BRITAIN’S NAVY

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3549, 4 May 1939, Page 7

BRITAIN’S NAVY

A VERY BUSY YEAR

RECORD LAUNCHING

With the acute tension prevalent everywhere, concerning possibilities of an outbreak of war, involving the principal nations, it is interesting to read ail article written for the Londoni Daily Telegraph by that journal's naval correspondent, Hector C. Bywater, in which he deals witty the broad aspects of naval power in Empire defence, with*ispecial reference to Australia’s position, which, of course, applies similarly to New Zealand. Mr Bywater recently gave figures of Britain’s prospective launchings, as under: In. 1939 Britain will launch 4(5 new warships; tonnage, 355,70(5. Such a figure has never before been approached in time of peace by any country, and is little, if at all, below the aggregate tonnage launched in Britain in any single year of the Great War. The first important vessels to go afloat will be the battleship King George V., which lI.M. the King launched on the Tyneside on Feb. 21. A sister ship, Prince of Wales, will take the water at Birkenhead in March, and during the summer and autumn three more vessels of the same class —Anson, Jellicoe and Beatty —will be launched at Clydebank, Wallsend-on-Tync and Govan respectively. These five units, the largest and most strongly armoured battleships ever built in Britain, will reinforce the gun-power of the Fleet by 50 14in. guns of a new and most powerful type. With a designed speed of 30 knots, they will be among the world’s fastest battleships.

The three aircraft carriers to be launched are the Illustrious, Victorious and Formidable, each of 23,000 tons. They are the largest carriers so far built for the Royal Navy. The first is building at Bar-row-in-Furness, the second on the Tyne and the third at Belfast. The five large cruisers to be put afloat are the Fiji, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria and Trinidad, representing a niew type of 8000 tons and 33 knots speed, armed with 12 Oin. guns.

The seven smaller cruisers in the 1939 programme are Dido, Euryalus, Naiad, Phoebe, Sirius, Bonaventure and Hermione. They, too, form an entirely new class, 5450 tons, with a speed of 33 knots. The armament is unique, consisting as it does of 10 5.2 in. guns, a new model credited with a rate of fire of 14 rounds a minute.

Of the 11 destroyers eight are of the Laforey class, understood to be of a very large and powerful type. All the new submarines are big ocean-going craft, and most of the five sloops are escort vessels heavily armed with anti-aircraft guns. Even when the 54 ships eroumerated are in the water, many others will remain on the stocks. These will include two 40,000-ton battleships, four heavy and three light cruisers, and numerous smaller craft, without counting the battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines to be provided for in the 1939 Navy Estimates.