SERVICE NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 153, 30 June 1934, Page 14

SERVICE NOTES.

FUEL FOR SUBMARINES FROM YORKSHIRE COAL. AUSTRALIA'S NEW CRUISEB. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, May 17. The less that the Mother Country is dependent upon overseas productions in war time, the better for her and home products. For some time, the research station of the Admiralty at Gosport has been making experiments with oil extracted from Yorkshire coal, with the view of determining its suitability or otherwise as fuel for submarines. The petroleum now used iu running the Diesel engines of British submarines is obtained largely from Mexico and other foreign countries. At the moment, no fewer than seven squadrons of the Royal Air Forces are running their 'planes on oil or petrol extracted from British coal, and should this new fuel prove itself adaptable for submarines, it is possible that both air and submarine defence will become independent of foreign oils. There is a rumour to the effect that H.M.s. Penelope, the cruiser of which the keel is to be laid by H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester, at Messrs. Harland and Wolffs yard, Belfast, on May 30 is to bo acquired by the Australian Government to take the place of the cruiser Brisbane, which is now almost two years over the normal life of a cruiser. Interesting as would bo the association of the Penelope with Australia, it is thought that a bigger cruiser would be rnore in conformity with Australian ideas. The , Penelope is of the Arethusa class of 5200 tons, armed with Cin guns, and of 32J knot speed. Australia, in negotiating for a cruiser, is more in favour of purchasing 0110 on the stocks and near completion. The Leander Type. The- Leander type, which would be much better fitted for the Roya , . Australian Navy, arc of 7000 tons, carry eight Cin guns on the centre line, four 4in guns in their anti-aircraft battery, and four three-pounders, and are engined up to 72,000 h.p., giving them 321 knots. The approximate cost of a Leander is about £1,000,000, including about £40,000 for guns, and about £13,000 for aircraft. The latter are launched by catapult. Eight of these Leanders are built or in the process of construction. One, the Ajax, is being built at Vickers-Arm-strong's, Barrow-in-Furncss, but she is ear-marked for service with the Kouth American division of the America and West Indies station. She is fairly well forward. The others —Amphion, Portsmouth, Apollo, Devonport and Phaeton, Wallsend-on-Tyne —are not advanced. The acquisition of a Leander or an Arethusa would leave Great Britain one cruiser short of her absolute necessities. Aerial Machine-Gunning. One of the defects of aerial machinegun firo has been remedied —it is announced —by an ingenious contrivance adapted to day bombers. The pressure of the air when a bomber is moving at a high rate of speed prevents the machinegunner from bringing his gun to bear accurately on a swiftly-moving target. All that is known about the new apparatus is that the gun is mechanically operated in a species of turret let into the nose of a bomber of the twin-engined type—the Sidestrand of Boultou and Paul, Ltd. One home squadron of the Royal Air Force ia equipped with the Sidestrand.