BRITISH SUBMARINE TAKEN BY SURPRISE

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30471, 19 June 1964, Page 8

BRITISH SUBMARINE TAKEN BY SURPRISE

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, June 18.

Flying-boats of the Royal New Zealand Air Force surprised three submarines in the Tasman Sea near the New Zealand coast on Friday afternoon.

“We were on the surface, but the weather was so bad we did not expect to be found,” said Commander L. H. Oliphant, R.N., officer commanding the Fourth Submarine Division, when the submarines arrived in Auckland.

“Visibility was only a few hundred yards and the Sunderlands certainly surprised us,” he said. Modern anti-submarine detection and armament had placed submariners on their mettje, said Commander Oliphant, but the submarines still had to be found.

“This type of submarine is outdated today against a fast

modern anti-submarine equipped warship,” he said. “Once modern electronic equipment locks on to us it is difficult for us to escape, but it is not so difficult for the nuclear submarines. “It is a see-saw business of first one and then the other getting the upper hand.” The boats have complements of six officers and 60 men.

A new magnetic wire recorder for aircraft, designed for the retrieval of recorded data under the worst conceivable conditions has been selected by British European Airways for all its fleet. It consists of a quick-release cassette, containing the wire and three heads for erase, write and read, and a drive unit. One loading of wire gives 200 hours’ recording time.— (8.1.5.)