NAVAL AUNT SALLIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 258, 1 November 1939, Page 3

NAVAL AUNT SALLIES

ROBOT TARGET SHIPS UNCANNY AIRCRAFT (Vincent Brome in Sydney Morning Herald.) The Old Centurion navigj.es herself. She is a British battleship of 25,000 tons, which was holed so badly by the British Navy that she had to be laid up in Portland Harbour. Yes. they trained one of Britain's biggest guns upon her. And they left a gaping hole beneath her waterline. Once upon a time the Centurion was a battleship of the Grand Fleet. Now she has become the Navy's Aunt Sally. When they want a little target practice they always turn to the old Centurion. Stripped of the fittings which once earned her proud place in Britain's front-line defences, she has been given a new set of gear, different from anything the Navy has ever known, gear which permits her skipper to control her actions when she is a mile away. They macle a big fuss of the Centurion in the Navy to-day. She is not just a target ship. They have come to like thos broken derelict which takes such a hiding and Comes Baek For More Whenever the big guns of the Navy got tired of potting artificial targets, they manoeuvre Ihe Centurion into position and the skipper gives the order, “Abandon ship!" The Centurion has a permanent escort, the destroyer, Shikari. She takes off the captain and crew of more than two hundred. Then, without a man aboard, the Centurion moves silently away, a ghost, ship set fast upon a certain course. She cruises at 15 or 16 knots while those groat wicked-looking muzzles belch smoke and shells at her. Actually, the shells are filled with salt, instead of explosive. Otherwise they might easily send her to the bottom very quickly. None the Icos, they do a pretty piece of damage. Holes twelve feet square in the hull of. the Centurion are quite commonplace. It was one such hole beneath the water-line that, took her into Portland Harbour for repairs. But ki:<’ can certainly take it. Bombing practice for the British Royal Air Force is a rather different proposition. They use special target boats complete with crews. The normal target boat has an eight-foot beam and is forty feet long, with special rubber-mounted armour-plat-ing, varying in thickness from a quarter to half an inch. Certain parts of the boat are carefully packed with a material called on \ te. which will keep it afloat in almost any circumstances. The craft has a speed of 23 knots and each carries a crew ol three. Their work is Decidedly Exhilarating and not at all pleasant. During actual bombing operations they work in a steel strongroom, hurtling through the waler at 24 miles an hour. There is very little daylight, and always there is the possibility 01. a bomb crashing down upon the deck above them, fit any moment. The mon are forced to wear topees and respirators. Space is restricted and the 300 h.p. engines produce a deafening roar. The main field lor operations centres upon Cn. hurch Bay off the south coast, and they usually have a safety tender nearby. Decks are painted yellow lo make them more conspicuous and the coxswain has careful instructions for every possible emergency. Whenever the Planes Score a Direct Hit he slops the boat, fires a smoke candle and then begins to make hi." wax' towards the safety tender. Maybe the bomb penetrates an unarmoured spot. In those circumstance." he plugs the leak and asks the tend*, to take him in tow. Not so very long ago, when a bomb struck the deck directly above a man’s head, he was liable lo get concussion. So they stipulated that every member of the crew must wear a topee. Chemical fumes from practice bomb also had deadly possibilities. Hence the respirators. There is something faintly devilhl about these target craft, which might almost be termed the tanks of the sea Certainly, conditions inside them when the bombers are swooping down arc very similar to the tank lumbering to attack. The boat pitches like the tank. There is the same sense ol steel-walled construction and the crew works in metal bowels. The Queen Bees of the Royal Ai) Force are Jar more graceful. '.’.e\ fly at a hundred miles an hour without wireless operator or pilot. They are controlled by radio from Ih< ground and provide the best. Aunl Sally for the anti-aircraft gunners. These robot planes are small ant slow, and take some little while t< ■ reach a reasonable ceiling xvhich xvill I test the powers of anti-aircraft, guns i Every type of gun has tried its lucl-; i against them. Recently, the antii aircraft gunners of the British Home Fleet, kept one under fire lor three hours without registering a direct hit. The Queen Bee was fifteen thousanc feet up, following her course with ; grand Disregard for the, V\ hite. Shell-bursts everywhere around. They look un canny, these planes. Floating serenely along, thousands of yards from any human hand. The men of the British Regulai 12th A.A. Battery, did register < direct hit in June of this year. brought down a Queen Bee flying seven thousand feet over the Bristo Channel. Shortly after they hacatapulted her from the shore, they hit her near the tail and she divec into the sea. Mechanical Aunt Sallies cost th; British Government thousands ever,’ year, but they are the best means ol producing that accuracy which makean armed force really effective.