IN THE AIR AND UNDER THE SEA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13908, 8 November 1919, Page 6

IN THE AIR AND UNDER THE SEA.

(Bv H. C. Ferraby.) It is always interesting to spend a week or two afloat with the officers of the Xavv. It- takes ones mind rapidly from the theoretical to the practical. The past few days that I have spent in the First Battle Squadron have been more than usually interesting, because it hasbeen "possible \io discuss with the men who .are responsible for the Xavy oi' to-morrow the )nany debatable things which Lord Fisher has thrown overboard anions his verbal depth charges. 1 I should not be exaggerating it I said that the bulk of service opinion considered Lord Fisher to be indulging in the exaggerations inseparable from advancing years. At the same time, there is a school in the service, and it is largely a school of younger men, who see truth in such phrases as ''Air fighting dominates future war both by land and sea,'' and "By sea the only way to avoid the air is under the water." Those who subscribe to these sentiments are largely specialists either in submarines or in aviation, and their opinions are naturally tinged by. their professional training, but I am inclined. nevertheless, to give them publicity, because it is of the utmost importance that the views of these young men, who have done great things under active service condij tions, should be heard now equally with the voices of the senior men who have grown up in an older tradition. I do not say that youth has the monopoly of wisdom in these [ matters, but there is no reason that I it should have the monopoly of si- | lence.

Discussion centres largely at the moment around torpedo attack. In the first place, the post-war torpedo is a far more formidable weapon than that which was used at Jutland, and the employment of it is regarded different) v, particularly as regards bigship actions. There is no longer that tendency to regard each torpedo as a separate projectile : each is considered solely as a. unit in a whole Held of locomotive mines.

That is a big change in itself, and must have a striking influence on tactics, an influence of which .Tellicoe> showed us a foretaste at Jutland when he was fighting under practically unknown conditions. The line of thought which he followed there will largely be the line of thought that admirals in the near future will follow when confronted with a, similar problem, because the concensus of service opinion is that it was the only sane course to follow.

Much more dramatic, however, is the employment of torpedoes by aircraft, We had a taste of that in the First Battle Squadron at Portland just before the "joy-ride" began. Aeroplanes carrying torpedoes made an attack on the Atlantic Fleet, preceded by other flying machines carrying smoke bombs, and succeeded in landing quite a high percentage of their torpedoes in the hulls of the. battleships. I am betraying no secret if J say that that .attack has given rise to considerable discussion. and also not a jitUe - misgiving. An aeroplane vith a ilyig r-jr.ire of some 500 miles, capable of ci.viying two 21-inch torpedoes and discharging them at a battlesnip frem a height of about twenty feet from the water behind a smoke cloud laid

by other aeroplanes is a factor in future warfare that we cannot afu-rd to overlook. Whether the an< : dote is to be found solely in the submer-, sible ship, as Lord Fisher says, or in the "blistered" ship with practically explosion proof hull, which is the present belief of the service, we can onlv determine in the course cf time. We have, it is true, shown in the M class that a submarine can be built to cany heavy guns. We have shown, too, that submarines driven by steam can attain the speed of

battleships. We liave produced submarines whose- speed of submersion iind facility of submersion a<>ivoiith the ideal for Fleet work. Nevertheless, we have not yet approached the submersible with the hittins p:.\ver of the battleship as we k::ow \i today.

The circumstances of to-day rr< such that the Flee 1 " is almost en-

t'irelv of opinion that, all mcw (on ' strnction should be temporarily suspended. It is felt that- t.'.-e x\dniiraltv Committee <m 'nlw Cot - stvuction should be civen a ehai.ce to no into the problems.