FLEET MANOEUVRES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20107, 14 May 1935, Page 6

FLEET MANOEUVRES

THE PART OF THE AIR ARM (From Our Own Corresvondent) LONDON, March 13. Information at present available about the combined fleet manoeuvres in the Atlantic is somewhat scanty. There is little doubt, however, that the presence of 116 aircraft with the Red j and Blue fleets to a large extent determined the progress of events and provided fresh evidence of the importance and value of the Fleet Air Arm. Late in the “war” one of the aircraft carriers engaged was assumed to be sunk, but in the earlier stages her aeroplanes had done much useful reconnaissance ( work and were adjudged to have seriously damaged several enemy warships. Essentially, the manoeuvres consisted in an attack by the Blueland fleet upon the merchant shipping off Redland, a country dependent on its seaborne trade, and Redland’s defence and counter-action. Redland’s fleet had a slight superiority in battleships and large cruisers and a big superiority in aircraft; the Blue fleet had a heavy superiority in light, fast surface craft such as small cruisers and destroyers. In the first two days the Blue fleet was adjudged to have captured 140,000 tons of merchant shipping, but Red action on subsequent days slowed down the captures and took heavy toll on the raiders. The cost to the Blue fleet in lost and damaged vessels more than offset the amount of damage done to Redland by capture of her merchant vessels, and at the end of a strenuous week of mimic warfare, the Red commander was in a position to cover his own trade, and counter-attack the enemy’s.

Apart from reconnaissance duties, the aeroplanes took part in several attacks with bomb and torpedo on the ships. The aircraft-carrier “Furious” was part of a fleet that surprised a Blue cruiser shortly after dawn one day, and “sank” her and a flotilla leader. The same morning, aircraft from the “Courageous” attacked the flagship of the Blue destroyers and inflicting heavy damage. In the evening Blue destroyers attacked the “Courageous” but were adjudged to have lost three of their number and the damage inflicted on the carrier was not considered enough to keep her aeroplanes cut of the sky. In another morning attack aeroplanes from the “Furious” located the battleship “Queen Elizabeth,” twice attacked her with bombs and torpedoes and inflicted such damage that her steaming speed was seriously reduced and she became an easy prey for the Red battle fleet. Apparently, the aeroplanes launched this attack on the big ship when they were nearly a hundred miles from their carrier. Signals received from the command-ers-in-chief of the fleets state that the work of the Fleet Air Arm, submarines and destroyers, whose tension has been unrelaxed for many days, deserves special mention. No single case of breakdown or failure has been reported.