Only nine American steamers were lost by submarine activities in American waters--the _Winneconne_, 1,869 tons; _Texel_, 3,210; _Carolina_, 5,093; _Pinar del Rio_, 2,504; _O. B. Jennings_, 10,289; _Merak_ (ex-Dutch), 3,024 tons, all destroyed by direct attack; and the _San Diego_, 13,680 tons displacement; the _San Saba_, 2,458, and the _Saetia_, 2,873 gross tons, sunk by mines--a total tonnage of 45,000. In their chief mission of preventing transportation to Europe, the U-boats failed utterly. The flow of troops, supplies and munitions to France and England was not for a moment interrupted. In fact, it was precisely this period in which it was increased, and we transported to Europe over 300,000 soldiers per month. Not one troop-convoy was even attacked. So well were all convoys protected by naval escort that the submarines avoided them. Furthermore, they avoided all naval vessels and when one was sighted, the "sub" instantly submerged, usually when the man-of-war was miles away. This made it difficult for our ships even to get a shot at them. They had thousands of miles of water to cruise in, and could choose their own field of operations. Driven from one point, they shifted to another, often disappearing for days, then emerging in some locality hundreds of miles from where they were last seen. If the U-boats were generally able to elude for months the thousands of British, French and American patrol and escort craft in narrow European waters, how much more difficult it was to run down the few, on this side of the ocean, who could range from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico. Though we needed the best and all the patrol craft we could get, not one of our destroyers or any other vessel was recalled from Europe. In fact, more were sent over to reinforce them. Operating for months with submarines of the largest type, the Germans failed to achieve any real military success, and while they sank many small craft and a substantial amount of ocean shipping, and cut a few cables, their raids on the American coast had no effect whatever upon the trend of the war. CHAPTER XVIII MARINES STOPPED DRIVE ON PARIS THROWN INTO THE BREACH WITH OTHER AMERICANS IN CHATEAU-THIERRY SECTOR, THEY HALTED GERMANS FIGHTING DESPERATELY FOR DAYS, MARINES CLEARED BELLEAU WOOD--CAPTURE OF BLANC MONT RIDGE, THE KEY TO RHEIMS--CROSSED THE MEUSE UNDER HEAVY FIRE THE MORNING OF THE ARMISTICE--IN GERMANY IN ARMY OF OCCUPATION. Enter the Marines!