LATE NEWS

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 93, 18 October 1915, Page 8

LATE NEWS

NAVY WARFARE INFLUENCE OF THE SUBMARINE ALTERS ROLE OF OTHER UNITS. (By Telegraph —Press Association.— Copyright.) (Received October 18, 2 p.m.) LONDON, 17th October. In an article in the Daily Telegraph on the Navy's splendid record in the Darda nelles, Mr. Ashmead Bartlett s&ys that the arrival of the submarine as an active factor in naval warfare entirely altered the role for which the othei units were originally designed. But the most responsible duty which now devolves on the light cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats is not to attack the enemy's capital ships, but the protection of their own battle squadrons against underwater attack. l Modern gunnery has already rendered torpedo-boats obsolete for their original purpose, namely, as an offensive weapon against armoured ships. The only instance in this war of a battleship being torpedoed by an above-water craft was the unfortunate Goliath, which was thrice torpedoed in the Dardanelles on the 13th May by a Turkish destroyer manned by a German crew. The precision of modern gunnery also diverted the destroyers from their original purposes — defence against tor-pedo-boats. This war has shown that the destroyer is the only effective antidote for submarine attack. It is not the perfect, ideal defence, but it is the best available, and lias performed immense service. The amount of work accoml^lished by the destroyer flotilla in the Kasitern Mediterranean and the Dardanelles is stupendous. _ Its labours are little known to the public, but is fully recognised by the army and the navy. The destroyers have worked for twelve months almost without a break. Their first job was to watch the Australian fleet, and then patrol the Adriatic and Eastern Mediterranean. Its most arduous task commenced when Turkey joined in. The boats kept up during the winter an incessant patrol of the Dardanelles and Asiatic coast, tossed by terrible gales, the decks never having been dry ior weeks. BOYS OF THE BULLDOG BREED Emerging from the lee of the Island of Tenedos the destroyers steamed to the entrance of the Straits in howling storms which blotted out the view a hundred yards distant. They encountered at the entrance a four-knot current and an east wind, compelling them to steam ten knots ahead in order to maintain stations. Lying in the trough of the sea the decks were swept by huge green seas until the most experienced seamen were sick from sheer exhaustion. None aboard could keep dry, the galley fires could not be kept alight, the deck was frequently covered with ice, oilskins were frozen ; but still, despite these awful conditions, the gallant crews never for a moment relaxed their grip on the Dardanelles. Never, even in the old days before Brest and Toulon, have our Navy men shown greater determination or suffered greater hardships. \ THE ATTEMPT TO FORCE THE DARDANELLES Spring brought fine weather and sunshiny conditions, but the work of the destroyers was harder. When active operations against the Dardanelles were commenced in February many destroyers were mine-sweeping. After the outer forts had been red -iced to ruins under heavy fire the concealed batteries of the remainmg forts were struck and suffered heavy casualties. When it was decided to make the great attempt to force the Dardanelles with the fleet alone, without waiting for the army, the preparatory work fell on the trawlers. The difficulties were almost insurmountable. On the 18th March, when the great naval attempt was made, the destroyers <, played a secondary part in the fighting, but did splendid work sweeping ahead of the battleships and saving the crews of the Irresistible and the Ocean.