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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Vice Admiral William S. Sims, Commander, United States Naval Forces Operating in European Waters, to Anne Hitchcock Sims

[Extract]

London, Tuesday, June 4, 1918

My darling Nani:

     . . . . It is announced over here that our press states that there is a submarine on our coast. I have known for a good while that she was bound over there, but could not mention it. There is only one – of the Deutschland class.1 I mention this in order to tell you that you people on shore need feel no alarm. These subs are big and clumsy, and being slow divers, they will not go near the coast for fear of being destroyed by our surface craft or our submarines. So, do not let anybody persuade you that you are in any danger of being bombarded in Newport.

     The submarine had not been sent to America on account of the shipping she may be able to sink there, because she could sink more over here where the shipping is necessarily concentrated as it cruises toward the Channel and the Irish Sea. She is sent over there to alarm our people in the hope that public opinion will oblige the government to keep anti submarine craft (destroyers, etc.) from coming over here where they would be more effective. I hope this will not be successful. Of course I am doing all I can to prevent it. . . .

Your devoted                

Will.                  

Source Note: ALS, DLC-MSS, William S. Sims Papers, Box 10.

Footnote 1: For more on the arrival of U-151 in American waters, see: Sims to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, 15 May 1918.

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