Italy—Lake Bolseno, Porto Corsini, Pescara.
Azores—Marine Corps aviators.
Two divisions of our submarines operated in European waters—seven at Berehaven, Ireland, with the Bushnell as tender, and five at the Azores. Twenty-one sightings of enemy submarines and four torpedo attacks were reported by the Berehaven division. The AL-2 (Lieutenant P. F. Foster, commanding) had a remarkable encounter on July 10, 1918. Shaken by a terrific explosion, evidently that of a torpedo, the AL-2 discovered the periscope of a submarine apparently injured and attempting to get to the surface. The only chance to get the U-boat was to ram it submerged, and the AL-2 executed a crash dive, which carried it down a hundred feet. It barely missed the German, who was trying to slip under the American submarine. Swinging around, the AL-2 started again after the enemy, which was trying to rise. But it never came to the surface. Radio calls from another U-boat were unanswered. The lost submarine was the German U-B-65, known to be operating in that vicinity. "Known sunk," was the verdict of the British Admiralty, and for this the AL-2 was given the major part of the credit. Our submarines did excellent and faithful service, and proved their usefulness in that new and strange phase of undersea warfare where "sub hunts sub."
Our vessels in European waters were employed in so many regions that they did not operate together as one fleet, but constituted a "task force" of the Atlantic Fleet. In British waters our ships usually operated with British forces under the direction of British officers. Elsewhere they remained under the direction of American officers, always coöperating freely with Allied naval forces. At the United States Naval Headquarters at London there was a force of 1,200. The 200 commissioned personnel included a number of the ablest officers in the Navy, with Captain (later Rear Admiral) N. C. Twining as chief of staff, and Captain W. R. Sexton as assistant chief of staff. It embraced experts whose daily association with officers in the Admiralty, under the leadership of Admiral Sims, brought about complete understanding and perfect team-work. Those at the head of important divisions were:
Intelligence Department, Commander J. V. Babcock, who also acted as aid; Convoy Operations, Captain Byron A. Long; Anti-Submarine Section, Captain R. H. Leigh; Aviation, Captain H. I. Cone, and afterward, Lieutenant Commander W. A. Edwards; Personnel, Commander H. R. Stark; Communications, Lieutenant Commander E. G. Blakeslee; Material, Captain E. C. Tobey; Repairs, Captain S. F. Smith, and afterward, Naval Constructor L. B. McBride; Ordnance, Commander G. L. Schuyler, and afterward Commander T. A. Thomson; Medical Section, Captain F. L. Pleadwell, and afterward, Commander Edgar Thompson; Legal Section, Commander W. H. McGrann; Scientific Section, Professor H. A. Bumstead, Ph. D.
This large establishment in Grosvenor Gardens had been built up from the small beginning in 1917 when Admiral Sims, accompanied by his aid, arrived just after war was declared. Entrusted first with the duty of conferring with the British Admiralty and reporting the naval situation with his recommendations, Admiral Sims was soon designated as commander of our forces in European waters with the rank of vice admiral, and before the armistice was promoted to admiral. Keeping in constant touch with the British and other Admiralties, representing our Navy upon the Allied Naval Council, the information he secured, with that furnished us by Allied naval officers stationed in Washington, enabled the Navy Department to keep pace with all naval activities, and his recommendations were taken into consideration in important decisions that were made. Serving with zeal and ability, he won the regard and confidence of his associates of the allied navies, and received high honors from European governments.
In addition to the daily exchange of messages between London headquarters and Washington, information from special Government missions, and the intimate intercourse of officers of all the Allied navies, high ranking officials of our Navy from time to time went to Europe for conferences and inspection of our forces and activities, among them Assistant Secretary Roosevelt and Admirals Benson, Mayo and Gleaves. The Assistant Secretary, going over in the destroyer Dyer, spent six weeks abroad in the summer of 1918. He had conferences with the Allied naval authorities in London, Paris and Rome, and inspected our bases and mine depots, and witnessed the work of laying the North Sea barrage. Reporting that our personnel there had done well under hazardous and difficult circumstances, he advised a like mine barrage across the strait of Otranto.
Admiral Benson, going abroad in 1917, took part in the organization of the Allied Naval Council, and urged a more vigorous offensive, which we had favored from our entrance into the war. Months before, Admiral Benson had prepared, and I had approved and sent to the British Admiralty, "proposed measures to prevent German submarines from operating against Allied commerce in the Atlantic," which pointed out the following courses which were open to us:
We may attempt to—
(a) Reduce the Heligoland region and close exits for submarines.