GREATEST TASK IN ITS HISTORY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 30 November 1940, Page 8

GREATEST TASK IN ITS HISTORY

IVOKK OF BRITISH NAVY [British Official Wireless] (Received 30th November, 2.0 p.m.) RUGBY, 29th November. The hammering which the Italian Navy received on Wednesday in the I Mediterranean demonstrates the readiI ness of the British Navy to deal with | any eventuality there. Naval circles in ; London however do not minimise the fact that in the three-fold task —countering the invasion threat, carrying the war into enemy territory, and convoying munitions, materials and stores —the British Navy is facing the greatest task in its history. It was that the account of the proportion of ships sunk in convoy provided “most comforting” figures over the whole period of 1940. The losses Were much less in proportion than during the peak period of losses in 1917 when the British had 450 destroyers available and 10 to 15 per convoy. The most significant naval fact since Italy’s entry into the war was that the Italians had made no mention of their movements in Greek or Dodecanese waters. For carrying troops to Libya they had had to “crawl round the African coast hugging French territorial waters, ’ and had been most surprised to find British in the western Mediterranean.