Britain's Fleet Again Commands the Sea

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 103, 28 October 1939, Page 18

Britain's Fleet Again Commands the Sea

THE calling up of 12,000 Naval Reservists and the manning of all combatant Reserve Fleet vessels, as well as ships belonging to the local flotillas at the dockyard ports, brings the Royal Navy on to a virtual "war footing," writes bHerbert W. Dawson in the September number of the "United Empire" magazine. Not since the-Grand Fleet demobilised in 1919 has our naval power been as strong as it is today and scarcely a week passes without a newly commissioned man-of-war joining her squadron at sea. Most of us are familiar with the Navy; the names of our great battleships are household words and the Cruiser Squadrons on overseas stations are often the only link between the Briton overseas and "Home."' These foreign service squadrons and the powerful Mediterranean Fleet are always prepared for war. That is, they carry a full complement of trained sea men and. their stores —food, fuel, and ammunition. are always maintained at a high level. To these ships a "crisis" means very, little; their watch extend? from one year's end to another. * Tlie Home Fleet presents a slightij different picture. Owing to,the rapid expansion of the Service, the Navy has- ; accepted a tremendous number of new ' entries and many of these men - com piete ; their sea. training, in the Home Fleet Battle Squadrons. At. the pre sent time most of these new entries have • been replaced , by* experienced _ men, > the. ships have been -'brought up" to full.complement, and the Home , Fleet-is jibwb as fully prepared as thp Navy; on'the outer seas. The Fleet that King George' visitect on August- 9, ,the. Reserve Fleet, is perhaps, 'the most interesting of all our naval 'forces. Made up of older ships manned, in the main, by older men, ii, , can be called a fleet of veterans- i which is a far'different thing from r. veteran fleeT'lt was, I believe, Dr . Goebbels who described the Reserve i Fleet as "a collection of scrap-iron.' < and; spoke of the present Fleet mobi | lisation as a "panic gesture" from a ( decadent people. If Dr. Goebbel? i could have stood, beside; me on the ( bridge ofb H.M.S',-;: Geres and watched ( .the King cruise through the long lines j of the/asgerrtbledtfleet':he.-might have; revised his; estimate. The. Fleet i gathered that day;-in Weymouth -Bay ,-, is ".capabte' Of "cibhtaining." or even i fighting a delaying action against any , potentially hostile fleet in European c waters. The .fact; that; we have a "Re- r serve Fleet''''of this v .magnitude give? a very real*impression of naval power ~ A" few week? ago 1 was privilegeo c to visit'the; , Reserve .Fleet while i" v 'was stni,in.'^|^r^i";Eyen;bthen,;;with r only care any;, i^linlenahceVparties on 1 board, you cpuM sense ;the"efficiencj r and fighting:^'bWer,"'bf the ships and il s was almost impossible to realise thai t sortie of them-,had been lining idle foi d years.; Reserve .[Fleet -vessels*'are -.also stationed^atJ'ols'r^'oyer^eas bases,*-. Malta, a HongKong.;Singappie^and;^Alex^ridria ii ■and:'i-«t'--|''th¥.:;end';;//of December; 1938 7 Reserve Fleet ships in home Waters in- tb eluded 23 cruisers,' 2 aircraft-carriers, s and ...44.,destroyers. • v The Admiralty always' keep enough d ship£ in' 'full.' commission to meet. tha. ■ t Navy's. normal needs. These are num s erous enough to ensure protection bt. ii the; trade routes-^-there are 22 mbderri a cruisers serving on overseas' stations " today-—and powerful enough to defeat n any sudden challenge in home waters t] In war, however,• the-Navy has other a tasks, to carry put, convoys must be s: organised,' anti-submarine measures put i 1 into ,effect, and extensive mining and I counter-mining' operations carried out. h

ft is to meet these needs that Reserve Fleet ships are maintained in partiabl commission—ready to receive their crews on mobilisation. , In normal times the Reserve Flee', is on what the Navy calls "standard notice"; that is to say, they shoulc be at sea fourteen days after mobili sation. Reserve Fleet officers, however have then own ideas on this subject In September, 1938, when war seeme: imminent, at least two Reserve Fle,c ships were at sea—ready for action ii any respect—forty-eight!"- hours afte: mobilisation orders had been given ii London. This present mobilisation is perhap.not, quite of the high pressure order oi last autumn. Still, the manning ano arming of our 60 men-of-war—task? which include kitting up of Reservists the loading of shells, stores, and food —in under ten days is much to be proud of. Reserve Fleet officers have described the "crisis regulation" as a practice run, and the speed with which they have commissioned the ships for the present naval exercises pays tri bute to the Reserve Fleet care and maintenance parties. To "maija-tain" a ship in first-cla:.? condition with only a skeleton crew means endless hours of backbreakinj? —and apparently thankless—work. Rf* serve Fleet destroyers, for instance, are usually moored in groups of four, one ship supplying electricity md pqwer to her sisters. To keep these ship? clean, to ensure that guns are in working order, to check over all the machinery and controls the officer in charge is allowed four seamen and four engine-room ratings for each ship There was a time, before the crisis last autumn, when the Reserve Fleel was regarded as a backwater; a re fuge for officers and men whose service was drawing to a close. Those days have gone. The present com mander of the Reserve .Fleet. ViceAdmiral "Max" 'Horton, the famous wartime submarine commander, is one of the most active officers in the Ser-. vice/and he has transmitted his keenness to every man under his commahc These men naturally consist of "key ratings," officers as well as' seamen, so that when reservists join their ship? there is no time lost in "shaking down." Not that the Naval Reservists I saw at Weymouth need much instruction in the arts of naval warfare. Probably 75 per cent, are men who served in the Great War, perhaps in the samp ships -that they are in today, and they will settle down far quicker than a draft of new entries from, naval barracks.. .I. talked ■ -with . dozens of Reservists, both in their mess-decks and in the freer atmosphere ashore, and to all of them- r put the"same question: 'Are you glad tp be back?" Only one man said "No." "Well, sir, it's like this 'ere. I've a one-man barber shop ashore and I've built up a nice trade since '19. Now I 'aye to leave it allit's a bit 'ard on chaps. like me. Oh, [ know it can't be 'elped but" . . . and he rubbed his hands together, sailor

fashion, while the medals on his chest shook with righteous indignation . . . 'I'd like to lay my 'and on the . . . blighter wot made it necessary." It may not have been a grammatical answer, or even a diplomatic one, but it expresses perfectly the spirit of the Reserve Fleet. So much for the Reserve Fleet, much in the news, but in reality only a portion of the growing strength of the Royal Navy. It is.difficult to picture the tremendous growth of the Fleet during the past four years. In 1935^ there were 92,338 officers and men* serving with the. Fleet and the Naval Estimates amounted to £56,550,000. Today these figures stand at 133,000 officers and men—exclusive of Reservists called back into service—while the cost of the Royal Navy has risen to £147,779,000, the greatest amount ever spent in times of peace. The, following table gives some indication of "this growth. ."" COMPARATIVE STRENGTH OF THE ROYAL XAVT. IN MARCH, 1935, AND MARCH. 1939. 1935. 1939. ProBuild- Build- ject- : Built, ing. Built, ing. cd. Battleships 12 — 12 7 — Battle crulser3 .3 — — — — Aircraft carriers 5 — 6 6 — BJn gun cruisers 15 —• 15 — "' — Ught cruisers .34 10 46 21 4 Destroyer leaders 18 1 18 3 — Destroyers .... 127 .23 ' 149 29' 16 Submarines ... 56 3 54 15 4 Kscort vessels .. 27 1 33 4 22 Even these figures fail to give a completely accurate picture. The Admiralty have no intention of maintaining an obsolete Fleet, and many vessels serving in 1935 have been replaced by newer' ships—without increasing the total number of that class. During the financial year 1938 no fewer than 44 new ships were commissioned; including 3 cruisers, 1 aircraft carrier, 17 destroyers, 6 submarines, 3 escort vessels, and 5 motor torpedo boats. Th\s year there are 60 vessels scheduled Tor completion— 5 cruisers, 1 aircraft carrier, 15 destroyers, 14 submarines, 4 escort vessels, and 13 motor torpedo boats

In this gigantic building programme, time has been on our side. During recent weeks the Hood, Repulse, and Renown have all rejoined the Fleet after extensive overhaul and modernisation, and all ships in dock are being pushed ahead as rapidly as possible. If any maritime Power ever hoped to challenge Britain on the seas it has allowed its fleeting opportunity to pass —such opportunities are never given twice. Perhaps the most striking feature of British naval strength is the mainten-

The Growth of Trick Flying

UNTIL Lincoln Beachey appeared on the scene it had been enough to satisfy spectators just to fly an aeroplane, writes? Wayhe Thomis in the "Chicago Tribune;" Beachey was the first showman in the barnstorming and exhibition business who gave additional thrills by his antics in the air. Hearing that a French airman named Pegoud had succeeded in looping, Beachey determined to try the manoeuvre himself. Once he succeeded, he found that the loop actually was one of the simplest and easiest manoeuvres.

The whole point of a loop is that it must not be made so loosely that the aeroplane stalls at the top. It is possible that an inverted spin might develop from such a stall. And in Beachey's day the stall was not understood: The pushers didn't drop a wing and begin to spin; they just hung stalled in a sort of slow and uncontrollable dive until they crashed.

Diagram No. 1 shows how Beachey made his loops. The long dive was necessary because of the relatively slow cruising speed of the pushers: Beachey's top speed was about 65 miles an hour. He had to wait until he gained another 35 miles an hour before beginning the loop proper.

Shortly before a Chicago air meet in 1914 Beachey had been flying in California in his Curtiss biplane at 3000 feet and above a cloud layer, when his engine stopped. The plane began to sink and approached a stall, but as it did so Beachey pushed forward on his elevator controls and pointed the nose downward in a 45-degree angle dive.

"I thought 1 was gone, but I . . . found I had complete control. Every wire in my ship was whining and groaning. As I got close to the ground I levelled off and made a landing on the "far side of the field. I was so scared I could hardly step out of the plane."

That long power-off dive was the beginning of what Beachey called his "dive of death." Finally, he was making vertical div s of a thousand feet or more and pulling out very gradually. He even made what he called the "come in" during the dive. This was done just before the pullout. Pressing forward on the controls he increased the dive slightly beyond the vertical and then eased it out level Diagram No. 2 shows the vertical dive and the come-in.

For a long time Beachey had been anxious to attempt inverted flight.. He began talking of it to his friends and mechanics about 1912. He made his first attempts at it in practice flights in 1913 and had practically perfected a stunt which he used in 1914.

Beachey's first experiments were made at the top of his loop. Instead of holding the controls all the way back, so that he dived out of the inverted position, he pushed forward, holding the nose of his ship horizontal After several attempts he found the gliding angle of his ship in its inverted position and was able to stay inverted for twenty-five to forty seconds a I a time.

At first he recovered from the inverted position by pulling tht wheel control used on tht Curtiss plane back so that he dived out to an upright level position just as he did in the last half of a loop. But later he used the ailerons to roll out of the upsidedown position (diagram No. 3). Beachey was probably the first man

ance of powerful cruiser squadrons on overseas stations. There is not a single vital junction of trade routes that is not guarded by the grey policemen of the seas. Including men-of-war in the Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, and Indian Navies, there are 109 combatant vessels on the trade routes, backed by auxiliary forces, gunboats, submarines, supply ships, and planes. Once hostile raiders were rounded up, these ships, of course, would be available for duty with the main fleets. In design, armament, and protection the British Navy has nothing to fear from any other fleet. "In training— particularly tactical training-at seait is far ahead of any rival. Despite their age, the Nelson, Rodney, and Hood are still the most powerful battleships afloat, and the new King George V class will set a new standard in battleship design—just as the Dreadnought revolutionised naval construction in 1908. Ships 'on overseas stations and in the Mediterranean are constantly at sea^-the only proper training ground for sailors—and units of the Home Fleet spend at least eight months of the year in "training cruises." The term "cruise" is~ misleading and gives no indication of the work that goes into the. building of an efficient fleet. Exercises during these "cruises" are made as realistic as possible, and every type of weapon is brought into

use.. Ships exercise as a „ complete , fleet, in squadrons and as individual units; minefields are laid and swept up, torpedo attacks are made under all conditions, and day and night firing is carried out from both turret and secondary armaments. Ori more, than one occasion 1 have accompanied the Fleet on such cruises and the keenness of all ranks is evidence that the Royal Navy fully realises its great responsibilities. This is in marked contrast with the "makebelieve" manoeuvres that characterised the "drift" period of British policy —when, for example, one battleship did not fire her 15-inch guns for eighteen months. In September, 1938. when the Home Fleet lay in readiness off the Scottish coast, it was not hard to imagine yourself back twenty years when the Grand Fleet kept watch and ward over the North Sea—the same wafch. No. although ships have changed, the men of the Royal Navy remain unaltered. In spirit they are the same men who brought their submarines into the Baltic and navigated the treacherous waters of th= Dardanelles. They are the ° same men who spent long, tedious months at sea without sight of an enemy and who yet maintained the fighting courage which sank the blockships behind the German batteries at Zeebrugge. They are the same men who fought- at Jutland, and off the Falklands. who kept their patrols within sight of Heligoland, fand who drove the Imperial German Navy to its grave in Scapa Flow. ', The Royal Navy today contains no ships similar to the battle-cruisers that were lost at Jutland, or obsolete cruisers such as fought heavy odds off CoroneL The Fleet today is a new Fleet; powerful, fast, heavily armoured, and trained to hit hard—and to hit often. Naval policy is governed, so far as modern conditions allow, by the orders of Lord Nelson: "To seek out and to destroy the enemy." There is no doubt that the men and ships which make up British sea power at sea are fully capable of performing this mission.

to use the roll-, as part of his exhibition flying. It was in 1914 that the spin began to be used for the first time. The stall and resultant uncontrollable dive had taken the lives of many flyers. Orville Wright, at that time busy with his school and factory at Dayton and his stunt teams throughout the country, is believed to be the first man who understood what happened in a stall and discovered what to do about it. Back in the gliding days the Wright brothers, when their glider began to slow down, would push the nose of the plane down to pick u\ safe speed. Orville's latei study oi the stall was made because a number of men had been killed in Wright planes. He finally worked out charts and lift curves that showed that at high angles of attack (with the nose of the plane and consequently the wings tilted upward in the line of flight) the plane would slow down and stall. His studies also showed that when stalled the only way to recover was to push the hose down and recover speed. If attempts were made to pull the nose up before flying speed was regained, the aeroplane would simply stay in the uncontrolled dive This discovery did not become general knowledge until 1916 and 1917. Fundamentally. Beachey's experiments covered the entire field of stunt flying. Little if anything has been added. The masters of aerobatics in

the United otates—Tex Rankin, Mike j Murphy, Squeak Burnett. Joe Mackey —merely combine one or more of the original Beachey manoeuvres into a highly polished routine. A few new items have cropped1 up. For instance, in 1925, with a highpowered pursuit plane. Lieutenant Jimmy Doolittle—now Major Doolittle —achieved the first "outside loop." In the loops that Beachey made, it will be seen by referring to Diagram No. 1, the pilot was on the inside of the circle. In Doolittle's loop the pilot was on the outside of the circle (diagram No. 4). Lieutenant Al Williams, of the Marine Corps, achieved the first inverted "falling leaf." This manoeuvre is a series of shallow side slips, alternately made to the right and the left. Williams did them in an inverted position and started the current vogue for doing all sorts of manoeuvres inverted. Rankin or Alex Papana of Rumania can do snap and slow rolls from an inverted position and return, can make figure eights in inverted flight, or loops in inverted flight. Squeak Burnett has a new manoeuvre. He calls it the square loop It consists of the usual inside loop, but the sides are square. He flies straight up, makes a right-angle turn, and holds his altitude in inverted flight, then pulls abruptly into a vertical dive and .eases out at the bottom. Diagram No. 5 shows Burnett's square loop.