most effective means of dealing with the menace was not merely to hunt the pirates on the trade routes, but to endeavour to prevent the sub marines getting on to the trade routes The best means, Eg every scaman realised, was to place reliance on mines laid so s to catch the submarine when stealing past the patrols in a submerged condi tion It was one thing to come to that conclusion, but it was quite another to face the enormous task of creating a barrage across the northern exit of the North Sea. It must have involved care- ful thought in the preparation of plans and the giving out of orders for tens of thousands of mines, An area of 121,000 square miles! That speaks of mines in vast numbers.
This has been brought about by the Lewis-as an infantryman's arm. Pro perly speaking the Lewis is an automatic ather than machine gun, and above all it is a single man's arm, for it can be carried and used by andyman The machine-guns proper are heavier arms, and need a gun-crew of three or four men, for the gun, its triped and its stocks of ammunition weigh altogether about one hundred pounds.
BURSTS OF FIRE
GERMANS AND NATIVES
ATROCIOUS CONDUCT IN THE CAMEROONS,
The conduct of the Germans towards.
Natives during the Cameroons campaign was barbarous in the extreme, and more in keeping with the traditions of some savage tribe than, the customs of a great European Power. The evidence collected from Natives by the French and British during their advance, and in many
shows that the Germans indulged in instances corroborated by photographs,
wholesale bloodshed, accompanied by deeds of the most callous cruelty, The following are but a few instances of their methods,
A native named Andreas Jengelli, who had fled from the Germans at Mbonjo, made the following report to Captain Gwynne Howell, of the British General | Staff at Duala" There are about ten Germans with 100 native soldiers in Mhonjo. They are shooting natives and burning the countryside. They have kill. ed about 30 native men and women, they say that the British way conquer: the country, but they will find no inhabit the modern German, our enemy did hia best to make good, with the scault that the native ran into bush whenover Ger- man troops approached but sought pro- tection from the British and French, friends. recognised ag they whou General Dobell, who was in command of the Allied Forces, makes the following comment upon the conduct of the Ger- mans. On some occasions it is said that no Europeans were present during the enactment of the brutalities described, but sufficient evidence is here available to show that German Europeans encouraged such acts by personally cutting the throats of wounded British soldiers with knives, firing on peaceful inhabitants to terrorize them, and shooting natives without trial. In such circumstances as these it is extremely difficult to obtain the names of the Germans concerned, es- pecially as the natives, as a rule, do not know, or take an interest in, the names of the Buropeans whom they see on these In this connection Mr. K. V. occasions. Elphinstone, M.A., of the Nigerian Civil Government, Chiej Political Officer with tae British Forces with the Cameroous, writes: It should be borne in mind that the civilians killed by the Germans are the natives of a country under their prolection, whom they had ruled for many stars, the murders were not com mitted by an invading army, in fact, owing to the treatment meted out. It was to the invading army the wretched natives fed for protection, vory soon summed up the difference of treatment by the Germans and the Allied Forec
been necessary to give ample warning to can evade the watching feet. It was at adoption of a light machine gun-the ants left. This threat, so typical of merchant shipping.
What will the Germans conclude to be the facts from the Admiralty's announce ent? In the first place, it is revealed to them that new danger area will exist from May 15th and onwards, its base forming a line between Norway and Scotland, and its peak running north- ward within the Arctic Circle. In the second place, they are informed that this new measure has been adopted as a reply to their policy of piracy, and they will know that if the area is dangerous to merchant ships it will be also perilous to submarines including mine-laying sub inarines. When the Germans read, an they are probably reading at this moment, the Admiralty announcement, they will utter one word *: Mines," and will realise that from the 15th inst the
Apparently the delivery of the mines greatest minefield which has ever been laid has now enabled the 'Admiralty to estab will exist in the North Sea. The dangerfish the barrage. It would be improper area embraces 121,782 square nautical
to convey any information likely to be sites!
useful to the enemy as to the exact charac ter of this new barrage, but the Germans read our reports of the Parliamentary debates, and a statement made by Sir Eric Geddes, the First Lord, in the House of Commons on March 5th may be recall cd He was dealing with the passage of submarines through the Straits of Dover, and he revealed in general terms the scheme elaborated by the War Staff dur ng Lord Jellicoe's period of office as He stated that a new First Sea Lord.
adopted: policy had been
WELL-KEPT SECRET.
The secret has been well kept, unless the enemy drew his own deductions from a series of articles which appeared in the Scientific Americe almost exactly a year ago. Those articles anggested that the writer had some inkling of the policy which the Admiralty were adopting. He pointed out that the beary losses sustain el by merchant ships showed that "there was something wrong either with the means and instruments employed against them the submarines or in the general principle upon which the warfare is
being conducted.". Now," he added,
Every soldier is taught how to handle and use the Lewis gun so that casualfics can be immediately replaced in the field. It is not capable of long steady periods of fire, for being ay cooled, it heats up very quickly. Its special use is for sud- den, quick bursts of fire of thirty or forty shots. In an attack it is an ideal weapon for wiping out odd sections of enemy or knocking out hostile machine guns, and as overy infantry company has two or more of these Lewis guns, the fire power of an ordinary company is vastly augmented,
Apart from the fact that the Lewis guns ertable one man to fire as many shots As twenty men, the terrific speed of fire is more valuable in another way. Dur
The enemy admits that during the recent fighting many of his canunities were from rifle bullets a phase which also includes machine-gun Bre, for all machine guns take the ordinary cartridge used in the rifle.
an encing attack groups of men may only be in sight for a minute or two. Au officer directing the fire control of a company of riflemen might not have time to get the whole of his men firing at this special target at the proper range before it had got under cover again, but with A surface barrage has been main the Lewis guns it means that only tained across the Channel in order to ob two or three mer have to alter their struct the passage of enemy submarines. sights and come into action on a fresh is main is lost, and the red, and at night the patrolling hill target. Very little time of fet, long be “there is nothing wrong with the instruwhich number over 韪 hundred, burn for they reach the next bit of cover. The headman of Bowelele, reported
ine attempting ments; they are ingenious and multi fiares, so that any Bubmarine
Some people came running into my form, and are being most energetically the passage on the surface has a reason
town from Ngori, shouting that a white employed on 3 truly enormous scale.
able chance of getting engaged.
man had killed two men. All the people The Admiralty had, indeed, recently The First Lord said nothing more on announced that nearly 3,000 emall craft this matter; but it is obvious that sub
began to run away, I remained in my of various kinds were engaged in fighting marines would endeavour to avoid the
house looking out, I saw some German soldiers come, they came up to about 50 the submarines, This American writer, surfact craft by travelling submerged.
Practically speaking, he has run up yards. I then saw a white man coming the United States being then, nt war, What happens to them in the Straits of then discussed the two broad policies Dover when they try to slip through in against a wall of bullets infinitely on a horse behind, I know him, his name which could be adopted.
this way may be matter for intelligent thicker than even the wonderful rapidis Meinhardt. He shouted in German for surmise.
got out of the window The full story would be re-fire musketry of the old Army of 1814. the headman." vealed if by some means we could look Add to this the supplementary weapons and hud in the bush. During the night down to the bottom of the Channel at of bomh and rifle grenade, both of which I saw the houses burning and 1 heard the point where the barrage is maintain have been used in the open fighting when shots when I Gret ran out. Next morn
Whether the Admiralty are going ed.
ever the ranges were close enough, and ing I went to Banaberi and reported to to apply the same methods at the north- it will be realised that the infantryman the meer. I went back to the village the ern exist of the North Sea.ns have been adopted in the Straits of Dover will be of 1918 has more fire power than was same day, then I found a great many matter on which the German Naval Staff thought possible before the new weapons houses burnt. We found Lobe Penda still alive, shot in the right upper arm will speculate. There can be little doubt
(he died the same day when we were as to the conclusion which they will reach.
taking him to Bonaberi), We found Ndia Njanga with bis throat out; he had been tied by the body, arms and forehend to a plantain. We found Ekwe Wanga shot dead outside his burnt house. Holo Sofo was shot in the foot, he is alivo. now."
If this murderous piracy is to be wiped out we must adopt the opposite and obvious policy of blocking the sub- maring fleets at their point of oxit and fighting them within their own waters This may be done in two ways. We may institate a coast blockade by build ing continuous nets across the entrances to Zeebrugge, Wilhelmshaven, the Elbe, and the Baltic, or we may surrender the North Sea entirely to the Gorman sub, marines and shut them within it by a wall of obstruction across the English Channel at Dover and across the North Sea from Scotland to Norway
AUVENT OF THE SUBMARINE CRUISER.. The Admiralty notice suggests that when Lord Jellicoe made his famous August prophecy he was speaking with knowledge of futaire events. It was as sumed in some quarters that this officer, who, so far as I can remember, has never boasted of what the Fleet would do, way extremely rash. to speculate as to the future.
SEME
came in.
All these factors go towards the general aim of the Army, which is to kill and wound as many Germans as possible. Day by day a steady retail slaughter by bomb and shell and long-range bre goes on, and whenever close action or battle fighting takes place, the killing becomes wholesale, owing to the terrific are power of modern infantry-
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The latter suggestion was an obvious ene, since nets, as the Admiralty, confoss
Elong Ntoko, of Bonberi Ba Susa, ro. ed, had not proved a success. It had,
ported:" Bony, a Malimba man, come indeed, already been made by me in
and told ng all to go to Sure, as the As to that, time will give ILE The Daily Telegraph in general terms soon after the enemy inaugurated the own verdict. Just as it has been known enemy's retention of his hold on the Bel. Germans were coming. We started away gian coast. Why don't the Navy gol at once. Before we got away we BOW sabanarine campaign against merchant on this side of the North Sea for some
in to Ostend and Zeebrugge?" That many German soldiers coming began months past that the Germans have been merchant shipping. It was, however, ap building submarine cruisers, they may question was frequently asked by persons firing at us. We all ran away. We came parent that while it was an easy matter
now assume that the Admiralty has not who were unaware that these two ports to Bura railway station and lay down to suggest the establishment of a wall been inactive in laying its for deal had been as strongly the of obstruction, the project represented ing with these new and heavily tried enemy as any ports in the world, over 150 behind the English troops. The Germans craft. When the Germans first boasted guns being placed on the coastline between I went out and found the body of my
Ostend and Zeebrugge. Only students I ing an immense number of mines and of what these vessels would do, Euggest
of other contrivances, the making of which ed that increased size, though accom naval history were aware that a combined brother behind a house in the village. would occupy much time. What was not panied by heavier gun power and a bigger operation of spanien and soldiers was He had been shot in the back
This is the experienes of Ngolo Ngeki, known to the general public on this side torpedo equipment, might involve dis necessary to turn the enersy out of those of the Atlantic and certainly not to the advantages: The presumption is that the ports, as was illustrated at Weihniwci, of Kake. "It happened when there was Germans--was that the scheme was al- larger the submarine which attempts to Santiago, and Port Arthur. It must be a big fight at Susa. I was living at that there were reasons, good or Susa, I went with my brother to Kako ready being worked out at the Admiralty pass through such a danger area as that under Lord Jellicoe's direction. That of which the Admiralty has given notice, bad, of which we shall learn in due to get food. We had got inside Kake assumption points to no intimate know the greater the peril of destruction. A course, why a coujoint operation was not by my brother's house. He was picking edge of what the Admiralty were doing, chicken, as everyone familar with a farm carried out. After the Russian collapse plantains, I was quite close, suddenly he I which has now been made. The Inving 00 small for the mother ben. Their the possibility of military assistance dis called out "Nglo I am caught!" I saw but follows from the announcement yard knows, can pass through an
apred, as the later, course of events in principle applies to the submarine. A Fr has reminded us. The full effects of the Russian Revolution were not felt the Admiralty must have involved the water in safely, but it suffers twelvo er more months labour, during the disadvantage that, having run the time the Navy began to think what it which in many establishments mines gauntlet, it has so little fuel that it can could do on its on account unsupported
What
Admiral plans
Bacon may have con- were being turned out of the exact types remain at sea only for a limited required, bu
On the other hand, the large submarine certed with the Admiralty will no doubt has a far greater radius of action, but, be revealed in due course when the war travelling on the surface or sub is over, but it is already apparent that
er by the Germans. When be recovered men." A German dispenser then came up It is no secret that when the war offers a bigger target, and the recent raids were not undertaken consciousness, he found a German native and made arrangements to set the broken opened our mines left, much to be desired. incidentally takes longer to submerge without many months of elaborate pre soldier pulling his broken leg, three leg Meanwhile the other European CHINA, JAPAN, STRAITS SETTLE The story is told of a fisherman in the So the announcement of the establishment paration.
This
war has shown that naval officers others pointing their rifles within a few moved over to where a couple of British North Sea who lost his way in a fog, of the new" prohibited area" will give
do not compete with each other for inches of bis face, while another held a native soldiers were lying wounded. The bumped into something which he took the Germans much food for thought.
popular applause, but rather shrink from bayonet over his left shoulder, and a European bent down and stabbed boili to be a buoy, lay by it throughout the
it. That is the Navy's way. It is silent sixth stripped him of his equipment. A men in the throat, one after another, night thinking himself to be in a posi
One word more. No greater injustice On the other hand, the nation and those European then approached, and, draw killing them on the spot. He then came tion of safety, and only in the morning can be done to naval officers in responsible who profess to interpret its views, owo ning a small operating knife about six round in front of Captain Parker and discovered that the friendly buoy was positions than to take short views. The duty to the service. In the first place, it inches long enid Do you want to live cleaned his knife on his putter British mine. The Germans, as well establishment of this mine barrage is a should never be forgotten that practically or die It is quite easy to relieve other nationalities, are fully aware and
case in point. But because nothing could every operation is the result of long people sufferings with this." Captain German arms throughout the Cameroons have been for many months of the debe revealed of the enormous enterprise thought and arduous preparation. In the Parker said he had only a broken leg fective character of the comparatively few which it had been decided to carry out, second place, warfare by Ben waits on
and did not wish to die. One of the mines which we laid during the early it was assamed in some quarters that the many elements necessary material, state soldiers then addressed the European, was lethargic. That con of the sea, condition of the tide, and the saying "Why do you not kill this months of hostilities. They are not un-Admiralty
vast demuntion was strengthened by the direction of the wind. Operations may white man? You killed the other white aware now that there has been
also be delayed, or hastened, by the action improvement in British mines since Lord!
of the enemy.
(Continued at foot of next Column.) Jellico became First Ses Lord. It has (Continued at foot of next Column.)
of a barrage of the character revealed by small craft can often nose its way throust until July last. Apparently about that lish came out, and fought the Germans at
IMPROVED DRITISH MINES.
AAN JUSTICE FOR THE NAVY.
two German soldiers kill him with a bayonet. I ran away to Susa, the Eng- Kake. 1 buried my brother the same day as the Germans ran away.
Captain M. J. Parker, Sierra Leone Battalion, West African Frontier Force. was wounded in action and taken prison.
[1308
Such are the crimes that disgraced campaign, and they go far to explain why the Germans have failed so consistently as colonists. The instances bere quoted form out a small portion of German crimes committed in the Cameroons
AJAX,
AND
CHRONICLE
MENTS, INDO-CHINA,
PHILIPPINES, ETC.
1918
FIFTY-SIXTH ANNUAL ISSUE.
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