BRITISH EFFICIENCY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 15, 19 January 1931, Page 7

BRITISH EFFICIENCY.

Navy Organisation to Drive

Off Aircraft.

LONDON OUT OF DANGER

LONDON", January 13.

The "Daily Express" states that as a result of the recent exercises of the Atlantic Fleet the opinion in the Navy is that the aircraft attacks upon ships at sea were defeated.

The anti-aircraft gunnery organised at Portsmouth was so effective that no high flying aeroplane can in future attack British warships at sea with success. Primarily this is due to the mounting, on the latest cruisers, of 8-inch guns, (vhich can be fired effectively at an elevation of 75 to 80 degrees against aircraft 27,000 ft up, which is higher than any bombing aircraft can possibly fly.

Again battleships' guns during the exercises put up a curtain of shrapnel, through which it was impossible for aeroplanes to penetrate. The barrage also kept out low flying aeroplanes carrying torpedoes as the blast of the S-inch guns alone Avas sufficient to upset low aeroplanes.

It is calculated that if owe aeroplane escaped the gunnery barrage 130 aeroplanes would have been sacrificed, which is an impossible proportion. The War Office has made similar progress with anti-aircraft defence on the land. It is now convinced that the danger of an aircraft attack on London is negligible.