THE RESERVE FLEET

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 35, 10 August 1939, Page 13

THE RESERVE FLEET

A NAVY IN ITSELF

REVIEW BY THE KING

BRILLIANT SCENE

EXTENT OF NATION'S POWER EMPHASISED

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.) (Received August 10, 10.50 a.m.) ',

LONDON, August 9.

With the British fleets scattered in. Home and foreign waters and in a full state of preparedness, going about their normal occasions, the fact that the King this morning was able to review 133 ships (not 113 ships as reported in earlier messages) of the Reserve Fleet, a complete navy in itself, serves to emphasise the extent of the nation's full sea power. Stretching in fourteen lines in tha wide sweep of Weymouth Bay, which happily was sunlit after a dismal and rainy two months, the ships presented a brilliant spectacle. Small craft, the .terriers of the Navy, predominated. The battleships Iron Duke and Ramillies and the aircraft-carrier Courageous were outstanding figures. Others were the veteran cruiser Cardiff, which led on the German fleet at Scapa Flow, the destroyer Warwick on which Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Roger Keyes hoisted" his flag at the Zeebrugge raid, the cruisers Dunedin and Diomede, formerly on the New Zealand Station, and H.M.S. Broke, of Admiral Sir Edward Evans fame. As the King arrived at Weymouth to review the Fleet bathers left the water, hurriedly dressed, and joined the crowds welcoming his Majesty. The King boarded the Royal yacht Victoria and Albert, where he greeted Admiral Darlan, the Commander-in-Chief of the French naval forces, and then went on board the aircraft-car-rier Courageous, where he inspected 1500 reservists.