Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Naval Achievements KEEPING THE SEAS

It was a heartening story of the work of the Royal Navy that the First Lord of the Admiralty had to tell the House of Commons when he brought down the Navy Estimates on Wednesday. Mr. Alexander dealt frankly with the altered strategic situation at sea that Britain had to face after the collapse of France and the entry of Italy into the war last June.

The new situation loomed up “almost overnight” at a time when the Navy had just completed the evacuations of many thousands of troops from Norway and France. The collapse of. France gave Germany possession of the Channel and Bay of Biscay ports and left the Royal Navy with greatly-de-pleted resources to meet the aggravated U-boat and air menace to merchant shipping and the task of dealing with Italy in the Mediterranean. How the Navy has successfully grappled with the situation is told in graphic words by the First Lord. Token Navy Votes

In war-time It is neither practicable nor desirable to present to Parliament detailed Navy estimates purporting to cover the whole cost of the Service. Each vote in the estimates is for a “token sum” of £lOO. Vote A provides for “such numbers-of officers, seamen, boys and Royal Marines as His Majesty may deem necessary.” The remaining votes are. under the usual heads and each is shown as a token sum of £lOO. A year ago, Mr. Churchill, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty, presented the Navy Estimates in his own picturesque way. “I come before the House on behalf of the Navy,” he said, “to ask for a few men, some ships and a little money to enable them to carry on their work.” How well the Navy have carried on their work during the last 12' months is told by Mr, Alexander in a more prosaic manner, Losses And Gains

In the last seven or eight months, ai the First Lord admitted, the Royal Navy has suffered loses, especially in its light forces, “but these have not been excessive considering the magnitude of the task performed.” In spit* of losses, however, the number oi ships in most classes, especially destroyers, now at sea or instantly ready for sea, is greater than at any time since the war began. The First Lord’s frank statement regarding our naval losses and new accretions to our strength touches a very important point that is often lost sight of. One of the fundamental principles underlying naval warfare, remarked Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon recently, is that ships are bound to be lost and therefore must be risked. To hold back merely from a fear of losing ships inevitably leads to a failure to make proper use of the forces available. This has been demonstrated again and again by the German and Italian naval commands.

Until the action of the River Plate was fought it was held in many quarters that the only ships capable of engaging and defeating Germany’s ‘.‘pocket battleships” were our fast battlq-crpisers. Yet three relatively small*British cruisers, each greatly inferior in gun-power, successfully engaged and defeated the Admiral Graf’ Spee. Then there was the action in the North Atlantic in which the slow and poorly armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay sacrificed herself to a powerful German warship and so succeeded in saving all but four of the 3< merchant ships in the convoy she was escorting. Many New Ships

The First Lord’s regard ing the flow of new ships into service in the Navy was reassuring. A larg« proportion of the ships under construe tion when the war started has been completed. The benefits of the great programme of building put in hand on the outbreak of hostilities and im mediately afterward are now beginning to be felt. These ships alone said Mr. Alexander, would make up * formidable force “jtidged by the standard of almost any other Power.” Many of the ships under construe tion in Britain today embody features dictated by experience gained in this war. For example, it was recently announced that in the early stages of construction of a cruiser launched in December a number of modifications based on actual fighting experience were made in her design. Raiders And Convoys

Considerable importance attaches to the statement of the First Lord regarding th© operations of German surface raiders, “Not every raider met with has lived to raid another day,” he said; from which it can be inferred that the career of one or more or these ships has been cut short. Jt is a fact that Germany’s raiders in this war have achieved far less success in the destruction of merchant shipping than was the case in 1914-18. As Mr. Alexander reminds us, to get a proper perspective it must te remembered that for every British convoy attacked by raiders, scores coma through without molestation and. that great armies and’ their equipment hava been transported in convoys across tha oceans and through the Mediterranean without the loss of a single ship or a single life. There are bound .to be losses of merchant vessels at the hands of. enemy raiders from time to time, in view of the vast volume of British shipping traversing the ocean routes; but, tha First Lord assures us, as our naval resources increase, the raiders’ chance# of attack will be fewer. Protection Of Trade

Acting by itaeif, a navy possesses only one form of offensive, that of cutting off the sea-borne supplies and trade of the enemy. Acting in cooperation with an army, it makes a military offensive possible. That the Royal Navy has achieved both missions is clear from the events of the last 12 inonths, The Navy’s functions in defence are to prevent enemy armed forces from invading Britain and the overseas Empire; and to maintain the flow of commerce by sea. The protection of the, trade routes Mr. Alexander describes ,as the greatest of all the tasks laid upon the Navy. During the last eight months th© enemy’s U-boats have taken seriously heavy toll of merchant shipping. The First Lord made no attempt to gloss over the position, but at the same tima his review was reassuring. New construction, chartering and captures of enemy ships had made good more than two-thirds of Britain's -losses of merchant ships. Mr. Alexander warned us that the enemy would intensify his attacks, but every month saw an improvement in the naval and air forces available to meet the U-boat cam 1 paign.—(S.D.lV.)

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.
Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19410307.2.40

Bibliographic details

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 138, 7 March 1941, Page 6

Word Count
1,086

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 138, 7 March 1941, Page 6

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 138, 7 March 1941, Page 6