SERVICE NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 10

SERVICE NOTES.

COMMANDER OF DIOMEDE.

NEW BULL'S-EYE AT BISLEY.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, April 12. Paymaster Lieutenant-Commander H. H. Simpson, Royal Navy, has been lent to the New Zealand Division for three years and will, join the cruiser Diomede on her arrival in tnis country. A number of Royal Air Force officers are taking a meteorological course at the Royal Air Works, Cardingtoir, under the tuition of Mr. A. M. Giblett, superintendent of the ainship division, who visited New Zealand last year in connection with weather experiments and air information for the use of our aerial forces. The new 10,000-ton cruiser, which Germany is to build by permission, is to be tne prototype of a new class which w ill be known as "E." The cruiser will be unusually powerful by all accounts. The hull will be constructed of the very highest grade and instead of being rivetted in the traditional manner the plates will be electrically welded—a system borrowed from the shipyard, where it has been familiar for some time. What would happen in case of a serious collision or other mishap—or in action —if no electrical welding apparatus were available, can be easily imagined The German cruiser will be fitted with very powerful internal combustion engines, no funnels will be required and a high speed is confidently looked forward to. "Hiis cruiser will be the first of four which will be built to replace the old wanships retained by Germany under the Washington Pact. The maximum gun will be an Sin quick-firer with smaller secondary guns.

Heretofore the 'planes used by the Royal Air Force were named as they passed into the service in addition to the generic name derived from their particular pattern or make. That system has been abolished and in the future the machine Will bear a number, which—to the initiated only —will convey the specification instead of the builder and make of engines. The idea underlying the change is that names have been used for machines that have never been tested, or seen service, this debarring their use in the case of machines that have made good. In addition to the August visits to the battle fields of France and Belgium, a trip is being arranged to cover the battle ground of Gallipoli, where some 70,000 British lie dead, under the auspices of St. Barnabas' Pilgrimages. The 10,000ton Italian steamer, Star of Italy, will leave Venice about August 24, with exservice men and others on board to visit Gallipoli, Salonika, Asiage Plateau, Corfu, Athens. Lemrios and Skyros.

The reduced bull's-eye at Bislev— which has for its object the prevention of so many highest possible scores, which caused such bother last year — : has beeu favourably commented upon by the rifle shots which tested the reduced bull's-eye at Eastertide, but on the other hand the enlarged '' inner" has been severely criticised. For instance, a second or third rate shot may safely reckon on getting a number of " inners " and a chance on the bull's-eye, so that the element of "luck" will enter more largely. The five-inch bull's-eye and the enlarged inner will probably become equally popular in the course of time, but it is rather remarkable that the top scores for Eastertide shooting were 100 points out of tho h.p.s. of 105, and the next 98.

In the training season which has just opened important teSts in the speed of armoured car squadrons will be made. Light tanks and cays will be employed with a view towards testing the most useful speed in or about the neighbourhood of 100 miles per day, and light howitzers on specially designed cars will also take part in supporting the attacks of infantry.

Attention has been frequently drawn in these not§s to the attempts which the Germans are making to encircle the earth by means of gigantic aeroplane service. Such an achievement is not so far removed from the bounds of possibility as some people imagine. To do such a thing, of course, a much bigger aeroplane thpn any known to be in existence would be necessary. Germany has already undertaken the construction of such a machine, and by all accounts it is well forward. It is a 44-ton aeroplane, and will be driven by 12 engines Having a combined 6000 h.p. Such a machine, it is calculated, will be capable of carrying at least 50 passengers and crew across the Atlantic in less than three days. One of our leading expert-",, Major C. O. Turner, rather deprecates this. Our leading British authorities hold that 12-15 tons gross weight is the maximum profitable size for such a machine, and anything beyond that calls for heavier construction and relatively less carrying power. The danger of wing loading has to be very carefully avoided, and anything approaching to 401b weight per square foot-would render' lift " practically impossible.