Britain’s Naval Might

Northern Advocate, 18 March 1939, Page 9

Britain’s Naval Might

(Received 3 p.m.i LONDON, March lot

Introducing the Navy Estimates for £149,000,000, an increase of £23,000,000 on last year’s Estim'ates, which were themselves a record for peace time, the Parliamentary Secrietary of the

Admiralty, Mr G. Shakespeare, said the Government will be completing 220,00 tons this year, compared with an average of 170,000 tons in the yeai’s between 1912 and 1914, while ton for ten the productive effort involvedtaking into account the increasing complexity of design, fuller protection and. heavier armament —would be three times greater for battleships and as much as six and a half times greater for destroyers.

The Minister went on to show that it was not only in respect of ship production that there was an increase over the last three years, but that the output of heavy guns had increased tweniyfoid, and medium and light guns by five and eight times respectively. '

As regards mines, torpedoes, depth charges, shells and fuses, he assured the House that the Admiralty had organised a supply estimated to suffice for at least the first year of war. Scrapping Battleships Mr. Winston Churchill (Con., Eppiag), referring to a decision to scrap one of the Royal Sovereign class in 1942 and another in 1943, said that Germany will soon have five cruisers,, definitely superior to anything except battle-cruisers. These would be superEmdens in the event of war, capable of inflicting heavy losses to British trade. No cruiser dare come within range of Royal Sovereign battleships, which are ideal vessels to bring in convoys from Australia, the Cape,* and South America,

Mr. Duff-Cooper, former First Ford of the Admiralty, answering Mr.Churchill, said # that there must be a limit even to the lives of battleships. “If we retained the Royal Sovereign ships Germany would have the right to begin battleship construction in 1942. Either- a great disaster will happen before then or we will enter into a happier period.” Other matters touched upon by Mr Shakespeare in hi's speech on the naval estimate were recruiting, and the progress of the fleet air arm. He said they had just had a record year for recruiting, 18,000 officers and men having entered the navy in 1938, picked out of 70,000 applicants. Contracts for aircraft for the six new aircraft carriers which would come into commission from 1940 onwards had been placed, and production was in full swing.

The total personnel of the fleet air arm had increased from 3000 in 1937 to 6000 today, and it would reach 10,000 in 1942. The Civil Lord of the Admiralty, Mr J. J. Llewellin, in replying to the debate, said it was true, as Sir Samuel Hoare had said two years ago, that Britain was building a fleet which she hoped, in conjunction with the navies of the Dominions, would be sufficient to protect British interests in both hemispheres. Passages in the speech of the Parliamentary Secretary of the Admiralty, Mr G. H. Shakespeare, on the Naval Estimates, which were followed with close attention, dealt with measures for meeting special threats of submarine and 'aerial attacks. Anti-Submarine Preparations. As to submarines, Mr Shakespeare argued that tht danger had been exaggerated through neglect to observe that of about 16,500 vessels sunk by enemy submarines in 'action in the last war, only 102 were sunk while in convoy. As the result of two years’ close co-opieration between the Admiralty and leaders of the shipping industry, he could state that Britain would be in a position to institute a convoy organisation 'soon after the outbreak of a war on any route where it was considered necessary.

Already Britain had in stock sufficient 'anti-submarine, guns to meet all expected requirements. More than 9000 officers of the merchant navy had already attended a course in convoy protection or gunnery, and appropriate armament and equipment for a large number of ships which would immediately be taken over for anti-submarine work on the outoreak of war were already in stock Britain Ahead of all Others. Mr Shakespeare then turned to the immense progress made since the last war in scientific aids to anti-submar-ine warfare. He said:

“I cannot, of coarse, reveal the nature and extent of our progress in this respect, but I beiiev> our methods of detecting, hunting and killing submarines is more advanced ‘than tiny others in, the world.” The speaker described a hunt for submerged submarines, the position cf which was not known, in which he had taken part. As the result of that experience, he felt able to accept the claim of experts that, in favourable circumstances, in nine cases out of ten the exact position of 'a submarine could be detected without any doubt.

j Anti-Aircraft Guns, In regard to attacks from the air, the Admiralty’s policy had been to | concentrate in warships the most modern anti-aircraft gun possible—there had been an increase of 75 per 'cent in the number of these guns—'and bn attack on a ship bristling ' with anti-aircraft guns would be a . very different matter from attacks on defenceless merchant shipping. 1 Moreover, this did not take into account the presence of the aircraft of the fleet air arm, or co-operating Royal Air Force squ'adrons. In the case of convoys of defensively armed

merchant ships, there would be the closest co-operation with the Air Force as they came into narrow ser.s and appi’oached the home coasts.

British Fleet can Accept Any Challenge Generally, the Board of Admiralty believed that the British Fleet was so strong today that it could confidently accept a direct challenge in battle by any combination of foes.