A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 190, 9 May 1941, Page 6

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Destroyer Strength ADDITIONS TO NAVY

The present and the prospective strength of the Royal Navy is a wartime -secret in the close keeping of the Admiralty. Its composition at the beginning of the war was well known, as also was the number of ships under construction; but since then it is only when the name of some new ship that has taken part in some operation is mentioned that the veil of secrecy is lifted a little. It was in this way that the fact that the new battleships King George V and Prince of Wales and the aircraft-carriers Illustrious and Formidable were in commission was revealed. When presenting the Naval Estimates to the House of Commons on March 5, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, said that if the documents were only tokens, he could give the assurance that the Fleet was no token Fleet. Nor were our ships phantom ships, though they might be a nightmare to our enemies. On the contrary, he asked unhesitatingly for more ships, very solid ships, for great numbers of men, very solid men, to man them, and for great quantities of substantial stores to equip them. Never in our long history had we had such need of great numbers of ships and men. Gains And Losses

The numbers of ships in most, classes, and especially in the destroyer class, now at sea or instantly ready for sea, was at the moment greater # than at any time since the war began, said the First Lord. The ships that would come into service during 1941 of themselves made up a formidable force judged by almost any other naval Power's standards. Britain was adding constantly to her shipbuilding capacity; her long-term programmes of construction were maturing and a high output of short-term construction had been reached.

The urgent need for more and more destroyers has been emphasized continually during the last 12 months, specially since the collapse of France deprived the Royal Navy of the cooperation and assistance of the second navy in Europe. When this war started British destroyers in commission numbered 165 and 20 flotilla leaders, a total of 185. Sixteen others were completed shortly after the outbreak of hostilities, and 16 more had been ordered under the 1939 Navy Estimates. Total losses of destroyers since September, 1939, number 41, including many of the latest types. A welcome and valuable addition to the Navy’s flotillas was the 50 United States destroyers handed over last year; but, - apart from these ships which date back to 1918-19, the heavy losses, it has been officially stated, have been more than made good by the commissioning of new ships. It is impossible, of course, to give any estimate of the actual number of destroyers built or ordered since the beginning of the war, but it is undoubtedly large. Navy’s Flotillas

It has been the practice of the Royal Navy to have its destroyers ordered and built in flotillas—-a flotilla comprises eight ships—and to give each class names beginning with the same letter. Thus, starting with the eight A’s and eight B’s completed in 1930-31, the flotillas in commission in September, 1939, had reached the J’s and K’s, in addition to which the 16 new destroyers of the Tribal class were also in service. At that time eight L’s —Laiorey, Lance, Larne, Lively, Legion, Lightning, Lookout and Loyal—were well advanced, and the 16 M’s and N’s had been ordered. The Admiralty announcement the other day that H.M. destroyer Southdown had shot down an enemy plane gave the name of a new ship, suggesting that high-pressure war-time building of flotillas was getting near the end of the alphabet in the selection of names: The names Exmoor and Havant mentioned some months ago indicate that they were given to new ships replacing losses in the E and H flotillas. / The names of towns and villages common to the United Kingdom and the United States were given to 44 of the destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy from the United States. The leader of oue flotilla whose names began with 0 was named Churchill. The remaining six destroyers of tne 50 were transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and given names of towns and villages common to Canada and the United States.

Modern Destroyers

It is* difficult to say how long it lakes to build a destroyer in wartime —possibly it may be less than 1months. A total of 303 destroje.s were in process of completion at the beginning of the war of 1914-18 or actually- ordered during hostilities and subsequently completed. The number „ actually ordered and completed during the war was about 170. But the destroyer of today is a larger and much more complex ship than her predecessor of 1918, aud except that she has uo armour protection has many of the characteristics of a small cruiser. For example, the Wryneck (19IS), which, was sunk dur ing the evacuation of the British forces from Greece, was a vessel of 1100 tons displacement, 312 feet in length, driven by engines of 2*7,009 horse-power giving her a speed of 34 knots, and armed with four 4-inch guns. The J-elass destroyers commissioned in 1939, are vessels of 1690 tons, driven by engines of 4000 horsepower giving them a speed of 36 knots aud armed with six 4.7-inch guns. The destroyers of the Tribal class are larger still. They have a displacement of 1870 tons, and engines of 44,005 horse-power and mount eight 4.7-incii guns. Flotilla Captain

The half-flotilla of destroyers which wiped out an enemy convoy of five transports and its escort of three destroyers in the Mediterranean a few days ago included the Jervis (leader 1 and Janus and two ‘'Tribals,” the Nubian aud Mohawk (this ship was sunk by torpedoes). The British force, was commandetl bv Captain Philip Mack, who was up pointed to the Jervis iu March 19ob. as Captain (D) 7th Destroyer Flotilla During the last war he was a sub lieutenant in the destroyer ligress, and he was present at the lauding at Cape Helles, Gallipoli Peninsula, in lhe River Clyde. Subsequently lie commanded Q-ships and. was mentioned in dispatches for his services in the topsail schooner Result in action witli a submarine. As a commander he served as executive officer in II M S-. Nelson, flagship of the Home Fleet, 1932-35. and later commanded the Wryneck and a division oi th? J«t Destroyer Flotilla..—“(S.D.YV.)