PLANES V. WARSHIPS

Wairarapa Daily Times, 26 September 1933, Page 3

PLANES V. WARSHIPS

VALUABLE LESSONS. FROM NAVAL MANOEUVRES. LONDON, Monday. The naval correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says valuable lessons were learnt from the North Sea “war” between a naval base defended only by aeroplanes and a combined raid by ships and aeroplanes, this being the first manoeuvres of the Navy in which the Royal Air Force has co-operated. When the attackers tried to bombard Elie, in the Firth of Forth, the Warspite was hit by six aerial torpedoes, and the Malaya by one, the Renown being the only capital ship escaping aerial torpedoes. The attacking aeroplanes dived steeply from several thousand feet and flattened out only twenty feet from the water in order to discharge their missiles. Forty-eight bombs were also dropped upon the very vulnerable exposed landing decks of the aircraft carriers Furious and Courageous.

Though the conditions were abnormally favourable for the defenders, the attack showed the deadliness of aircraft against warships. Other expert witnesses of the manoeuvres state that the defending air force is convinced that the whole of the attacking ships ought to be at the bottom of the sea, and consider the Navy’s seaplanes could not upset an attack upon the fleet. The verdict of prominent naval men is not yet announced. It is understood the naval men’s attitude will be that had the ships really come to shell the coast of Scotland they would have come at night instead of in the daytime, attacking at dawn and steaming away on a zig-zag course the instant the attack was over. The manoeuvres did not allow of these precautions to be taken.