In The Mediterranean

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 29 July 1941, Page 2

In The Mediterranean

DEFEAT OF E-BOATS The sea affair held a prominent place In the weekend news, chiefly in connexion with naval operations in the Mediterranean. Following an unsin cessful attempt hy submarines, E boats and aircraft to prevent, the passage through the Sicilian Channel of what is described hy the Admiralty as an important convoy the enemy early on Saturday morning carried out with E-boats an attack on the naval harbour of Yaletta in Malta, which was repulsed with heavy loss. Apart from those destroyed hy the harbour batteries which prevented the entry of any, the remainder of tin* enemy flotilla was either sunk or badly damaged hy pursuing R.A.F. lighters whieh also shot down three aircraft for the loss of one machine whose pilot was saved. It appears that at least 17 of the enemy’s torpedo craft were sunk during the o]>eration. Naval Strong Point Contrary to a widely-held Deliei that it is a "deserted * village” in a naval sense, Malta has been throughout the war. and particularly since 1 Italy’s entry, an important strong j point in the centra! Mediterranean. Sit- : uated about 1000 miles from GihralI tar and rather more than 800 miles from Alexandria, the respect! %’e war bases of the naval forces commanded by Vice-Admiral sir Janies Somerville and Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Malta, in fact, is the only British territory within easy distance of the clinn- ■ nel or “alleyway” between Sicily and Ca f*e Bon on the African coa«t and j consequently the only possible base ! for naval and air forces charged with the protection of sea traffic through ] that channel. That Malta possesses exceedingly strong defences is certain. Valetta is only about 60 miles from the southeast point of Sicily arid has been sub- ; jeered to hundreds of air attacks and I alarms during the last 13 months. The severity <>f the enemy’s losses testifies to the ellieieney of the Hand’s anti-aircraft defences. The complete failure of the K-boat attack, the first he has in,ado by sea, doubtless will in- ! crease the enemy's respect for the , strength of Malta’s harbour defences. It tnust not be imagined that ships, naval and mercantile, have not made considerable use of Valetta harbour during the last year. It will he recalled that 11>»* aircraft-carrier Illustrious. damaged in the attack on a i convoy carrying important material 1 assistance to Greece in January, put into Malta for repairs and afterward proceeded to Alexandria. The place has not fallen into disuse as the principal British naval dockyard in the Mediterranean because of its close proximity to enemy territory, it i« | constantly used by ships carrying troops, supplies of all kinds and airj crafi for the maintenance of the dei fending forces. The enemy’s un- | successful E-boat attack on Saturday ! doubtless had as its objective numer- [ oils ships in Valetta harbour. E-Boats’ Exploits The term E-boat has come to he used to describe any or all of the ; small high-speed motor torpedo craft j used hy the belligerents; it was first iof all the designation of the German vessels of this type. In the Royal Navy they are generally known as motor torpedo-boats. The Italians call : them, “motobarebe anti-sonimergibili'* i anti-submarine motor-boats > —M.A.S. for short. In an article in Brassey's Naval Annual (.1928) Rear-Admiral Sansonetti wrote of the M.A.S. as "those high-speed motor-lntats which during the last war played such a brili liant part in many naval episodes in tlie Adriatic, to which the Italian Navy ! has remained faithful aud which arc ; copied today by many other navies.” As a matter of fact the Royal Navy i developed the motor torpedo-boat in its | own efficient way during the war of 1914-18 to a much greater extent than the Italians. The Navy J.i>t. of January, 1919, showed motor-launches iii commission numbered consecutively up i to M.L.580. It. is true that one Italian naval officer, Lieutenant Luigi Rizzo, "made history” by bis daring exploit with a motor torpedo-boat in the Adriatic. He it was who on December 9, 1917, penetrated into Trieste harbour in a picketboat and torpedoed the old Austrian battleship Wien. By the merest accident on June 10, 1918. Rizzo and another Italian officer, cruising off the northern islands of the Dalmatian archipelago, sighted in tlie grey of the dawn a squadron of Austrian battleships. Dashing in in the uncertain light Rizzo dropped two torI>edoes which hit and stink the 20,000ton battleship Svont Istvaii < Bt. Stephen i. Ilis companion twice missed the Tegotthof by a narrow margin. Both officers escaped. A large number of British motor torpedo-boats took part in the memorable operations against Zeebrugge and Ostend in April, 1918. Some were employed to lay smoke-screens anil others to take off the crews of the blockships. Several were lost in the operations, but all greatly distinguished themselves. A Daring Operation Probably tlie most daring and successful operation ever carried out by these small craft was the attack on the Russian warships in the hands of the revolutionaries in Kronstadt in August, 1919. It was here that Lieutenant (now Captain) A. W. S. Agar, V.C., D. 5.0., gained his Victoria Cross for his exploit of torpedoing and sinking the Russian cruiser Oleg. Following this brilliant success a larger operation was planned and successfully On August IS, 1919, a the ilia of eight motor-boats commanded hy Commander C. C. Dobson, D. 5.0., worked their way past the innumerable forts and guns protecting the approaches to Kronstadt and through the intricate channel with its maze of sandbanks, shoals, moles and buoys to the inner harbour. It was a remarkable feat . and produced remarkable results. While one boat commanded by Lieutenant E. E. S. Napier torpedoed and sank the patrol cruiser. Lieutenant W. Bremtier dealt similarly with a submarine depot ship. Napier also torpedoed a large destroyer acting as guard ship in the harbour. Lieutenant Brade put two torpedoes into the battleship Perosvanni. Lieutenant MoBean also hit this ship as well as the dreadnought battleship Petropavlovsk. Despite the distraction caused by the seaplanes, the forts opened n devastating tire on the motor-boats, several of which were destroyed. Nevertheless, the attack succeeded completely and the Russian fleet was completely immobilized. Tn the words of Admiral Cowan. Bri- i tisli commander-in-chief in the Baltic, i the great results achieved hy this at- j tack were gained "not only by daunt- j loss bravery at the moment of ihe at- 1 tack, but by strict attention to and re- ; henrsnl of every detail beforehand by j every member of the personnel, both in j rhe Boats and the aircraft."—(S.D.W.) 1