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THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 13, 1940.
Eastern clothes and Western arms Legion, almost entirely made up of Bedouin deserts of Transjordania and fight with the
Men of the Arab Arabs, patrol the British.
PLEASURE SHIP KEEPS WATCH IN CHANNEL
THOUGH GREY war paint now covers her peace-time white and gold, it cannot disguise the lines of an excursion steamer familiar to tens of thousands of holiday-makers, writes a correspon- dent.
She is H.M.S. Anonymous now, and she shares with many other craft a ceaseless day and night patrol around the coasts of Britain. Pom-pom guns and a searchlight complete her transformation from pleasure steamer to man-o'-war.
Her task is to watch for any gives a new position, with a shade signs of enemy movement and to of disappointment in his voice. report the passage of air raiders "Stand easy," the captain calls in in their way, coastwards,
almost conversational tones, to the gun crew below. The plane has passed out of range.
I spent one night on board the
Anonymous anchored out of sight
of land-farthest outpost off this part of the coast,
If
Suddenly the midnight silence
is torn by the ringing of electric bells throughout the ship. Ac- tion stations! Sleeping men spring to their feet, seize life jackets and helmets and -within
for the companion, way, agile shadows scamper along the dark decks.
Thanks largely to our, vessel and her nameless sister ships con- voys pass safely almost every day.
any aircraft comes range our guns and searchlight are ready. Until then the ship is silent in a black-out. so complete that no man may even smoke a cigarette on deck,
Unseen Watchers
race
In a few seconds without an order being given every man has reached his station. Every gun is manned and ready, The raider has at last come within range. Bear- Our role is to watch unseen.ings are called and a blinding This night there is a stir of anti-beam leaps from our searchlight. cipation on board, Over the One of the pom-poms opens; a ship's radio a report has been re- rattle of fire. Our target has been ceived from RAF reconnaissance identified as a bomber making aircraft that there is activity" off seaward, returning probably from the enemy coast: --Gorman Vessels a raid on London. Strained sec¬. are on the move,
onds pass as the gun shudders and in less than a minute the chance the searchlight prods the sky. But of securing a hit has gone. Jerry is lucky this time.
Perhaps they are only "prow fers! Porhaps they are trans ports hugging their own coast But there is a possibility" that ! they are honded this way: 'The thought gives an added keen- nesa. to the watch. But though
Night Raiders
So the night passes. Targets are
no surface craft is sighted the heard and they fly onward out of wwhole night through, we had range.
not long to wait for activity in the guns on shore, cach report But all are reported to
diminishing the raiders' chances
the air.
the
From the distant, shore come continual flashes of anti-aircraft gunfire showing that "targets" which pada too high for us are being tackled elsewhere. Those who man this outpost of
"Target" shouts the look-out of reaching his objective unhin- man, and a couple of secondsdered.. Jater the officer of the watch calls out the raider's position to captain, At intervals the officer reports its bearings and distance. The plane is crossing our bows from port to starboard, too distant But coming nearer. As a certain | Britain's. defences come from bearing and. height are called the many walks of life. All the captain' gives an order for one of officers are reservists or volunteer the starboard guns to be ready to reservists. One of them, a former fire. Two steel-helmeted figures merchant service
officer, step quietly forward from the stage-managing a West End play shadows below the bridge. The when war broke out. Another, a bomber is almost within range. young man, who had spent all his Atense thirty seconds pass. spare time sailing, was accounting Then the officer of the watch to a hotel in Portsmouth."
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DESTROYERS' "DAY OFF
At. sea, says: the Ńavy, this 4s the destroyers' war. Any saflor |will "remind you that we began this war with only a quarter of the number of destroyers that we had in 1914. That is the import- arce of the fifty' from the United States, and that is why destroyers are, perhaps the busiest of British warships. When they can bc spared from patrol and escort dutics they must turn out for war- like exercises that change their tactical character as the, war - goss
011.
A correspondent spent a day at sca recently with a flotilla of des- troyers that packed into eight hours tactical exercises that might in peace-time have been spread over as many weeks. These ships practised shooting of many types, a description of which, of course, I am not allowed to give.
Smoke-Screens
of in
The lotilla then practised the laying of a smoke-screen and the co-ordination of its searchlights. Practical work at sea in this war has demonstrated the value smoke-screans. Operations Norwegian waters, and especially lite Altmark foray, have shown the advantage that powerful searchlights, skilfully used, can give to an attacking naval force,
These operations he had watch- ed from the high bridge or from the transmission-room of the flotilla leader. For the last exer- cise, a torpedo attack at speed, he went down to the extreme stern
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