SERVICE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 21, 26 January 1933, Page 20

SERVICE JOTTINGS.

NAVAL AND R.A.F,

FAILURE TO RAISE M 2. EXERCISES IN SIGNALLING. LONDON, December 16. In addition to the flagship Hawkins, Captain Tom S. V. Phillips, flying the flag of the Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies station, Vice-Admifal M. E. Dunbar-Naemith, V.C., D.5.0., making hen way to the Persian Gulf, another of the three large cruisers of the station, the Enterprise, Captain R. B. Darke, las been ordered thither to take part in a naval demonstration for the good of the soul of the Shah of Persia—the extrooper who does not place much upon "a scrap of paper."

Of course, the flagship was going to the Gulf in any case on her way from England to the East Indies station.

The sea ha 3 refused to give up her dead, and Lieut.-Commander J. de M. Lettlies, one of the best submarine officers of the Fleet, his six officers and 53 of other ranks, including two men of the Royal Air Force, lie in their iron coffin of the submarine M 2 fathoms deep off Portland. Last week the Admiralty announced that the attempts to raise the ill-fated M 2 would be discontinued.

On January 26 last the M 2 was practising deep diving off Portland, on which her flotilla, the Fifth, is based. The last seen of her was by the skipper of a Tynemouth steamer. He saw her going down slowly stern foremost, and thought naturally enough that she was diving in the ordinary course. The skipper did not know that submarines do not dive in that manner—stern foremost. When the wreck was located it was found that all her hatches were open, indicating that she must have been sunk by a sudden influx of water while in surface trim, or that they had been flung open to permit the crew to use the Davis safety escape apparatus.

The mystery of her end will not be solved; like the mystery of her sister ship Ml, which was sunk in a collision— where she was not supposed to be, in November of 1925. The M 2 was originally fitted with a 12-inch gun, which, however, was replaced by a hangar for aircraft.

On three occasions the salving of the M 2 seemed to be a matter of a few hours; on three occasions something happened to prevent success. All that human thought and skill could devise was employed, fruitlessly.

My Lords of the Admiralty express the opinion that although the conclusion must be a bitter disappointment, particularly to those who have given such skilled, courageous and persistent devotion to it, the experience gained fully justified the operations, which reflect credit on all concerned.

The Air Ministry has made a muchneeded definition in the designations of squadrons and flights of the Fleet air arm. Flights in aircraft carriers will be designated "Fleet fighter flights" presumably shortened to "the three F's" — whether they are armed with two-seater fighter reconnaissance aircraft, single-seater fighters or a mixture of both. "Fighter reconnaissance flights" will be the name for two-seater fighter flights embarked in cruisers. Examples given are No. 401 (F.F.) Flight (fighting); No. 407 (F.F.R.) Flight (fighting and reconnaissance), No. 440 (F.S.R.) Flight (spotting and reconnaissance) and No. 460 (F.T.8.) Flight (torpedo and bombing).

The reduced number of His Majesty's ships in commission, and the awful depression in the shipping business seem to have been responsible for the marked falling off in the number of interr.ignallmg practices between the Royal Navy and the Mercantile Marine in the past three months. According to the figures just issued by the Admiralty, the number of successful interchanges was 1206 —a falling off of 303, while there were 22 failures to connect. Placed in the order of merit, the following obtained 30 or higher:—Eighth Destroyer Flotilla, China, 93; Vindictive, on detached duty, 66; Canterbury, detached, (54; Berwick, on passage from China, 62; Resource, Mediterranean and on passage home, 54; Ormonde, surveying ship, 40; Curacoa, Mediterranean, 40; Hastings, Red Sea, 35; Caradoc, China and homeward bound, 33; Effingham, East Indies and homeward passage, 31; First Submarine Flotilla, Mediterranean, 30.

On the Mercantile Marine side the Admiralty specially mentions a notable performance between the Yindictiye and the 5.6. Henzada, of the Burmah S.S. Company, Ltd. Tlieee two kept up interchange of flags .and semaphore signals for well nigh an hour—so minutes to be accurate—at distances 'Tanging from one mile to four miles. . //

The Admiralty points out that while the number of successful' interchanges is no criterion of the efficiency,- the numbers were as follows:—British Tanker Co., Ltd., 143; P. and O. Steamship Navigation Co., Ltd., 90; China Navigation Co., 75; British India Co., 63; Ocean Steamship Co., 64; Ellerman Lines, Ltd., 57; Clan Line, ' 37; - IndoCliina Steam Navigation Co., 29.

The cruisers and other ships of the Africa station and of the America and West Indies station have but limited opportunities of exchanging signals with the Mercantile Marine.