CONVOY TASK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24700, 1 September 1941, Page 9

CONVOY TASK

AUSTRALIAN NAVY VOYAGE ON A CRUISER Among the many and varied tasks of ships of the Royal Navy (states the Sydney Morning Herald) is that of convoving merchant shipping to and from these shores. Not only the safeguarding of troop transports is involved, but also the sale carriage of the valuable import and export cargoes which are essential to the war effort overseas and Australian war production. The convoy work is placing a heavy burden on the Australian Navy. The ships engaged on escort work are constantly at sea, and the comparatively slow speed at which the convoys travel makes the work monotonous for the crews. But there has been no loss of efficiency. On the contrary, the constant war exercises which are carried out on warships while they are doing this work have brought their efficiency to a high pitch. A staff correspondent of the Herald was in a cruiser which recently escorted a convoy of British cargo ships from an Australian port. This cruiser had performed distinguished service in the Mediterranean Sea. It had taken part in successful actions against the Italian Fleet and it had been subjected again and again to the hazards of dive-bomb-ing. Nothing would have given the officers and men of the cruiser greater pleasure than to come to grips with a raider. But this convoy reached its destination without any unusual incident taking place. Constant Watch

, On the cruiser and the cai'go ships a constant watch was kept day and night for other ships. Everything was ready on the cruiser for action at any moment. Had a raider been sighted it would have been only a matter of seconds before every man on the cruiser would have been at his " action station " and the guns ready to open fire.

Several times the call to "action stations" was sounded to keep the officers and ratings on their toes. The big guns were fired at imaginary targets and the anti-aircraft and machineguns went into action against imaginary aircraft attack. For the night lookout, men whose eyesight it had been found by experience was better for seeing in the dark were selected. Ships Blacked-out The cruiser and the cargo ships were, of course, blacked out. Generally nothing could be seen. But occasionally the black hull of one of the ships in the convoy could be made out as it sailed closer. There was no communication between the ships at night. Wireless was forbidden, and flash lamps were only to be used in case of emergency. Every morning, some time before the dawn began to break, everybody stood to at action stations. Guns, torpedo tubes, and all fighting and repair equipment were manned because there was always the chance that a raider which could not be seen in the darkness, might show up at close quarters as the light became stronger. The dawn " stand to" was always a tense half-hour on the cruiser. Each dawn, however, always revealed the ships of the convoy steaming steadily along in their allotted positions. Had any ship become separated from the convoy its master would have known from pre-arranged plans a point of assembly for the ships during the morning.

At intervals the aircraft carried by the cruiser was catapulted away to make a reconnaissance of the sea ahead. Thus, by day and by night, from be-