JELLICOE'S BOOK

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 38, 15 February 1919, Page 6

JELLICOE'S BOOK

COMPLAINTS IN SERVICE CIRCLES

REPLIES TO HIS STRICTURES

DEFECTS IN NAVAL MATERIAL.

(PNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPY»ip»T.)

(AUSTRALIAN-NBW ZBALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

(Received February 15, 10 a.m.)

LONDON, 13th February.

There are many complaints in Service circles regarding the catalogue of Admiralty deficiencies shown in Lord Jellicoe's book. It is pointed out that Lord Jellicoe \vas Director of Naval Ordnance between 1905 and 1907, and the ammunition could not have become bad after he vacated this appointment. Lord Jellicoe's reference to the bursting of the German- shells indicates the improvement between the Battle of Heligoland Bight and the Battle of Jutland. It was characteristic of Germans to improve their material after experience. The large body of opinion in the fleet was opposed to the use of se§,rcElights, as they would reveal the positions of tho shipsLord Jellicoe complains of the quality of the searchlights, but he could have secured' starshells, if he had asked for them. Similarly, he could have had submarines equipped with wireless. Ha njight have foreseen, while Controller of the Navy, from 1908 to 1910, the defects which resulted in the loss of the Indefatigable and the Queen Maryi

As Second Sea Lord from 1912 to 1914, he could have remedied the defencelessness of Scapa Flow, and he could also have made any demands upon the Admirijty when he assurijed command. The German accuracy of fire at Jutland was probably due to exceptional training in markmanship. Their fire control was leas complicated than that of the British ships-

[In Lord Jellicoo's book, accoiding to the cabled summaries, it was stated that there was much anxiety in the early part of" the war because the margin of safety between the Grand Fleet and' *ne German High Sea Fleet was too small. At the end of 1914 the Grand Fleet had only seventeen effective battleships, five bat-tle-cruisers, and forty-two destroyers, compared with fifteen German Dreadnoughts, four battle-cruisers, and eightyeight destroyers. The Germans were in same cases superior to the British in material. The failure of the condenser tubes, on a large scale, in British vessels added to the difficulties.

The heavy losses in the early part of the Battle of Jutland were due to the British boats being very inadequately protected with armour compared with the similar German vessels. The German armour was thicker and the water-tight compartments more complete. The Germans also had the advantage of shells fitted with delay-action fuses, which,combined with the highly-efficient arm-our-piercing projectile, ensured the shell bursting' inside the armour, instead of outside, or during the passage, as with the British shell. 'After the Jutland battle the British adopted a new prosec_ile with a new burster, which doubled the offensive power of the biggest guns^ Unfortunately the surrender of the German Fleet gave no opportunity of testing the material perfected during the war. Had the Germans come out a terrible punishment awaited them.]