BATTLESHIPS AND TORPEDO

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 April 1938, Page 4

BATTLESHIPS AND TORPEDO

USELESS FOR BIG VESSELS. Torpedoes are to be abolished as 'an item of armament in British capital ships (writes the Naval Correspondent of the London “Daily Telegraph”) . This reform has Jong been urged by a majority of naval officers, who regard the torpedo as a. useless encumbrance in warships above the cruiser category. The first British battleships to be designed without a torpedo armament are the five vessels of the King George V. class, now building. Torpedo tubes are being removed from the older ships' as they come up for refit.

| The torpedo, however, is still considered to bo a most potent weapon in smaller craft. Whereas our pre-war destroyers mounted only four tubes, the latest British vessels have’ ten, and the newest. American destroyers carry the record number of 16. The Malaya. Warspite, Valiant and Queen Elizabeth no longer mount any tubes, and according to the latest “Return of Fleets,” they have been removed from the Royal Sovereign and Resolution. It is understood that these fittings will eventually disappear from the Battle Fleet as a whole.

That the torpedo should have been retained lor so long as a big ‘ship weapon is due more to Service conservatism than to practical reasons. Its value in such ships came to an end when long-range gunnery tactics were introduced some 30 years ago. Since then millions of pounds and much valuable space and tonnage have been wasted by providing capital I ships with a weapon which they were never in a position to employ with effect. The annals of Avar do not furnish a single instance of successful torpedo attack by a capital ship. Even in cruisers it is an arm of limited value, and the United States Navy hag already ceased to mount tubes in this class of vessel.

These fittings have recently been removed from the British cruisers Cornwall, Cumberland, Kent and Suffolk, and may soon be suppressed in our remaining 11 ships of the Sin gun type. Tubes carried above water constitute a danger, as the torpedoes are liable to be- detonated by shell fire, producing the effect of a mine exploding on board. Sugmerged tubes require large “flats” or compartments below the waterline, qnd as these interfere with efficient subdivision they increase the risk of fatal underwater damage.