Subchaser.org Editor's Note: Naturally, people ask the question of how many subs the chasers actually sank. This is the best account I've come across so far, not because it is necessarily an authoritative or indisputable account, but because the author answers the question based on military intelligence rather than on anecdotal accounts from men on the ships claiming kills.

The excerpt is from the book, Simsadus : London, by John Langdon Leighton, pages 131-133.

The American forces delivered 286 attacks on submarines or on suspicious objects; in 197 of these, it was definitely proved that a submarine was pres-ent. The remaining attacks were carried out upon oil slicks on the water, or tide rips, or some other form of disturbance. The reports of attacks were sent by the Commanding Officer of the vessels involved to Admiral Sims' office in London, and, upon the receipt of these, a comparison of the position in which the attack was delivered with the current charts of submarine movements was made. In this way it was known how effective and successful the attacks had been.

Four submarines were sunk by the American forces, one on November 27, 1917, by the U. S. S. "Fanning" and "Nicholson"; another on May 11, 1918, by the U. S. S. "Lydonia," in the Mediterranean; a third on June 18 by the submarine chasers at Corfu; and the fourth on October 2, 1918, by the chasers at Corfu in their raid on Durazzo Harbor. A fifth was possibly sunk by the U. S. S. "Tucker" on August 8, 1918, a hundred miles off Brest, and on May 31st the "Christabel" attacked the UC-56 and forced it to intern at Santander, Spain. It is possible and probable that the American forces sank other submarines also, but as the same thing is true of the British, French, and Italian Forces, it was decided that, in order to avoid any argu-ment over the crediting of these sinkings to various nations, it would be better to classify those cases where the time and cause of destruction were not definitely- proven, as "means of sinking unknown."

In 17 other attacks, American vessels were success-ful to the extent that in these encounters submarines Were slightly or seriously damaged, and forced, be-cause of injuries, to return to their bases immediately. The vessels-participating in these attacks were as follows:

Trippe
July 9, 1917

Wadsworth
July 21, 1917

Benham
July 30, 1917

McDougal
September 9, 1917

Noma
Wakiva
Kanawha
Nov. 28, 1917

Patterson
Beale
Burrows
Allen
May 19, 1918

Warrington
July 13, 1917

Wilkes
July 26, 1917

Parker
August 3, 1917

Davis
September 21, 1917

Allen
February 2, 1918

Jenkins
July 17, 1917

Wadsworth & Trippe
July 29, 1917

Jacob Jones
September 5, 1917

Porter
April 28, 1918

Sterrett
June 1, 1918

Sub-Chasers, Plymouth
July 10, 1918