Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1941 THE NAVY AT WORK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 20 February 1941, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1941 THE NAVY AT WORK

REVIEWING the work of the Navy between the time of the now famous bombing at Taranto (November 12th) and the present day, the First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr A. V. Alexander) was able to show how well it is carrying its very heavy war burden. Much of his comment was centred around the Mediterranean campaign. He took the opportunity of paying the tribute of a sister service to General Wavell and the Army of the Nile, one which the Middle East Commander-in-Chief would doubtless be only too happy to reciprocate because one of the most satisfactory features of the Libyan campaign was the way all three services co-ordinated in their efforts. Neither did Mr Alexander forget the Royal Air Force. The victorious Army of the Nile would be the first to acknowledge that the Navy had a large share in making its feats possible. Not only did it convoy great numbers of soldiers and large amounts of equip-

ment and stores in ships, some of which had been taken from foodcarrying, but it kept pace with Army and Air Force in the advance along the African coast so that at objectives like Sidi Barrani, Bardia, Tobruk and Benghazi all three struck together. It may be recalled what an eyewitness had to say about those 15-inch shells coming in from the sea. But this is far from being the only mission in which the Navy has been engaged in Mediterranean waters. Admiral Cunningham, to whom Mr Alexander paid signal tribute as being a worthy upholder of a naval tradition coming down from Nelson, who had fought in those same waters, has been carrying out his celebrated sweeps; his ships have been sailing round the Italian coasts, bombarding Genoa, Leghorn and Pisa; they have had to run the gauntlet of the German dive-bombers who struck hard and successfully at the Navy on one occasion but who were unable to stop the convoy, though they sank the Southampton and severely damaged the Illustrious; on top of all that the Navy has had to transport what Mr Alexander terms “embarrassingly large numbers” of Italian prisoners. No praise that the First Lord bestowed was more deserving than that given to the men of the Mercantile Marine. It will find an echo in the hearts of all who reflect on the hourly perils braved—often nonchalantly—by those of our race who go down to the sea in ships. Their importance to the nation was estimated fairly when Mr Alexander said

that, without them, we could not continue the war, whatever our naval power. Their job is not fighting but carrying and the Navy in this war has had the triple task of keeping them safe from mine, submarine and bombing aeroplane. The proud record of the Navy was that, out of 3000 ships convoyed (presumably during the period covered by his survey) only nine had been lost.

A balanced account of the submarine war was given during the review. Summing up the present situation against the background of the last war, Mr Alexander showed how the U-boat was being more effectually combated, even though the difficulties were very much greater. The Nazis now have the advantage of bases in Norway and in France, to which they can return in a few hours in contrast with the long and hazardous journey U-boats had to make to their German bases during the last war. To make the task more unequal we are now denied bases in France and Ireland that we had then. In 1917 the British, French, Italian and Japanese Navies were all working together. They had a total strength of something like nine hundred destroyers. To-day the Royal Navy is doing the whole job on its own and yet our average losses now are not what they were in 1917. No wonder Mr Alexander said that the destroyers the United States had sent them had been of great value.

It is this wide scope of the Navy’s activities that makes the strain on it so great, greater, perhaps than ever it was in the days of old when it added such glorious pages to British history, and certainly greater than it was in the last war. But it has recently acquired new strength, both in big ships and small, and it goes on performing its many duties —many of them unspectacular—in the best traditions of the silent service. The First Lord of the Admiralty spoke of those traditions and he spoke of the Navy’s age when, as its political head, he assured the world, including the Nazis, that British sea power is very old but that it is still very vigorous. The Italians especially will be able to appreciate that.