The
Mediterranean was bad, the North Atlantic was worse, the west coasts of
the British Islands worst of all. The American Navy came in and did
splendid service off the south coast of Ireland, in the Bay of Biscay,
and along the North Atlantic seaways between French and British and
American ports. More and more destroyers were put into service, aided
by "chasers"--very much smaller vessels with only one gun and a few
men, but so cheap and easily built that they could be turned out in
swarms to help in worrying the submarines to death. The "scooters" and
"Porte's babies," as we saw in Chapter XXIV, were, however, even better
than these swarming "chasers."
The enormous steel nets were also used more than ever. You can fancy
what they were like by thinking of a gigantic fishing-net many miles
long, with armed steamers instead of floats. In the entrances to some
harbours there were sea-gates made by swinging open a bit of the net by
means of its steamers to let traffic go through, and then swinging it
back again. The mine-fields were made bigger than ever; it was then
that the vast one, mostly laid by the Americans, was begun from the
Orkneys to Norway.
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