SEEN FROM THE INSIDE

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1930, Page 7 (Supplement)

SEEN FROM THE INSIDE

'‘WARFARE” WITH THE NAVY \ AIRCRAFT AND TORPEDOES. NEW ZEALANDER’S IMPRESSION. / The following article includes ex- ' tracts from a letter written by Mrs. T. C. List, New Plymouth, from London under date June 26, Mr. List id one of the 33 Press delegation that left in April to attend the Imperial Precis Conference held in England during June. Most of the delegates from all parts of. the Empire were accompanied by their wivee. After a wonderful three weeks touring in Canada the Press party proceeded to England to attend the Imperial Press Conference, at the conclusion of which they were the guests of the British Press magnates and were shown practically everything of interest to overseas visitors. ” ‘'l should like to describe to you one or two of the many interesting and wonderful things which we have been seeing and doing—l think you might be interested in hearing something of our programme to-day, though I am afraid 1 can only give you a very poor idea of it. We'left London at 9 a.m. by special train for Portsmouth, where we have been the guests of the Admiralty all day. On arrival at Portsmouth we were met by a fleet of motor buses and taken to the main dock, where officers took us . in small parties and showed us many interesting things, including a view of the Iron Duke, which unfortunately wc did not have time to go aboard,-and then we were shown over 11.M.5. Furious which is the latest and most up-to-date “aircraft carrier” in the fleet. AIRCRAFT CARRIER FURIOUS. “The Furious can accommodate 73 aircraft (fighters) and despatch them all within twenty minutes if necessary. She carries a crew, including airmen, of 1500 when in full battle array. She was a battle cruiser during the war, and has been since converted —mainly as an experiment—to her present use by taking out all interior fittings, and now appears somewhat like a huge iron box. with large iron floors, on two of which the aircraft are housed with folded wings. One floor is used as a workshop, ■where repairs and replacements can be done to any plane which is not too badly smashed during an action. If necessary planes can be despatched from the deck below the top landing deck, but'in the general way they are brought up to the top deck by huge lifts and “take off” from there, which is also the landing place. Two planes’ may. land there, but so small is the margin of Apace that they have to be perfectly landed, otherwise one or both may be smashed. It is considered that a great deal of nerve is required to do this, ,'es; pe'cially. at night with only three red lights, one at cither side and one at the front of the deck, to direct them. No wonder only ‘yornng dare-devils’ are taken into the Air Force! . “From this most modern craft we went directly on to the old Victory lying in dry dock (by the way, I procured a piece of oak which the officers told us was a genuine piece of the original Victory as a small memento). Quite a lot of the timber sold act part of the old ship is not genuine, but the officers assured u« that this is the real thing. Of course there is not a great deal of the original old “wooden walls” left,: as so much repairing' has been necessary. In Nelson's own 'cabin we saw his dining table, wine cooler, buffet, etc., which have only recently been replaced there. After the death.o.f Nelson his steward sold these articles, whirl) have been in a family at Oporto until just now, when, they have been . ‘offered for sale to the highest bidder.'. . TO SCRAP. IRON DUKE. “One would think that the Govern-, went would buy them for the nation, but. there seems to-be no soul for that kind of thing. Do you know that the Government has decided to make scrap iron of the Iron Duke —a ship that is, or will be, just as famous as the Victory? One wonders that the English people ‘stand for it,’ but I suppose that there are .so many pressing troubles that they cannot bother about things of that sort. Poor old England certainly is going through much tribulation in a commercial sense at present, but it does seem wrong to let the things which the coming generations would—or ought to —prize so much, be destroyed. “Another by the way —I was at Lady Jeliicoe’s to lunch yesterday and saw,fin the hall the flag which was flown on'the Iron Duke during Jutland. Also tlie steering wheel of the Hindenburg, which was recovered when that battleship was raised from the' bottom of Scapa Flow and taken to be broken up after being five years under water. “But I have not half got through today’s proceedings. ’After still another . “champagne' luncheon” given us by the Lord .Mayor >we were taken on board five destroyers, which proceeded to sea in battle order where. was staged - a ‘torpedo attack’ upon..a' mine sweeper about three miles distant. Of course the torpedo’eA. were fired ‘short-' so that they did not actually hit, and were also ‘muzzled,’ so that in case of a hitting the charge was not discharged by the ' impact. We saw the torpedo leave the -■ tube, from which it is expelled with great speed into the water, which’ ’’] spouts up like a geycer - where the i torpedo strikes it. The torpedo tubers 1 work on pivots, which enable them to < be swung round in order to discharge < the torjiedo in the direction of the 1 enemy craft. The torpedo is fitted with i a timing device, which is worked out 1 to accord with the distance it has to I travel, and when that time is up it < eomea to the surface with disastrous $ effect upon anything it hits —otherwise i ft just floats and can be picked up as < these to-rday were. t

“After this ‘stunt’ submarines appeared. and presently we saw them submerging in order to ‘attack’ us as we steamed by the spot where they were in hiding under the water. A torpedo was fired at each of the destroyers, registering a ‘hit’ in each engine room — in theory only of course. We could watch the torpedo tearing towards us by a track of oil, which was made as it absolutely shot with lightning speed straight at us, passing under the destroyer and continuing on its Way until its time limit was up, when it came to the surface. Of course in real war there would be no tell-tale track of oil, and the first thing a ship would • know was that she had been struck by a ‘bolt from the blue.’ It was a queer feeling to watch the deadly directness of this thing coming at one, apparently from nowhere. After having ‘settled’ the five destroyers, the submarine rose to the surface with astonishing alacrity. “Having been well and truly ‘torpedoed,’ the air force appeared to ‘attack’ us also, and I think of all the ‘thrills’ that day this was the most spectacular and exciting. The planes taking part were the latest type of fighters, equipped with a gun which was fired through the propeller—a most ‘ticklish’ job, as the aim has to be so accurately timed in order not to fire into instead of between the propellor blades as they whirl around. The iplanes’ first effort is to put the anti-aircraft guns but of action, and they swoop down at great speed quite close to the ship, and then shoot up to a height, from which they swoop down again until the anti-aircraft gun's are silenced, or vice versa. The nerve required for this kind of thing must be marvellous. Needless to say, real guns were not fired at us, or I should not be writing this letter at present. “Another wonderful display was the ‘show’ the Army put on for our press party at Aidershot, when they demonstrated all the modern fighting appliances to us. It is very wonderful —and terrible. What strides have been made since the war, especially in the tanks. We were also ‘under fire’ that day too, being attacked by a convoy of tanks, which were controlled by an officer right alongside us using wireless to give 'his orders. ‘‘On Saturday we go to see the Aerial Pageant at Hendon, when we will -have seen the three services, Army, .Navy and Air Force, at work—-all of which makes one shudder at the thought of what another war would be like Jt is just wonderful how much has been done to show us things here from the inside. Both the Aidershot display and to-day’s proceedings were specially ‘staged’ for t-hb benefit of the Press delegates. As a rule no one is allowed within miles, except the men actually in the service. The. authorities were, very strict- about our bona tides and our tickets were officially scrutinised — no cameras .'allowed, etc. We also had another great day at Ascot 'and at the ‘Aidershot Tattoo,’ a ‘truly wonderful pageant, all done at night and illuminated. by searchlights. It has been very strenuous, with something on all the. time and very little time to.rest, but it has been worth the effort in every way. “We all shook hands with the King and Queen a few days ago, so I don’t think there is really very much more left for us to do in ‘high society,’ so we must just come back' to earth as best we 'can. It will be hard to. do our own work again, such as looking after j luggage, catching our own trains,' etc. Since we have travelled on free “passes in all the London trains, buses and trams,. but they of course expire .when the conference is over.” . . ‘