BRITAIN'S CHOICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 101, 30 April 1937, Page 11

BRITAIN'S CHOICE

FOURTEEN-INCH GUNS

Many people are expressing surprise and anxiety at the Admiralty's decision to arm new 35,000-ton battleships oi the King George V class with 14-inch guns. Their fears are based on Japan s refusal to accept this limit of calibre, and the consequent probability that new. United States and Japanese capita] ships will mount 16-inch guns. Why, it is asked, should British ships be given apparently inferior armament, in view of the proved supremacy of the heaviest gun in naval .action during the World War. . Replying to these queries, in me "Daily Telegraph," Mr.H. C. By water, the noted authority on naval atlair.s, states:—"The design of the new British battleships was worked out by the close collaboration of all the technical and executive heads of the navy, including the foremost gunnery experts. The final design was unanimously approved as representing the most eflicient battleship it was possible ta construct within the treaty limit of 35,000 tons displacement. Because the new ships are mounting 14-inch instead of 16-inch guns, it does not follow that their armament will be inferior to that of foreign vessels mounting heavier weapons. The modern British 14-inch gun is an exceptionally powerful model of surprising range and accuracy, and the explosive power of the new type of 14-inch shell ensures the maximum destructive effect at every hit. ': ' ' GREATER PROTECTION. "Furthermore, the 14-inch.gun, complete with mounting, is so much lighter than a 16-inch gun that, by adopting the former calibre, a saving of more than 60 per cent, may be effected in the total weight of armament. This makes it possible, to give infinitely better protection td a 35,000-ton vessel than would be feasible if she were armed with 16-inch guns. ,_

"So great has been the increase in the power of projectiles, torpedoes, mines, and aircraft bombs since the World War, that only those ships with exceptionally strong ■ protection could hope to survive a future naval campaign The weight devoted to the protection of the new British ships may approach one-third of the total displacement. "Experts conversant with secret designs declare that ships of the King George V class will be as nearly unsinkable as it is possible ■to make them Naval authorities, as a whole, are satisfied that the Admiralty's policy of endowing new ships with a hard-hitting battery of 14-inch guns, immense defensive strength, and moderately high speed, is thoroughly sound. They would,oppose the suggestion olmounting 16-inch guns as long as displacement is restricted to 35,000 tons. It is. pointed out that any foreign ship of great speed carrying 16-inch guns must ..-be deficient in protection especially against air attack, to resist which very thick multiple armourdecks are essential. These decks are extremely heavy. • .'.._. "An important advantage of 14-inch guns is the -greater rapidity oi !_-flre compared with larger eaUbres. Within a given period, a ship with 14-inch , guns would probably discharge a total weight of -metal little, rf at all, Ulterior to that from a vessel armed with 16-inch guns."