Russians Said To Be Building the Greatest Sub. Fleet In History

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 March 1949, Page 6

Russians Said To Be Building the Greatest Sub. Fleet In History

[N.Z.P.A. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT]

(Rec. 9 a.m.) uONDON, .March 9. Though criticisms were made of the Government’s secrecy over the naval estimates, it is stated that the debate upon them in the House of Commons reflected, relatively greater contentment over the, state of the Fleet than there is over that of the Army and the Royal Air Force. The chief criticism of, the Government came from Mr Brendan Bracken, a former First Lord of the Admiralty. He declared that the Russians were building up the greatest submarine fleet in history with the help of captured German officers and technicians, and he accused the Government of having little to meet a modern 20 to 25-knot submarine except 20-knot frigates and out-of-date" detection equipment.

American Assertions

American naval experts were asserting that Russia was building up the greatest submarine, fleet in history under the direction of German scientists, with crews led by experienced German submarine commanders. “If they are now in the service of Russia We had better look out, because these new submarines ca novercome the asdic and other detector devices that were almost bur salvation in the late war,” he declared. “If this information is accurate, we should look very closely at our naval resources.” Mr Bracken continued: “Many of ihe most competent engineers who built u pthe German submarines are now busily employed behind the Irdn Curtain. We must hope that we have enough escort vessels to cope with better-equipped and speedier submarines. We shall certainly need many more faster escort vessels than we had in the last war, for Russia possesses a submarine strength of anything between 220 and 300,” Mr Alexander, .intervening, commented that destroyers had been converted into, fast frigates and modern prototypes were in preparation.

It was not at all a bad thing,, having created a number of escorts L for the intervening period to build late but build fast, with each one better than the last. Could Starve Britain

Quoting a statement, ’by the FirstLord of the Admiralty (Lord Hall) that Britain must proceed slowly, Mr Bracken said: “The Russians are building up a submarine force that will enable them to starve the people of these islands, destroy the possibilities of munitions to the Western Union and to complete the conquest of the world, and to hear the First Lord say that we shdll proceed slowly in the building up of new escort vess els —-was there ever such misuse of the language? The fate of Britain may depend upon our swiftness —and I use the word with all the emphasis I possess—to meet this mortal menace of submarine warfare.”