A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 46, 18 November 1936, Page 9

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Defence of London Further measures to strengthen the air defences of London are announced by the War Office. Major Oliver Stewart, a distinguished fighting pilot in the Great War, says: “On more than one occasion our patrols, under experienced leaders, found a German machine flying along in their midst as if be were one of the patrol. Upon comparing notes afterward it was found that no one saw the hostile machine join the patrol—it just appeared.” MajorGeneral E. B. Ashmore, who commanded the London air defences, in his book “Air Defence” constantly emphasises the difficulty of seeing air raiders. Referring to the daylight raid of June 13, .1916, he writes: “Of the 94 aeroplanes that went up in, this country [England] for the defence, only five managed to find the enemy formation.’' Again, in his account of the daylight raid on Harwich by 16 Gothas on July 23, 1916, he says: "On this occasion the defence had 121 machines in the air. None of them saw anything of the enemy.” “The air defence of London.’’ says Brigadier-General P. R. C. Groves, “does not imply merely the protection of the perimeter of an area of 700 square miles; it necessitates guarding that area to a height of 25,000 feet. In other words, the task of defending aircraft is to guard some 3300 cubic miles of air. To find the enemy in this immensity, in any but the clearest weather, may be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. - . . . The handicaps of the defence are increased by darkness, for then its aircraft are entirely dependent upqn searchlights. If these lights are blanketed by cloud, or even by a slight mist, both the aircraft and the anti-aircraft guns of the defence are blind.” Anti-Aircraft Guns. Among the measures to be taken to provide for the defence of London are the raising of additional anti-aircraft companies. During the war the British Ministry of Munitions made an interesting calculation. “Assuming,’’ it said, “an aeroplane to be travelling at 100 miles an hour at an altitude of 8000 feet, it is obvious that during the time a projectile from an anti-aircraft gun took to reach this height the aeroplane could have altered its direction and movements in three dimensions over a very wide range. In order to secure a hit no less than 162,000 antiaircraft guns would have to fire simultaneously.” “A more detailed example may be of interest,’’ says BrigadierGeneral P. R. C. Groves. “Suppose an aeroplane to be flying at a speed of. say, 120 miles an hour (a slow rate for a modern day bomber) and at the moderate height of 12,000 feet. As the aeroplane travels one mile in 30 seconds and a shell takes the same time to reach 12,000 feet, the aeroplane has covered a distance of one mile between the time of discharge of the gun and the burst of the shell—and that mile .may be to any point of the compass. In addition the aeroplane may have altered its range by diving or climbing. Yet another complication for which the gunner must make allowance is the wind, which may vary in both strength and direction at various altitudes, and will affect both the course of the shell and the course of the aeroplane. . . . I believe that no single aeroplane was shot down over London by anti-aircraft gunfire. . . . Anti-aircraft guns were hardly more effective on the Western Front, where by 1918 there was a line of two-gun stations about three -miles apart along the entire length of the British front, and a support line of two or four-gun stations at important points behind. This array of anti-air-craft artillery had innumerable aeroplanes to shoot at daily, many of them having to remain within easy range for hours at a time to direct artillery fire or to take photographs. Yet the total number brought down in 1918 was but 176.” Leicestershire Regiment. Sixteen band boys of the Leicestershire Regiment barricaded themselves in a room in the barracks at Londonderry and refuse! to answer roll-call. This regiment, formerly the 17th Foot, was raised in 1688. It fought in Flanders for William HI and Anne, and at the battle of Almanza in 1707 lost very heavily. It fought against the French in Canada, and through the American ■War of Independence. In ISO 4 it went to India, where its services were rewarded by a grant of the badge of the Royal Tiger and the word “Hindoostan.” It fought in Afghanistan in 1839, in the Crimean War, the second Afghan War. 1878-9 and in Burma. It was in South Africa when the Boer War broke out in 1899. During the Great War it served in France and in Mesopotamia. The soldiers of the regiment are known as “The Tigers.” Bass Strait.

Two men who left the village of San Remo, 100 miles east of Melbourne, to fish for barracouta in Bass Strait are believed to have been drowned. Bass Strait, which separates Tasmania from Australia, is about 150 miles long and from 120 to 140 miles wide. Because of the large number of coral reefs and islands it is somewhat dangerous to navigation. The prevailing winds are from the west; the tide rises from eight to 12 feet and runs at the rate of one and a half to three and a half miles an hour. The depth varies from 200 to 250 feet. Some of the islands in Bass Strait are thick with mutton birds and with,, penguins. Barracouta.

Barraeouta are found in the waters of New Zealand, Tasmania and Southern Australia, South Africa anl South America. They occasionally range northward to the latitude of Port Jackson. They are elongated in shape, sometimes four feet in length, with flattened sides and a large mouth armgd with powerful teeth. Their colouring is brilliant silver on the sides and steel-blue on the back, while the dorsal tin is ornamented with a broad black margin. The name “barraeouta" is a corruption of that of a West Indian fish, the barracuda —a very different species. Barraeouta provide fine sport for fishermen, who catch them with a large hook concealed in a brightlycoloured rag and trolled behind a boat. They are not regarded as a high-class fish as food, even when in the best condition, though smoked barraeouta finds a ready sale in the markets. Another species, the king barraeouta, is an excellent food fish, and may attain a length of three feet, though its usual size is considerably less. It is found i

shallow waters on the Tasmanian coasts, but descends to a greater depth as it extends northward, being at depths exceeding 600 feet off Port Jackson. It. is commonly known in Tasmania as “kingfish.’’