MORE DEADLY

Evening Star, Issue 20981, 21 December 1931, Page 11

MORE DEADLY

■ -4- —— BRITISH GUNNERY USING MACHINES Recently I described a “ Robot ” system of fire control which has been developed in a certain foreign navy. I am now able to disclose a number of facts which indicate the amazing progress of scientific gunnery in our own fleet (writes Hector Bywater, in the London ‘Daily Telegraph 5 ). Range finding is a vital factor in long-range shooting. At Jutland our battleships carried nothing larger than 9ft telemeters, although for several years previously the British firm that specialises - in these instruments had been supplying 30ft instruments to foreign navies. The fact that our own ships had to rely on 9ft range finders was due to restriction of space in gun turrets and control stations. The German Navy, on the other liaiid, went in for very long-base instruments and enjoyed a corresponding advantage. To-day British battleships and cruisers are equipped with range finders of 30ft to 40ft base, which are immeasurably superior to the Jutland type. These instruments are so mounted as to_ be absolutely unaffected by vibration from the high speed of the ship or tlie concussion of gunfire. This is exclusively, a British innovation. Our latest range finders, and, indeed, all the new British-made optical instruments which the Royal Ravy uses in fire control, have demonstrated their superiority over the best foreign specimens in the course of exhaustive tests at the National Physical Laboratory. UNCANNY PRECISION.

When, immediately after the war, interallied l missions visited Germany to superintend the execution of the disarmament regulations, they found not only that every German warship had been stripped of its fire control gear, but that the German factories engaged in manufacturing these instruments had stopped production. Shortly afterwards a German syndicate established two factories in Holland, at Venlo and Hangelb,. where fire control mechanism could be manufactured free of Allied supervision. Both factories are in full operation to-day, but in quality their products are inferior to the British article.

As regard the British Navy, it is betraying no secret to state that postwar developments in fire control nave exceeded anything in the whole previous history of the science. The human element has been largely eliminated. Instruments are now in use which take the target range from the range finders and automatically _ compute 'all the data needed for keeping the guns bearing on the enemy, however much he may seek to baffle the aim by altering course or changing speed. Once computed, these data instantly transmitted, without manual intervention, to the various stations throughout the ship. The whole operation is performed with a precision that seems uncanny. Since the date of Jutland the longrange shooting of the Royal Navy has improved by nearly 100 per cent. Targets are now picked up and brought under accurate fire at ranges that not so long ago would have been deemed fabulous. In conjunction with improvements in guns, mountings, and projectiles, this fire control development has more than doubled the hitting power of individual ships. FUTURE OF BATTLESHIPS. This is as true of the destroyer as of the battleslvp. In simplified form the same system of fire control which sends the monster 16in shells of the Nelson through a target r.u ■. range of fifteen miles, also enables a destroyer, rolling and pitching in a seaway, to work its quick-firing guns w.th astonishing accuracy.. And there are equally ingenious instruments for aiming torpedoes. Phenomenal progress has been made in anti-aircraft firing. Six years ago a well-known aviator volunteered to fly over the Atlantic Fleet while the massed 1 “ Archies ” of the Fleet fired at him with “ live ” shell. He would scarcely care to repeat that offer today. So marked has been the improvement in the control and loading gear of the A.A. gun, and in the shells it fires, that the aeroplane attacking a squadron at sea would be like a grouse which, having grown Contemptuous of rifle bullets, suddenly found itself caught in a barrage of shotguns. These disclosures have been made to mo by one of our greatest experts on fire control. They have a direct bearing on the future of the big ship-, for if the great guns which such a vessel alone can carry are capable of being fired with accuracy at any range within the limits of vision no further argument for the survival of the battleship is necessary. In capable hands the heavy gun is still the most destructive weapon. Damage inflicted by a torpedo may be localised by subdividing the hull, but it is doubtful if any form of protection would keep out a salvo of 16iu highexplosive shell, each ■weighing a ton and travelling at a velocity or 2,000tt per second.