THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, March 25. 1940. SUCCESS OF THE CONVOY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24255, 25 March 1940, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, March 25. 1940. SUCCESS OF THE CONVOY

Although the effectiveness of the conVoy system was proved in the Great War of 1914-18, and indeed was a very considerable factor in bringing the struggle to a close, its efficiency is being even more clearly demonstrated in the present war. The most recent report by the Admiralty shows that of 12,816 ships under British naval convoy to March 13, only 28 were lost. The figures admit of a comparison with those of the Great War. Between the simmer of 1917, when the system was first put into effective operation,•' and the end of hostilities, the British Navy convoyed some 16,657 vessels. The total losses, including 16 sunk by marine peril—not, that is, by enemy action —and 32 sunk when not in contact with the convoys, amounted to 154 vessels.. The loss in both cases is thus much less than 1 per cent., and that experienced in the conflict in which the Allies are now engaged is appreciably below that of 1917-18. Yet it could not >be . suggested that the . potential danger to shipping presented by the enemy is; less. In fact, except for the possibility that in 1917 Germany had more submarines in commission than at the present time —a question that allows of no answer—the menace to-day is much greater. Aircraft, in the Great War, weje of severely limited use in war at sea, and their main role was as scouts. They are now employed for direct attack upon unarmed merchant and fishing vessels, and even more sinisterly for the releasing of the floating mine, a weapon which has been illegal since The Hague Convention of 1907. The British reply to the Use of aircraft for these outlaw purposes has been a system of close co-ordination of marine and aircraft on patrol and in the actual; work of convoying vessels. Its success has, been amply demonstrated. In its more spectacular aspect the operations, of the Fleet’s Air Arm in convoy work are evidenced in the report of an engagement only a few days ago, in which three British machines engaged and drove off a formation of ten enemy bombers. The convoy system can never be, in the modern phrase, “one hundred per cent, efficient.” Surface shipping, particularly of the comparatively slow merchant type, is always subject to the hazard presented by mines and undersea craft. For long-distance oceanic convoys, as has been pointed out by Admiral Richmond in a recent “ Oxford Pamphlet,” Great Britain is not generously provided with ships of war large enough and fast enough to- deal with enemy raiders of the heavy-armoured cruiser type. But the fate of the Graf Spee off Montevideo, in which such a vessel was forced to seek shelter, badly damaged, after contact with lighter British ships, indicates that this menace is at least measurable. And the.similar German craft of this type have, however great may be their theoretical threat to convoys, been conspicuous by their absence along the world-wide routes upon which British shipping is pursuing its business bn a normal and comparatively safe basis.