CONVOY DEFENDERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 March 1939, Page 2

CONVOY DEFENDERS

TO ENGAGE SUBMARINES. At least 40 vessels, specially rearmed and equipped to engage hostile aircraft, and submarines, will soon be available for the defence of the convoys into which the greater pari of lhe. British merchant navy would be organised in time of war (writes Hector (’. Bywater, in the London “‘Daily Telegraph”). 'This figure does, not include eight, ships specially built for the same purpose. A smaller programme of reconstruction along these lines was approved in 1937, but progress with it was leisurely up to the emergency of September last year. Since then the work has been speeded up. and many more ships have been selected for conversion into A.A. and anti-sub-marine escorts. It. is partly to expedite the completion of the programme that Rosyth dockyard is being reopened on a limited scale. The contingency of submarine and air attack, possibly combined, on merchant convoys in wartime has to be reckoned with by the naval authorities, though in the opinion of many jurists such attack would be a gross violation of international law. It is believed that the presence of warships heavily armed with A.A. guns would render air raids on merchantmen in convoy too dangerous and costly an operation to be often attempted.

Vessels of the future convoy escort fleet include eight cruisers, 14 destroyers and 18 to 2o of the ships formerly known as sloops. Of the cruisers the Coventry and Curlew have been in commission for some time. They will eventually be joined by their sister ships, Cairo. Calcutta. Capetown, Calisle, Colombo, and Curacoa.

Displacing I,2D(J Io 4.290 tons, with speed of 20 knots, they w-we originally armed with live (iiu. guns. Their new armament, comprises ten lin. A.A. two multiple pompoms, and ten or twelve machine-guns. Each ship can therefore deliver a very great, volume of lire against air targets.

The sloops concerned are .18 to 2(1 of Hie Bridgewater, Hastings. Shoreham, and Falmouth types, of 990 to 1.105 tons, and a speed of 16 knots. As completed they carried two lin. or 4.Tin. guns and one 3in. A.A. gun. 'Phis armament is to be altered to six lin. and 11 smaller pieces and machineguns, all on A.A. mountings. In addition there are eight new A.A. escort sloops built and building, of the Bittern, Egret, and Black Swan types, which displace from 1,190 to 1,250 tons and have an average speed of 19 knots. .Most of these are armed with six or eight lin., and five smaller A..A. guns.

Fourteen destroyers are being rebuilt. for convoy escort duly. It is probable that others will be added. They belong to the "V" and "W" types ordered during the war and are vessels of 1,1(10 to 1.120 tons, with a sea speed of 31. knots. The old armament of low-angle guns ami torpedo tubes is to be replaced by four modern -lin. A.A. and two multiple pompoms. Their equipment includes detector gear, depth charges, and other anti-submarine devices.

The work involved in this programme is so heavy that it. may' be necessary to call in the aid of private shipyards. Besides mounting new guns and rearranging magazines, every converted A.A. ship has to be fitted with an entirely new system of tire control, including lieiglu-limiers and predictors, to make its highangle gunnery- fully- effective.

Tile A.A. cruiser or sloop is considered to be Ute best counter to the low-alt if tide bomber, yvhich experience in the Spanish war has proved to be the most, serious danger to merchant vessels.