NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1941, Page 13

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

NEW BATTLESHIPS

STRIKING CHANGES

GUNS AND TURRETS

H.M.S. King George. V, which - carried Lord Halifax to the United States to take up his post as British Ambassador, is the first of a class of five battleships of 35,000 tons. She was launched in 1939—the first British battleship to take the water since the Nelson and the 1 ■•"■ Rodney, which were launched in 1925 and completed in 1927— an interval of fourteen years. " The only earlier capital ship built -for;the British Navy since the Great War was the battle-cruiser Hood, -launched in 1918 and completed in 1920. - She was then the giant of the world's navies—42,loo tons—and was remarkable for her tremendous engine-power, her turbines generating 144,000 horsepower and giving her a speed of 31 knots. The Nelson and the Rodney broke entirely new ground in naval design. They are ships of 34,000 tons, and departed from the Great War standard armament of 15-inch guns; they have nine 16-inch guias. " In this change, Britain was merely "catching up." Japan and the United . States had each built, about 1920, two "battleships armed with eight 16-inch guns; Britain "raised" them one gun. Two Strange Ships. For the first time in the British Navy, triple turrets, were adopted for the main guns. Italy had pioneered this style in 1914, and the United States followed suit extensively. In the Nelson and Rodney, the three turrets are on the centre line and are all forward, and this arrangement gives the ships a most unusual appearance. The forward turret is set 200 feet back from the stem of the ship; the second overlooks it; and the third is on :the same level as the first. The third turret turns on the exact centre of.: the ship's length, and the superstructure is thus.nearly 400, feet from the bow.. There is no heavy gun aft, but eight of.: the twelve 6-inch guns can fire directly astern.. . .These ships appear to have been put into" the "freak" class; for there is no .trace of. their "peculiarity in the King George V. class. The New Features. * Nevertheless, the King George class 'is also- marked by very ; . striking changes in armament. The 16-inch guns introduced in the Nelsons in preference to the older 15-inch are dropped, and the new ships carry 14----inch guns, the-first of that calibre ever used in British warships. It has been said that these guns are "more powerful" than the 15-inch; but that is a very questionable statement. The London. Naval Treaty of 1936, an attempt to check the naval race of which the lff-inch guns were a symptom, fixedi4^ mCii:;guns as-the biggest to be used' by the signatory Powers, but provision was made that if by April 1 any of , the signatories gave notice, that it would not comply, the limitation wouid disappear. Japan waited till the eleventh hour and withdrew in . March; arid new American ships were promptly given lfMnch : guns. .- ••- .- v - ..' . ■ ■ -;,: ..- ,Why the Smaller Guns? In the meantime. British ships con-' ' forming to the 14-inch limit'were already too far advanced to be altered. When the ships were ordered it was •.realised; that the treaty, might be jet- ..' ? sisonedj but as guns and \ mountings ...' take longer to design .and build than the ships themselves, "it was not pos..sible without seriously delaying the building of. the ships to wait (until April, 1937) •befpre. deciding the calibre of their guns," to quote Brassey's Naval Annual. Many of the capital ships "building in Europe mounted 11----inch to 13-inch guns. "Even if after April, 1937, other Powers decide to . adopt 16-inch guns for their future ships, it is thus not necessary that all British battleships should mount that gun. The' Admiralty therefore deciti- . Ed that it would be desirable, in view of the heavy programme of battleship replacement in prospect, to have done with postponements arid make progress with it without delay, even if a higher standard in armament should ■ later be set abroad." The later British ships now under construction have 16-inch guns. Italy's . liittorios have 15-inch, Germany's latest battleships have 15-inch, the United States is using 16-inch. Japan has a question mark. There has been talk of 18-inch, guns for some of their secret ships, but 16-inch is probably correct; or the American navy would be think- : - ing twice about it. , Guns Mounted in Fours. • * •• • More striking to' the eye than the change in the size of the guns in the ships of the King George V class is - their arrangement. There are two turrets forward, one quadruple, and one twin set up to fire over the first. An- . other quadruple turret is mounted aft. interesting feature Here, of course, is the use of quadruple turrets for the heavy guns. The only other ships so armed were the French battleships Dunkerque (destroyed) and Strasbourg, which were fitted with eight 13-inch guns in two turrets forward, and twelve 6-inch in quadruple turrets aft, and the Richelieu and Jean Bart, with 15-inch guns similarly mounted. The adoption of four-gun turrets has a long story behind it. No art con.tains more of compromise than naval architecture, and a multitude of factors have to be considered in determining almost every element. The turrets of big guns are tremendously heavy, and one quadruple turret is much lighter than two twin turrets or for the same weight their armour can be much thicker. This is one of the advantages. Against it can be set the objection to having "too many eggSrin one basket"—a single shot may cripple all four guns. A theoretical disadvantage, which was taken into consideration when triple turrets, now used in'all the great navies, was the possibility that the "wing" guns, being so far from the centre line of the turret, might throw off the aim by fore- " ing the turret round a little; but this trouble has obviously been so slight, if it exists, as not to be taken seriously. It is probably largely corrected by the simultaneous firing system.

For having been found without lawful excuge in an old garage owned by Ai" Moore, in "Main Street, Johnsonville, in the, early hours of this morning, .Frederic!:. Smith, aged 53, a labourer, was sentenced by Mr, J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court today to .three months' imprisonment with hard labour., He admitted the charge.