NAVAL WARFARE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 June 1924, Page 2

NAVAL WARFARE.

WHAT THE SECRET “RAY” CAN DU. The Government’s decision to proceed with the construction, of five new cruisers and two destroyers gives emphasis to the activity in perfecting new methods of attack, declares a correspondent of the Daily Mail. With wireless telegraphy as a starting point, radiology has been developed to such a pitch that it is having a revolutionary effect upon warfare at sea. Every country is busy investigating the possibilities of the science, and some astonishing discoveries have been made. Germany recently gave evidence of the success obtained by her experiments in the use of “rays” to bring down aeroplanes. But, wizard-like though this achievement seemed, it was compared with some of the feats that “secret rays” can accomplish. Probably in no field of radiological experiment has greater advance been made than in the use of these “rays” under water. In certain directions there is now more of this kind of radip work done beneath the surface of the sea than above it. Employed “below,” the “rays” bring sure defeat to the submarine. Just how or why that comes about cannot be explained without going deeply into technicalities, but the fact is undoubted. Yet another application of the discovery has made mines and torpedoes far more formidable weapons than they used to be, The Italian navy, for instance. has just adopted a new torpedo that is endowed by its equipment with appalling powers of destruction. The weapon has great speed, long range, and a wonderful system of “control.” Considered generally, the latest mines and “mouldies” have uncanny qualities as a result of the magnetic and electrical “secrets” embodied in their design. No longer is it necessary for a ship to strike a mine before she can he damaged by it, or for a torpedo to be so aimed that it hits a ship. Both weapons will seek out a ship and “go for it” of their own accord, as it were. This means that no vessel could escape them. There is, however, one mysterious obstacle to the absolute success of the “secret ray” as the most destructive agent in maritime warfare, though how much longer that obstacle will resist the persistency of the investigators who are seeking to overcome it none can say. “Blind patches” that are impervious to any form of “wireless” occur here and there in the sea, and within them “secret rays” cannot be operated. But these “impossible bits” are not so frequent as to constitute a limiting factor of very serious account.