Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Submarine Traps And Bombs

The situation is getting more and more uncomfortable. All possible wily and clumsy inventions are being used to disrupt the actions of the submarines and to destroy them. Especially targeted by the opponents was the Otranto Strait. Because our Austrian and the German submarines kept breaking through making the southern seas unsafe, they put lots of effort into locking us in and paralyzing us. But we always found a way through desppite all opposing efforts.

We are out on action again cruising from Valona to Santa Guaranta, the most northern Greek island. "Hand me my pistol up here!" calls the Commander down into the tower. After he receives it he shoots into the water at something that looks like the kind of wine container being used in these southern parts instead of the kegs we use. "I sure would like to know what the devil it is." he said. We got closer. I went down to the deck and hit it a few times with the boat hook. It turned a little but otherwise remained afloat. Then he said, "Come up again, we will render it harmless." He shot at it and hit it a few more times and then it sank.

A few days later we saw a pontoon like the floats they attach to the wings of our seaplanes.As we got closer the matter looked more suspicious to us. One man took the boathook and felt around underneath the pontoon and there it it was. A thin wire was tied to it that ran down to something that was not hard to guess. Woe to who would not be careful and just tried to tow the pontoon away. He would certainly be blown away. We took a long throw line, made a loop and threw it over the pontoon. The other end was tied to the stern of the boat. Then we started at full power in order to cause a jolt when the line tightens. The line was hardly taut and the float moved a short distance when the mechanism was activated and the water swelled up half a meter from the explosion. We took the pontoon and the left over wire back to the station for inspection and warning to the other boats.

A few days later, we found a whole nest of glass balls floating that were connected together. They too had the same purpose. If you try to snag them you find they are tied to something. The situation became more dangerous by the day. A boat could even hit such explosive charges underwater and then remain below forever.

The most dangerous though, were the water bombs or depth charges. Motorboats, torpedo boats and destroyers had them hanging around their boat walls and aft. When they sighted a submarine they criss-crossed at maximum speed over the apparent location and dropped the bombs which exploded at different depths. In the beginning these were fairly harmless and the danger of causing a boat to leak was not great. But things have changed. One bomb exploding at the same depth as the boat up to twenty meters away could easily destroy the boat.

In an effort to render the submarine war ineffective, they got the idea to let fishing steamers work together with fast-boats and planes. With this system they promised themselves the best success in that kind of battle. If a Submarine was spied, the planes came and searched the area. When the sea was rough the observer could not see very deep. But when it was calm, as the sea mostly was in the Adria in the summertime, the observer could see deep down.

Actually, he could only see the track of the boat as it moved under the water but that was enough. The plane then dropped signal bombs that developed a lot of smoke on contact with the water. That way, he marked the direction of the boat quite well which enabled the fast-boats to come around and drop dozens of water bombs into the depth. A boat trapped in this way could almost certainly count on being destroyed.

There was yet another way they had devised to catch submarines. Fishing steamers would drop strong steel wire nets up to sixty meters deep to try to encircle the submarine. When the boat would touch the net at some point the nearest fishing boat would get the signal and the fate of the boat was sealed since they now knew where to drop their bombs. Who knows how many boats have already gone to the bottom in this manner?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It seems to be the condition of man - to invent the evil things mentioned. My brother-in-law was killed by a land mine at 18, by the same imagination of those that made the "water bombs" for Franz. I hear the biggest business on the planet is still the making of weapons. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." How true.