NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 28, 3 February 1942, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

NOT YET BEGUN

SIEGE OF SINGAPORE

The battle of Singapore has not yet opened, and except for the intensification of air attack, its beginning may take some days. The next phase will not be a matter of infiltration, or combats between units of no great size, with plenty of room to move. Even a heavy air offensive will take time to prepare. That the Japanese offensive ■frill be mainly by air is most probable, though landings must be expected. The Japanese have worked out a system of getting ashore from shallow water into territory where immediate resistance is difficult or impossible, and partial success in this form of attack is to be expected, for there is a large extent of low swampy land round the shores of the island, and the forces available for defence are not numerous enough to make them impervious. Meanwhile British reinforcements have been received for the defence of the island and more have been promised; and it is by no means certain that all these reinforcements will land on Singapore Island. Manila Bay. j ,-A brief note on the deadly action near Corregidor, written yesterday, was based on an early report which was followed by more accurate information. It now appears that the Japanese had assembled on the south side of the entrance of Manila Bay, with the object of trying to land on Corregidor Island. This effort.was followed by a combination of attacks on General Mac Arthur's position, reported in detail today. The enemy not only attacked heavily on land, but sent picked troops to get ashore on the west coast at several points'. General MacArthur's report tells' its own story: 'the Japanese picked troops used in this venture, like those employed for the attempt on Corregidor, were entirely destroyed. Sinking- of the Barham. Describing the sinking of the battleship Barham in the Mediterranean, the captain of the Valiant reveals that his ship's pompoms (3-pounders) could not be depressed sufficiently to hit the attacking submarine, which appeared 150 yards away, and crash-dived only 40 yards from the battleship. It does not need very much depression to hit a point 150 yards away even from a gun 50ft above the water, which is about the height of the highest of the Valiant's guns; but the shots were not fired at that stage. The angle was increasing rapidly as the Valiant approached the submarine and by the time firing was possible the guns could not be brought to bear. The ship's larger guns,, even if they could stoop enough, could not be got into action as quickly as the pompoms. Such a challenge to the mobility of naval guns is not in the code; submarines are not expected to try to come aboard battleships—4o yards is not much more than the ship's breadth. The condition is so rare that the failure of the Valiant's guns to reach the submarine does not necessarily indicate a defect in the design of gunmountings. Warships' Worst Enemy. The loss of the Barham is a reminder of the enormous risks which important ships must run in the presence of submarines. She and the Valiant had destroyer screen ahead of them: but the U-boat commander was skilful or fortunate enough to escape detectioa by them, and had an easy target. It is also a reminder that the torpedo is still the big ship's worst menace. The Barham, which was built in 1914-15 and fought in the Battle of Jutland, was, like other old ships, much altered since, and was fitted with torpedo-"bulges." These are enlargements of the hull on each side, from just above the waterline, to provide a "cushion" •in which a torpedo, exploding against the plating of the bulge, is supposed to waste most of its force, thus protecting the hull itself. The armour plating is in the normal position on the hull, the bulge outside it. Many Victims Already.

Bulges no longer protect battleships, as many sinkings in this war have shown. Capital" ships which have fallen victims to this weapon, either alone or as the fatal stroke after other damage, are the Royal Oak, Prince of Wales, Repulse, Barham, and Ark Royal, in the British Navy; the German Bismarck; the Italian Littorio, and two of the Comte de Cavour class (by air-borne torpedoes in Taranto Harbour), and the French Richelieu at Dakar. Some of. these ships were of recent construction and the rest, except the Royal Oak, had been modernised. Torpedoes derive their power from the fact that they carry a very heavy explosive charge, they strike under water) so that the explosive is used in the most efficient way, they

strike where structural protection is impossible, .and they can be aimed with great accuracy. AH that can be done against them is to design ships so as to minimise or localise the damage as much as possible; and in the present state of naval engineering, the torpedo-maker is Veil. ahead - of- -the naval architect.