GERMAN WARSHIP

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 36, 11 August 1939, Page 7

GERMAN WARSHIP

SHUT UP (N WILHELMSHAVEN

The^ construction of the large lock connecting the port of Wilhelmshaven with the sea has been delayed owing to difficulties arising from the shortage of material and labour, according to a reliable report from Germany, reports a Paris message to the "Daily Telegraph."

It is believed that it is intended to provide for the passage of the 40,000----ton battleship recently laid down.

It is now regarded as impossible to complete the lock this year. The battleship Tirpitz, 35,000 tons, launched on April 1, cannot be taken into service or removed until the lock is ready. But as she is not likely to be completed till late in 1940, this problem will not arise for some time.

The present locks are not even large enough to permit the regular passage of the battleship Schafnhorst 26,000 tons, launched in October, 1936, and taken into service on January 7 this year.

This ship was built at Wilheimshaven. and she can pass through the largest of the available locks only if there is + complete absence of wind. A sandbank in Jade Bay, moreover, prevents hs* from moving out except at high ticix.

Though she was to have been stationed at Wilhelmshaven for strategical reasons, she has now been allotted Kiel as her home station.

The shortage of lead in Germany is having more serious results. Formerly used as a protective covering for pipes, its place has been taken to a great extent by rubber and rubber substitutes of a perishable character.

A further result has been a serious depreciation in the quality and quantity of paint which is still indispensable for naval purposes.