NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 107, 2 November 1942, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

BTH ARMY RESUMES

AIRCRAFT AT SEA

1 The Eighth Army's attack in Egypt began on the night of Friday, October 23. As was to be expected, the advance was soon checked, its momentum exhausted in the heavy Axis defences. It has now been resumed, roughly a week later. Emphasis- is laid on the solidity of the enemy's ground defences, which must be cleared up step by step before the road opens for our armoured forces to deploy into the desert. The battle is an inversion of the method of previous desert campaigns, which were opened by tank assaults. In this battle, the first phase is a tremendous artillery barrage, the exceptional weight of which is testified to by the enemy. This is followed up by infantry, and the whole action is covered, assisted, 'and extended by aircraft. The armoured forces wait for the opening which the attack is intended to make. The enemy reports admit the severity of the attack, and Rome radio is definitely pessimistic. But as before, it is not a time for making optimistic forecasts. Aircraft-carriers on Top. Whether there will be in this war a naval battle on the grand scale, involving the major forces of the navies concerned, is a question that can only be answered by the event; there is nothing in the conditions of the war to point definitely either way. It was announced, just two months ago, that the U.S. battleship lowa, the biggest warship in the world, had been launched. This ship, of 45,000 tons, and with nine 16-inch guns, is one of a class of five, two of which are not j being proceeded with. A class of still larger ships have been held up indefinitely. This deferment is to allow the labour and material which they would absorb to be transferred to the building of aircraft-carriers. More than that. According to' Francis McMurtrie, naval correspondent of the London "Daily Telegraph," six battlecruisers of 27,000 tons and a number of the 10,000-ton cruisers, of which 32 are in hand, are to be completed as aircraft-carriers. I. may be pointed out that to cancel one 45,000 ton battleship releases roughly enough material to build two large aircraft-carriers: it is unlikely, in view of their natural vulnerability and the risks they must run, that carrier's will ever be built to the enormous tonnages that capital ships have reached. Stolen Thunder. In a more literal sense than the saying usually has, the battleship has had its thunder stolen by the aircraftcarrier. Throughout the war, the surface ship has found air cover essential; without it, even the newest warships are helpless against efficient aerial attack. The most resounding naval events of the war, with the exception of the Battle of the Plate, have been victories of aircraft over ships, or to which aircraft contributed heavily. Italian ships were sunk ih Taranto harbour by torpedo planes; similar craft impeded the Italian squadron at Mata-pan-and it suffered heavy loss in conquence; the Bismarck was slowed down by torpedo-planes so that the slower British ships could catch and destroy her. Japanese aircraft executed the attack on Pearl Harbour, and slaughtered the Prince of Wales and the Repulse off the coast of Malaya. And in the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway it was arrcraft which did the damage. These two battles cost the Japanese several aircraft-carriers, as well as other ships. The subsequent sea fighting in the South-west Pacific has continued the story. Losses Inevitable. At a long distance from land, aircraft must be carried, and the carriers being ships are themselves in the full peril of the battle. The list of lost carriers is already long. But, in the fleets of the United Nations, it is not unduly long, considering the vast amount of service that the ships have done. In the Pacific, the balance of losses is so far in our favour. America has lost four, the last a week ago. Japan has had at least six sunk, and many more damaged. How many are left to each navy is a war. secret; but it is clear that in the long run the United States can swamp Japan. Aircraft-carriers have, for tJie time being, become the most important fighting units of the navies in the Pacific, and it is a peculiarity of their operations that they have actually prevented the gun-fighting squadrons from engaging in battle. Long-range guns resulted in fleets joining battle at almost the limit of visibility. Now they can fight a hundi-ed miles apart, with the big guns silent. Shipyard v. U-Boat. Again there is excellent news from the shipyards of the United States. In September, the output of merchant ships was 10 per cent, and of armed ships 22 per cent., greater than in August, and the number of ships launched—over three a day on the average—was three times as great as the number sunk by the enemy. The month's output of merchant ships was as great as the whole of that in 1941. It is a tragic thing that so great a share of the battle of the sea.has had to be fought in the shipyards, in the replacement of lost tonnage and an effort to swamp the losses of ever greater output. But it has been v the pnly way to defeat the German submarines. It is not exaggerating to say that the submarine has in this war proved so far to be the most efficient weapon in existence. Though to a very great extent it has been countered by relentless patrolling under highlyskilled direction, and by patient convoying of ships in company, those counter-measures are enormously costly, and the U-boat will continue to inflict a burden of hardship until the war is ended.

It was the convoy system that took the sting out of the German submarine campaign in the last war, and in this one the system was consequently ready for prompt adoption within the limits fixed by the much smaller naval strength available for the purpose. The protecting ships have, however, been multiplied in number and supplemented by aircraft, which include some of the longestrange bombers in service. A nev: addition to the convoying equipment is a special type of aircraft-carrier—a merchant ship, fitted with a flight deck and able to carry some thirty fighter aircraft. Primarily these ship', are intended to give protectif i against air attack on the convoy, but th .y are also available, in suitable circumstances, for use against submarines.