MOCK WAR IN NORTH SEA

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 26 September 1933, Page 5

MOCK WAR IN NORTH SEA

VALUABLE LESSONS LEARNED

AIR FORCE CO-OPERATION

i United Press Association—By Electric Telegrapn LONDON, Sept. 25. Valuable lessons were learned in the North Sea in a “war” between a naval base defended only by aeroplanes and a combined laid by ships and aero planes, savs the naval correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” This was the first manoeuvres of the Navy in which the Royal Air Force has cooperated. When the attackens tried to bombard Elie, Firth of Forth, the Warspite was hit. bv six aerial torpedoes, and the Malaya by one, the Renown being the only capital ship to escape the aerial torpedoes. Attacking, ’planes dived steeply from several thousand feet and flattened out only 20 feet from the water in order to discharge missiles. Forty-eight bombs- were also dropped upon the very vulnerable and exposed landing decks of the aircraft-carriers Furious and Courageous. Though the conditions were abnormally favourable to the defenders, the attack sh.owed the deadline,sis of aircraft Jagainst warships. ~ Other expert witnesses ot the manoeuvres state that the defending force was convinced that the whole ot the attacking ships ought to be at the bottom of the sea, and consider the Navy’s seapianes could not upset an attack upon the fleet. The verdict of prominent naval men has not yet been announced. It is understood the naval men’s attitude will be that had the ships really come to shell the coast of Scotland they would have come at night instead of in day-time, attacking at dawn and steaming away on a zig-zag course the instant the attack was over. These manoeuvres did not allow of these precautions.