ESPANA SINKING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 156, 3 July 1937, Page 22

ESPANA SINKING.

| AN EXPLODED THEORY i i | BOIWBS AND BATTLESHIPS. WHAT THE KNITSLET SAW. (By H. J. J. SARGIXT.) LONDON". June 5. Newspaper reporters in or near Spain 1 are still speculating on the real facts, or what-thev call the real facts, of the 'recent sinking of General Franco's | battleship Espana. Some of them say that it has been proved to their satisfaction that the Espana was bombed by Basque aeroplanes. one of which succeeded in dropping a larpre amount of explosive down the ship's single funnel. Others, and they are in the majority, declare that the Espana struck a mine previously laid there by one of Franco's own ships in order to make the approach to the Bilbao roads dangerous. A third school of thought professes to believe that the Espana was torpedoed. and one artist of that school actually insinuates that the little English tramp steamer Knitsley might have done the torpedoing. With great sjjggestiveness, but very little knowledge of the sea, he talks about "Q"' boats. Implying that the Knitsley may have been one. Greek Cruiser's Experience. Naval an<l military authorities here say the overwhelming odds are agaiiwt the Espana having been sunk by bombs dropped from the air. Experiments with moored chips being attacked by aircraft have been going on for year- among the j major navies of the world. Kxperi- : ments have also been made with moving I ship-, as in the case of the old British I battleship Centurion, which is controlled j by distant radio, but never up to the present has an aeroplane succeeded in I j placing her bombs on the target in such j [ a way that the target either sank or | would have been considered by umpires ! as sunk.

People who take an interest in such matters have not forgotten the case of the Greek armoured cruiser Georgios Averoff. which, at the time of the last Venizelos revolt, left the Pvraeus to

I join the insurgents in Crete and was bombed all the way down the Aegean by a flock of Government 'planes. She was struck several times and this writer saw her looking no worse for her experience at the recent Coronation review at Spithead. She did not carry and still does not carry any anti-air-craft guns. The Espana's Error. One reporter expressed the view that if the Espana struck a mine she must have committed suicide. It all depends what value one places on the meaning of the word "suicide." If the Espana had first dropped a mine and then sat on it. the word '"suicide" might have been permissible, but not otherwise. The one error the Espana committed when she was moving in waters she I must have known had been mined was j that she <lkl not have paravanes out. If she had had them out she might very j well still be afloat. ) It may br l that the British Admiralty | adheres too rigidly to the doctrine that ; capital ships cannot be sunk by bombs i from the air. but nothing that happened I in the case of the Espana would justify I an intelligent observer in believing that j such attacks from the air could be j successful. And now for the Knitsley. Does any writer on naval affairs really believe that Q boats during the war were fitted with torpedo tubes ? Q boats had guns, never more than 4.Tin in calibre, but mostly twelve-pounders. Q boate were small tramps; in some cases they were wooden sailing ships. They were far too weak structurally to carry torpedo tubes, and their hulls would be weakened by having holes cut into them below the water line to permit of torpedoes being discharged. The Knitsley could no more have discharged a torpedo at the Espana than it could have flown through the air and dropped a bomb down the Espana's smokestack. The Knitsley'a Report. The Knitsley did in fact make a report of wliaa she saw. at the time the Espana sank. She said that the Spanish insurgent destroyer Velasco, which was attempting to intercept her (the Knits - ley), was apparently called to the assistance of the Espana and was seen to go close to her about 8.15 a.m. on the day the Espana sank. Xo aircraft were observed until 0.20 a.m. Three aircraft then appeared at a considerable height above the clouds and the Espana opened lire at them, but made no attempt to get under way, as would have been expected if an undamaged ship had been attacked by aircraft. The Knitslev

further observed that she saw no bombs falling- on or in the vicinity of the Espana.

One final reflection: If the Espana had really been sunk by a bomb from tlie air, would not the world have heard all about the hero who had dropped the bomb and of the cartload of decorations which had been showered on him for dropping it? The Basque Government has never once referred to the brave and skilful man in its service who sank Franco's battleship.—N.A.N.A.