TASK OF THE NAVY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25560, 13 June 1944, Page 5

TASK OF THE NAVY

MAINTENANCE OF SUPPLIES VAST CONCENTRATION OF SHIPS (Rec. 8 p.m.) RUGBY, June 11. Emphasising that upon the maintenance of sea supplies depended the whole success of the Allies in France, a naval commander, in an interview, said that ever since the operation began a concentration of Allied shipping five miles in width has been off the Normandy shores. The unloading was going on extraordinarily well. It had been expected that 16,000 tons of shells would have to be used by the Allied warships during the initial sea bombardment, but the number actually used was much smaller. Up to Saturday 57 Allied warships had been reammunitioned. The naval bombardment was still going on, being mainly directed against enemy coastal batteries, which are occasionally opening up. Describing the part played by the battleships Warspite and Ramilhes in the early bombardment, the officer said the ships were firing at a more or less leisurely rate at a coastal battery when another enemy shore battery joined in. "At that, Ramillies lost her temper. She fired 50 shells at the battery at a tremendous rate. After that nothing more was heard from it.” The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr A. V. Alexander, in a speech, said that the navy’s job had only begun. It must carry men across the Channel until the enemy was beaten. “That is the blank cheque on the United Nations’ sea-power,” he said.