‘Think small’ the answer?

Press, 25 September 1982, Page 6

‘Think small’ the answer?

“Two or three motor torpedo boats would have stopped the Argentines in the Falklands.” That is an old motor torpedo boat man talking. Douglas Reeman, author of 35 naval novels, proudly wears the tie of the M.T.B. Officers Association, and feels so well briefed on naval matters that he has no hesitation in telling the Royal Navy where it went, wrong.. He served in the M.T.B.s during World War II and wrote his first novel, “A Prayer for the Ship." about them. His latest novel, “Torpedo Run," picks up the theme again. A frequent guest of the

Royal Navy, and other navies of the world, Mr Reeman says he keeps up with the latest naval developments, and feels strongly that the British policy of not modernising such warships as H.M.S. Sheffield led to that vessel's destruction. Weapons systems are developing so fast that they have to be updated frequently, and the Sheffield should have had the Exocet missile system, Mr Reeman believes. “Ships haven't changed much,” he said, “but weaponry 'has. In the Six Days War the Israelis used wooden gunboats but they

knocked out several Egyptian destroyers because they had up-to-date weapons. I was a bit sad because one of those destroyers was formerly H.M.S. Zenith, and I had served in her.”. He- thinks the Falklands . conflict was a salutory lesson. “The whole Western alliance is geared to a three-day war with the Russians,” he said. “No-one has given another thought to conventional warfare, but the Falklands .war was very, very conventional. It has had the effect of holding up the planned scrapping of ships and getting rid of some to other countries.” Mr Reeman's confidence in the effectiveness of a few motor torpedo boats is based not so much on nostalgia as

on respect for modern missile systems. “No ship is going to sail up to those rocky islands if they know that a bunch of missiles may come whistling out. of the crags,” he said. He believes that the Navy needs a new style of ship — something the size of the World War II frigate or corvette, but with a good, fast engine and of solid metal construction. It would need a good turn oT speed — at least 30 knots — to enable it to keep up with a submerged submarine, and it would be ideal for fisheries protection and the prevention of smuggling. The Royal Navy has a ship that almost fills the bill—- — Island-class ships used to patrol oil rigs and for fisheries protection — but Mr Reeman thinks they are too slow. He has been trying out his idea for a new design on Royal Navy people, and hopes it will catch on. While in New Zealand, Mr Reeman has been talking to Armed Services groups, and was shown round the Navy's Auckland shore station, H.M.N.Z.S. Philomel. He gets many ideas for stories, characters, and incidents from such visits, and also from the many letters he gets from old 'sailors. They are no doubt a super-critical audience, but Mr Reeman says he has never been picked up on a mistake. He admits to making one — a compass error in his third book, “Send a Gunboat," — but no-one else has noticed it.