ATTACK ON THE FLEET

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 147, 24 June 1939, Page 13

ATTACK ON THE FLEET

PLANES IN WAR GAME

TORPEDOES AGAINST NELSON

The Fleet put out from' Portland today and three squadrons of bombers from this .iation sot out to intercept it- on the kind of exercise which every coastal defence unit would like to think it could carry out if war should come, wrote the aeronautical 1 correspondent of "The Times" on May| ' 18' from Thorney Island. To catch j 'jthe enemy fleet near port, narrowing ■the area of search/and making the , most of the fleet's inability to disperse, .lyould mean a short, sharp, and pos- ] sibly decisive engagement. On such • a duty we set out today, and in an hour" and a half had delivered a torpedo attack against H.M.S. N'elsq'n, and had prematurjely "disabled", a target , boat representing the new class of , motor torpedo-boats. , That part-of the exercise which , could be seeih from one of the Vildebeest torpedo-bombers of No. 42 Squadron was most impressive, for it had all the magic of flying through poor visibility to a target well put at sea on a dead reckoning course. The various parts of the attacking machine must have worked with the utmost precision. An Anson reconnaissance aircraft, had gone ; out^ on early duty to find the Fleet, to report its course and speed, and to give infox"mation about weather conditions. Acting on its tidings Squadrbn-Leader H. Waring led his squadron on a converging course laid t with the ..-object- of meeting the Fleet at the earliest moment. A LOW CEILING. To the passenger in one of the Vildebeests the chance of .finding the Fleet at all seemed smalL Haze hung over the: waters. The ceiling was little more than 1000 ft , Visibility was sometimes one mile; sometimes twb miles.1 We ■could keep formation as a squadron of nine aircraft, but one felt we were more like a school of fish in muddy water than a flight of hawks. Over the Isle of Wight our outlook was so limited that the crossing p* the island took longer than one had expected. We canie out ttythe water again a little east of Freshwater, and we held our course for some 20 miles on a southwesterly bearing,. ' The sea was strangely empty of shipping. We saw two vessels only. The passenger began to wonder if the mist would defeat us, or whether the Anson, similarly handicapped, had misjudged the position of the Fleet when it sightjed it. The squadron was keeping confidently on its course, and at last a signal from the leading aircraft brought one peering forward through goggles which the slipstream pressed hard against a filled face. The destroyers astern of the capital ships had come faintly into view and the dim outline of a bigger hull could be discerned ahead of them. That told us where to look for our particular quarry. Over the lesser ships we passed and then banked right,,taking up stations in line astern, as we flew; parallel^with the line of ships on their starb6ard and far enough avray to avoid the .worst of.their- antiaircraft ,fire.;' ; .' '■■ A.'T^■■'■'■'■ A'A ■':'■'■ '■': ;.'■ ';~*A':-

• ;iWe slipped past the Rodney, its red deck a dull gleam. Another covey of destroyers separated the' Rodney from the aircraft-carrier, and ahead again was the Nelson. One by one we turned towards the big ship, dived down from 1000 ft to about 20ft, flattened out, amd steadied outselves, and then let go our; torpedoes. • < ; THE FLEET TURNS AWAY. The torpedo from my aircraft fell with surprisingly litae splash into the water, submerged slightly, and began its course towards the Nelson's side nearly half a mile away. We had meanwhile banked/; over to the right and begun climbing ■ for safety. As: soon as we were level with the destroyers,: our'torpedo lost to view far astern, we turned; again to the right" •^o make .our escape complete. By this time the Fleet, had taken its usual precautions. Every ship, big and small, had begun a sharp turn to port, away from the torpedoes, and, as far as the mist would let us "see, were the curving wakes spreading like curled feathers on the surface of the sea.' >We had no time to!see whether any or none of the dummy torpedoes found their mark.: Other work was awaiting us on the bombing range in Christchurch Bay. There one of the armoured. target. boats, little more than 30ft long, ; but capable of 28 knots, was ready .to offer us a small and fleeting target. Its business was to drive at high speed across the range: ours was to drop practice bombs on it as'we should try to do on the swarms of motor torpedo-boats which modern navies affect. SECOND BOMB A HIT. > Inside the boat, beneath the armour plate, was a crew wearing crash helmets and respirators. They, no doubt, would be pleased to have the adventure over. We, on the other hand, all wanted to try our skill, and one direct hit would end the day, for orders are that the boat must return to port for examination after every hit. Our first machine, up at 3000 ft in a clearer patch of weather, heeled over and dived steeply, releasing its first bomb 500 ft above the water. It fell about 10 yards ahead of the boat, and the, smoke of its stannic acid spread a screen for the boat to plough through.

The second Vildebeest was now diving for its turn, and its bomb fell plumb in the cloud of smoke. Out of that pool of stannic smoke the boat never emerged. It had been hit by that bomb, and its crew had promptly let .off more stannic to signal the end of the practice. Ten other bombs were waiting in the racks to be let down on the target at the end of fast dives. They will all have to wait for another day, and if all the bombing is as good as today's it may take some time to let them off. By luncheon time we were back on the ground here, both our tasks duly accomplished on a morning which had seemed far from promising.