THE MEN DOWN BELOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 93, 19 April 1940, Page 6

THE MEN DOWN BELOW.

The relentlesS activity of the Roya

Navy, the daring and resource of

its officers and men, are everywhere discussed. Attention, naturally, is focused on those units of the Naw,

now off the Norwegian coast or in the Baltic, which are in the news at the moment; but there are many others, ceaselessly active, which are not in the news. And in every unit of the Navy, whether it is prominently before the public or not, there is one department which too often is taken for granted, or even overlooked altogether. "It is now known," says the "Round Table" quarterly, in a review of the war at sea, "that the whole Fleet has been at sea on an average 25 days out of each month since the outbreak of war. One cruiser steamed over 28,000 miles of the stormy North Atlantic at an average speed of 17| knots.

Xothing, indeed, Ins been more remarkable, in contrast to the experience of the last war, than the amazing , state of efficiency in which the engine-room personnel of the Navy had kept their ships before the war and in which they have maintained them' throughout the strain of these months. At the time of the River Plate battle. H.M'.S. lESeter was a year overdue for her periodical refit, and H.M.S. Achilles had steamed 124,000 miles since she had last been in a dockyard l . This is a timely reminder of the services of the engine-room staffs. Never before in naval warfare has dependable speed been more important than it is now. And dependable speed is made possible, first by British, engineers, secondly by the skill and devotion of those officers and men who share nearly all the risks of naval warfare without, in many cases, having the

satisfaction of even seeing an enemy ship, ljet us hope that when the list of richly-deserved promotions and decorations for service in recent weeks is issued, the men "down Mow" receive their full share.