HITLER’S SPEEDBOATS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21184, 6 August 1940, Page 2

HITLER’S SPEEDBOATS

NOT A NEW TYPE BRITISH CRAFT SUPERIOR We have read a lot about German motor torpedo boats, which have been darting about the coasts of Belgium and Northern France. Two or three of them have been sunk, but we have yet to hear of any success on their part. Any suggestion that the Germans have produced a new type of naval craft is quite wrong, says Sir Herbert Russell, noted naval authority, in the London Daily Herald. During the lighting in Holland British tornedo boats penetrated into the Zuider Zee, and with their light guns did useful work. With a swarm of British warcraft strung out between Boulogne and Zeebrugge, all fitted with the deadly submarine detector devices, the U-boats are keeping clear of those waters. Possibly the German High Naval Command hopes that these high-speed torpedo boats may have more luck than their submarines have met with. Their one asset is speed. They are virtually hydroplanes. Possession Known Down to the time when Germany ceased giving any information on her naval building programme, it was known that she possessed seventeen of these boats, all of the “S” class, ranging between 46 tons and 70 tons, with a credited speed of 35 knots and armed with one heavy machine gun, one pompom and two torpedo tubes. The Royal Navy possesses motor torpedo boats which have exceeded 50 knots on “all out” trials, so we may conclude that the latest German boats in this category will not be inferior to our own in motor Dower. What is the war value of such craft? They are manifestly designed purely for torpedo attack. Flashing through the water in a smother of spray they might count upon getting a torpedo home against a big adversary and escaping from her gunfire by violent manoeuvring. No naval man would try to set a limit to the possibilities of such extraordinary speed. The British Admiralty experimented with the type for a considerable time before adopting it as a definite naval unit. For the past four years the Ist Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla has been attached to the Mediterranean Fleet and, in the language of commerce, has given “complete satisfaction.” The little vessels have proved themselves excellent seaboats. They have a very respectable cruising radius at economic speed, although their fuel consumption is high when “all out.” They can be run by a very small complement. Destroyer Outgrown Function The fact is that the destroyer has entirely outgrown her original functjpn. She has developed from a torpedo craft into a small,* very mobile, light cruiser. Our destroyers of the Tribal class carry just twice as many 4.7in. guns as they do torpedo tubes. They carry fewer torpedo tubes than any cruiser in service on the outbbreak of the present war. The gun, in short, is their primary weapon, and their chief work is convoy escort,, submarine hunting, and the sorts of jobs they did so splendidly at Narvik and in rounding up the Altmark, and are now doing at the Channel ports. The motor torpedo boat offered a simple and practicable means of reverting to the original conception of which the destroyer was born. Because of her extraordinary speed the motor torpedo boat might co-oper-ate with the seaplane; she would certainly form a very elusive target for any bomber.

To the German naval mind, consistent through the years in plotting to destroy the maritime trade of Britain, the type appeals as possessing qualifications for piracy of the popular Nazi sort. But the failure of the U-boat campaign has resulted in a steady deterioration of German naval policy. Motor torpedo boats dafehed about in the Kattegat when Nazi troops were being transported to Norway, but our destroyers reported that their speed exhibitions were all devoted to keeping out of their way. Use in Last War The Germans used motor torpedo boats during the Great War. They built a little batch of these craft, electrically controlled from the shore, and capable of travelling some ten miles. These were set loose against the British monitors patrolling the Belgian coast and causing extreme inconvenience to the right flank of the German Army with their ponderous guns. The monotony of blockade was much relieved by watching the antics of these craft.