His Majesty’s Ships

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 16 May 1941, Page 2

His Majesty’s Ships

GROWING NUMBERS Correspondents making inquiries regarding the wartime expansion of tlie Royal Navy, will be reassured by a recent statement by Sir Victor Warrender. Financial Secretary to the Admiralty. He said that bv the end of March, Great Britain would have completed 480 warships, large and small, in 12 months. This was more than five limes as many as in any year since the British naval rearmament programme began. Our Navy, he said, was getting the utmost out of every ton of new construction and tending older vessels with such skill and care that they were performing feats of endurance not contemplated by their designers. line of i the older destroyers, for example, spent | under way at sea 274 days of the first | year of the war and steamed more than j 02,000 miles. This was a fine performance, considering the complicated and j delicate mechanism crowded into a destroyer. A Mighty Fleet Speaking on the Navy Estimates on March 5, the First Lord of the Admiralty said that from German official communiques only, it would appear that the Royal Navy had lost about twice the number of capital ships, air-craft-carriers and cruisers with which it started the war and more than all the submarines. lie would repeat what Mr. Churchill said last year, that “we are prepared to take the German navy on with the ships alone they profess to have sunk.” Actually, said the First Lord, the number of ships in most classes in the Royal Navy, and specially destroyers, now at sea or instantly ready for sea, was now greater than at any time since the war began. The ships that would be commissioned for active service during the present year of themselves made up a formidable force judged by the standard of almost any other naval Power. The Navy's long-term programmes of construction wore maturing and there was a great output of short-term building. Notable Additions The new battleships King George V and Prince of Wales, which are wellknown to have been in commission for some months, have doubtless been, or are just, about, to bo. joined by the three other ships of this class, the I Duke of York. Jellicoe, and Bcattv. | It cannot be doubted, too, that the j 40,000-iou battloships Lion and TonieI mire are well advanced toward the j launching stage, and that two others of this class, whose names have not been divulged, are making rapid progress on the building slips. The new aircraft-carriers Illustrious and Formidable have beeu operating with the Ark Royal in the Medi- | terranean for several months. Four I other aircraft-carriers. Victorious, Ini domitable, Implacable and Indefatigable. bad been under construction for some time when the war started. In view of the increasingly important part iliat is being played by the Fleet Air Arm. it can be taken for granted that the building of these ships will us pushed rapidly to completion. Twelve new cruisers are known to have been completed for the Royal Navy during 1940: five of them of the Fiji class of 8000 tons, each mounting twelve 6-1 neh guns, and seven of the Dido Class, of 5450 tons, mounting ten 5.23-inch guns. The Bondventuve, one of the latter class, was torpedoed ami sunk last month. It is very probable that the other four "Fijis” and more of the Dido class have gone into service this year. All of these cruisers belonged to prewar programmes. The need for more and more modern, fast cruisers, to replace obsolescent vessels and to meet the insatiable demands of a bitter sea I warfare, has doubtless dictated an extensive programme of war-time coni struction. The Navy was desperately l short of fast, powerful cruisers owing j io the long years of restriction of new tonnage during the 'twenties and I ‘thirties. New Destroyers | The most strenuous efforts have been ievoted to the maximum output of doj -trovers, escort vessels, patrol ships and auxiliaries of many kinds, particularly j during the last 12 months. The collapse j >f France deprived ihe Royal Navy of j he co-operation of the large numbers if modern destroyers and other craft j in the French Navy, while the entry •if Italy into the war 'immensely in- ! teased Britain's responsibilities in the i Mediterranean and elsewhere, j The imperative need of more and I ever more destroyers and small craft ! forced every available shipyard, not j only in Great Britain, but in Canadar and Australia, to work at full pressure on the construction and accelerated output of such vessels. How many new destroyers have gone into service during the last 12 months is known only to the Admiralty, but the number is considerable. It is permissible to state that one group of 20 new destroyers lias been completed. These vessels were only laid down in the summer of 3989 and were completed ! within 18 months, a remarkable i>erj formanc-e by the shipbuilders to whom the contracts were allotted in peacetime. Three of these ships have been mentioned officially as having destroyed enemy aircraft; they are the Exmoor, Holderness and Southdown. All 20 ships are named alter famous hunts in England. These ships were classed in the Navy Estimates or 3939 as “escort vessels,” but they proved to be small destroyers of 900 tons displacement. This is about one-half the size of such destroyers as the Tribal class, but nl*out the same as the majority of destroyers built during the last war. Submarine Warfare Submarines are also on the war-time secret list. Losses have been fairly severe, but it is known that a number of new submarines have been built during tlie war. among them being the Unique, Urge, and Utmost, whose names were mentioned in recent Admiralty communiques. The relentless nature of the Battle of the Atlantic is evident from the periodic statements of merchant ship tonnage sunk by the enemy. Of the ceaseless counter-offensive carried on by the growing flotillas of the Royal Navy, backed by the long-range aircraft of the It.A.F Coastal Command, little is heard, but that it is becoming increasingly effective cannot be doubted. The recent appointment of Admiral Sir Percy Noble as Cominnnder-in-Chief Western Approaches indicates the great Importance of the anti-submarine warfare that is being waged in the Atlantic. As has been said, this appointment virtually makes Admiral Noble the British Commander-In-Chief in the Battle of the Atlantic. Until now the area known as the Western Approaches has been oart of the Plymouth Command: but it lias been found necessary, as in the ast war, to separate the fighting command from tlie administrative work of n naval base. Admiral Noble is charged with the conduct of the Atlantic cam naign against the enemy.— (S.D.W.) HOW DO THEY CATCH THEM? There are so very many ways of catching a cold but only one best way to >• med.v it. Take Baxters Lung Preserver. New Zealand's favourite remedy nil coughs colds and sore throats Children love the rich flavour of Baxters and diluted with water as directed, it is safe for tiny tots Get a large family size bottle of Baxters" today.