GERMANY'S FLEET

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 125, 22 November 1935, Page 11

GERMANY'S FLEET

NEW SHIPS ALMOST READY

From official German sources I learn that the Submarine School at Kiel is now in full operation, writes Hector Bywater in the "Daily Telegraph." It has elaborate equipment, including fullsi^e models of submarine compartments and escape tanks, and about 900 officers and ratings are now undergoing instruction.

The last of the twelve submarines which were built secretly early this year is about to be commissioned. Officially it was not "laid down" until June, but as all the parts were made months earlier the assembly took only a few weeks.

These boats displace 250 tons. Their surface speed is about fourteen knots, and they carry three or four torpedo tubes in the bows. They are fitted with a toothed net cutter at the bow, and over-all "jumping wires" to deflect nets and other obstructions.

These small boats are to be used chiefly for training and coastal defence. Sixteen other larger submarines, up to 850 tons, are in hand. Several of them will be in service before the end of the year.

It is understood that Herr Hitler will be present at the launch of Germany's first great battleship from the dockyard at Wilhelirishaven. This vessel and a sister-ship were laid down with the utmost secrecy late last year. They displace 26,000 tons, and will be remarkable for their massive armour, based on the lessons of Jutland. On the other hand the armament is comparatively light, consisting of nine llin guns in triple turrets, two of which are placed forward and the third aft. These guns are of a new quick-firing model. The second ship is building at Hamburg.

Other warships approaching the launching stage arc two 10,000-ton cruisers armed with Sin guns, and sixteen big destroyers of 1650 tons.

The third "pocket battleship," Admiral Graf Spec, is to be commissioned in January. Like the Deutschland and Admiral Scheer, she is an allwelded ship of 10,000 tons, with a battery of six llin guns and a" very wide radius of action.

The Nurnberg, Germany's sixth postwar cruiser, is completing in dock. This ship and the Admiral Graf Spec are the last of the German warships designed under Peace Treaty restrictions.

Another ship nearly completed is the Bnilnmer. a small cruiser laid down as the Ersatz Fnchs. She will be Diesel-driven, with a speed o[ over 26 knots.

The personnel of the German navy is now reported to have reached 32,000, an increase of 17,000 within two years.