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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 Captain Charles R. Train, United States Naval Attaché at Rome

File No. 25-9-16 E

          CABLEGRAM SENT October <25> 26, 1918.

To          Rome                            Serial No. 423.

S E C R E T

423 Your 4891 Nelson2 at Corfu has been instructed to neither seek nor accept orders looking to the removal of his forces from Corfu to any other base or to their employment on any duty other than as part of the mobile barrage in the Straits of Otranto. Should a situation arise in which there are no Italian or other Allied destroyers available for escorting the Italian transports and supply ships between Brindisi and the Albanian coast and should the Italian Government make request for the services of our submarine chasers for this work, you may grant the request and cable to Nelson to employ his forces in that service to such extent as may be necessary. It must be understood, however, that this employment is merely temporary and cannot consent to a permanent diversion of the submarine chasers from hunting work to escort work for which they are not well suited. 200525 423.

Sims.                       

Source Note: Cy, DNA, RG 45, Entry 517B.

Footnote 1: See, Train to Sims, 20 October 1918, DNA, RG 45, Entry 517B.

Footnote 2: Capt. Charles P. Nelson, Commander, Submarine Chaser Detachment Two.

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