GERMAN LIGHT CRUISERS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 23 September 1914, Page 8

GERMAN LIGHT CRUISERS.

The great defect of all German light cruisers is their lack of any formidable gun As has already been stated their chief weapon is the 4.lin q.f. gun, firing a 351$ projectile, 'file Contemporary British light cruisers, though slightly inferior in speed, mount either two 6m and ten 4in guns (in the earlier ships), or eight to ten 6in guns as their mam armaments. The British ?™i: g'f', gun fires a Projectile .of t» j r rece? t writer in The Marine ttundachau. discussing the principles which should govern a war against the enemys commerce, laid special stress, on the necessity for avoiding an enrr£ geli nt nt with the enemy's men-of-war. J he duty of the commerce-raider, he insisted, was not to fight other cruisers,

but to concentrate solely on the enemy's unarmed merchant'ships. If a pursuing cruiser hove in sight it would be the duty of the raider's captain to take to his heels without ceremony. Not unless he was actually driven into a corner should he engage the enemy, for whatever the issue of such an action his ship would certainly be too severely damaged to continue her true work, namely, the pursuit and destruction of merchantmen. It is quite possible this principle was borne in mind when the armament of German light cruisers was considered. At all events, none of them completed to date could hope to engage a contemporary British cruiser with much prospect of success, and none of them have tried to do so. In very case the German light cruisers have refused fight, and have trusted to their high 6peed to escape from the British ships. The German shiss have failed so far in theiv mission a« commerce-destroyers. Not a single case of a British merchant ship being captured by a German light cruiser has been reported.