Along the sea coasts and at certain points in the English Channel great
nets were used effectively. Submarines, however, toward the end of the
war were made sufficiently large to be able to force their way through
these nets, and net-cutting devices were also used by them with
considerable effect. The best way to destroy the submarines seemed to be
in a direct attack by flotillas of destroyers.
By the end of the war the whole process of sinking or destroying
submarines had been thoroughly organized. Practically every portion of
the seas near Great Britain and France was carefully watched and the
appearance of a submarine immediately reported. As the submarine would
only travel at a certain well-understood speed during a given time, it
was possible to calculate, after the locality of one was known, about
how far from that point it would be found at any later period.
Destroyers were therefore sent circling around the point where the
submarine had been discovered, enlarging their distance from the center
every hour. In the course of time the submarine would be compelled to
come up for air, and then, if luck were with the destroyer, it might
find its foe before it was seen itself. Having discovered the submarine
the destroyer immediately endeavored to ram, dropping depth bombs at the
point where they supposed the enemy to be.
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