Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 201, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1918 — THROWS “BABY" AT FOE’S SUBMARINE [ARTICLE]

THROWS “BABY" AT FOE’S SUBMARINE

“Woman” on British Decoy Ship r \ Decorated for Outwitting /Bermans. . ■ ' BLOWS lIP THE U-BOAT Interesting Revelations Made Regarding Work of British Mystery Ships Which Play Important Part in Anti-Submarine Warfare. London.—lnteresting revelations regarding the work of British mystery ships which have played an important part In antisubmarine warfare are made by the naval correspondent of the Times. They show how British seamen have met German craft and cunning with British' craft and cunning. Until this week the public has known nothing about the mystery ships, known in the navy as the “<J” ships, although several officers, notably Capt. Gordon Campbell, have been decorated for their services on these vessels. Details now can be made public, as the Germans are becoming aware through bitter experience of the methods used agaldst them. "Baby" Blows Up Diver. How a “woman and baby” accounted for a U-boat is told by the correspondent. The submarine ordered a vessel to surrender and fired a few shells Into it The boats then left the ship, leaving on board a woman who ran up and down the deck with a baby in her arms, as If mad. The U-boat came alongside the vessel and the woman hurled the “baby” into the open hatch. The “baby” exploded and blew out the bottom of the submarine. The “woman” was decorated with the Victoria cross. The correspondent say® that the first mention of a mystery ship was in the case of the Baralong, which on August 19, 1915, sank a U-boat after the tor* pedolng of the British liner Arabic. -' It will be remembered, he says, that the German government protested that there was nothing to indicate the Baralong’s warlike character. The' Baralong case was probably not the first in which a ruse was used, and since then the disguising of armed vessels as innocent merchantmen for dealing with submarines has attained considerable dimensions. “Howls and moans,” adds the naval correspondent, “went up In Germany about the treachery of British seamen, but the German allegations curiously ceased at the beginning of 1916. These allegations afforded a typical example of German mentality, for they ignored the fact that in every case the U-boat was an actual or potential assailant and any ruse of war is considered legitimate by them except when employed against Germany.” It should hot be forgotten, he continues, that the Germans designed mystery ships for commerce destruction. The British commanders showed much ingenuity in devising plans for trapping submarines. Haystack la Floating Fort. In addition to the “woman and baby” case, the correspondent mentions the story of a retired admiral, serving as a captain, who placed a haystack on board an ancient-looking craft. When the U-boat ordered her to surrender the Germans were astonished to receive a broadside from the haystack. On another occasion a sea-worn

tramp steamer was crossing the North sea when a submarine ordered the crew to abandon ship. So sure was the German of his prey that the bombs with which he intended to sink the vessel were brought on deck around the conning tower. The commander of the tramp steamer by careful maneuvering brought the submarine within range of his concealed armament so that it required only a shell or two to explode the bombs and blow the U-boat out of the water. Capt. Gordon O. L. Campbell, then a commander, was decorated with the Victoria cross and the D. S. O. in 1916, being the first to receive these orders without the nature of his heroic deed being made public. It was announced early in 1917 that the reason for his decorations would be made public •after the war. He was given special promotion over the heads of about 700 officers, and current rumor in London in July, 1917, ascribed his rapid rise to work against the submarine. Captain Campbell gained the military cross for bravery in handling a tank when that weapon was first used by the British in the summer of 1916.