1941-09-26 — Page 8

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THE CHINA MAIL, SEPTEMBER 26, 1941

TORPEDOING SHIPS FROM THE AIR

WE ARE ALL OF US getting accustomed now to reading about ships, both merchant ships and warships, being torpedoed by aircraft. Now let us be quite clear about one fact. The torpedo which is used in these attacks is an ordinary naval torpedo, and is not any fearsome contrivance such as most people imagine when they hear mention of ‘aerial torpedoes.'

FRENCH TO FIGHT

US IN LIBYA, SAYS REPORT

An unconfirmed Turkish report says that at least two divi- sions of French colonial troops are on their way to Libya to reinforce the Germans, who are said to be the suffering from effects of desert war- fare. Associated Press.

100

મ

to dive to get into position. The airborne torpedo is certainly menace to the big ship, but so is every other offensive, weapon."

Frankly, there is no such thing as an aerial torpedo. This is just a fancy term invented by an imaginative person as long ago as the last war when Zeppelins were dropping heavy bombs, both so much bigger and more destructive than the things we were then accustomed to call bombs that it seemed necessary to give them a special description. The torpedo has to travel through the water to reach its target. It is not dropped from the air direct on to a ship, writes H. C. Ferraby in "London Calling."

There was a delightful phrase The marks the big difference inį

used by one

of our Admirals technique between the airman whol

hit on the in a ship even

describing a bomb is bouncing a lowdive attack and the torpedo- battleship Rodney. He said quite

casually: 'It just bounced of." The bomber has come copper.

Where the Air Arm has done down very low indeed if he is 150 ft. above the ship. But that damage to big ships at sea, it has of the airborne is much too high for the torpedo- been by means dropper: he must come down to torpedo. The first notable success was the hitting something less than 50 ft. above of this method

the French battle-cruiser We Destroy One Axis the water before he releases the of

Air Arm torpedo. Why is this? Because the Strasbourg by a Fleet

Ship A Day torpedo when it hits the water machine us she was escaping from Oran to Toulon Then followed naturally gets a nasty shaking.

Torpedoes and bombs alike have Remember what happens to a the dramatic night attack on the

us frequently in clumsy human diver who goes into Italian Fleet in Taranto harbour, been used by the sea

or the

swimming bath though it was recognised at the the last few months in the course from even ten or fifteen feet. He time that in that case the airmen of our attacks isn't fit for much swimming and had stationary targets. Since then controlled shipping that is en- may even be put out of action we have had the Battle of Cape deavouring to keep the more dis- which the Italian tant sections of the German forces altogether. Inside the torpedo Matapan in

Veneto was supplied with fuel, ammunition, there is a lot of very delicate battleship, Vittorio

the air in the and stores. This German attempt machinery a pyrocompass to torpedoed from steer it, fast-running engines to course, of three attacks, was hit at blockade running is on a vastly than once, and was greater scale than anything that drive the propellers, and quite a more

More occurred in the last war and the

Six Misjudged Their Height

very

of tons

-

Remember it was the 'gun which annihilated the Hood. It was the gun that crippled the Graf Spee. We must keep sense of proportion in estimat- of any form of ing the effect offensive power.

а

on the German-

Important Aspect in The Struggle

lot of other rather secret gadgets. compelled to slow up. A severe shock will throw them recently we have had the similar consequence is that the amount of German battleship tonnage working for the enemy out of gear just as the human case of the works of a clumsy diver are Bismarck whose fate might have which we have sunk is far greater different had the than was the case between 1914 thrown out of gear, but in the been case of the torpedo there is no aircraft from the Victorious not and 1918.

You may have.noticed a state- natural power, no life as it were, succeeded in getting in a torpedo which can

gradually adjust the hit on the evening of May 24, and ment recently that in the course of three months air attack alone damage and start the mechanism so reducing her speed. working again.

This seems to be the great tac-aguinst this shipping had destroyed-

of one ship a day. tical value of the airborne torpedo an average

certainly not --this capacity for slowing up an The Germans are enemy ship which is endeavour-running large convoys. We ofton ing to avoid action. It is not ex-read of an attack on one merchant pected by any naval man that one ship profected by two or even annihilate a bigthice escorts, so that the destruc- So the torpedo-dropper has to torpedo "will come down as low as he possibly modern capital ship. but a hole in tion of one a day must represent or a fairly high proportion of the We on can to lessen the shock. I have the hull, the flooding of two been present at a good many tor- three compartments with anything shipping actually at sea. pedo-dropping exercises in the up to 600

water, must the other hand have a daily course of the past twenty years. affect her speed and thus give the movement in all the oceans of advantage of the something like 2.000 ships, and the 1 have seen a line of battleships pursuers the attacked by eight machines. The extra knots necessary to overhaul Prime Minister indicated not long ago that between three, and four pilots of six of them misjudged her and bring her to action.

are. within the their height. Their torpedoes hit Torpedo-dropping against mer-hundred of them the water with a terrific thud and chant ships is in quite a different danger zone every day. when the

splash had subsided category. Here one successful hit there were the torpedoes up-ended may be sufficient to upset the to such an bobbing about helplessly like so stability of the ship

that she

capsizes or. many dead dolphins. The other extent two torpedoes which had gone founders.

Now here is a rather interesting into the water moré gently ran The reason is that the "mer- towards the line of battleships and

chant ship cannot be so comfigure which I have compiled from one hit the after-end of the ship. pletely subdivided into water-the various official reports on mer It was in a very vulnerable spot. tight compartments as is the chant ship losses by both sides. In the past three months tonnage I need hardly add that the tor- fighting ship.

lost by the Axis Powers is very pedo was fitted with a dummy.

nearly 1,000,000 tons. The ton- head in which there was no ex-

nage lost by the Allied Powers. plosive, otherwise I doubt if I

On the other hand the merchant in the same period is about should be here to-day.

ship is by no means so resistant 1,350,000 tons. Since the Axis The Navy became at one time to bombs as the battleship, and Powers had at their disposal when very doubtful about the value of since a torpedo costs well, let us the war began only about a quar- torpedo-dropping. There were so use the pre-war figure and sayter of the mercantile tonnage many, failures of the kind I have £6,000 torpedo-dropping against owned-by- the Allies the relative mentioned that a number of anything but the most valuable loss of carrying power for Ger- senior and influential officers merchant ships such as tankers is many and Italy is much heavier would have been glad to see the not encouraged. Bombs will pro than is ours. That is an aspect whole idea abandoned. But a bably do the work quite as effect of the struggle for sea power that is quite as important, though it small school of enthusiasts plugged tively. away at the problems (and there We must, however, keep a sense may not appear to be so dramatic, were a good many other things of proportion in discussing air as the destruction of a battleship besides the actual dropping which attack against ships. There are or the cunihilation of a cruiser had to be re-solved) and in this many attacks which fail. Your squadron, war torpedo-dropping aircraft both may recall that during the hunt of the Fleet Air Arm, and of the for the Bismarck one wave of tor Coastal Command have had some peda planes launched from the startling successes.

Ark Royal was unable to find the target owing to low visibility. And it must not be supposed for a moment that a ship at sea is a sitting target. Avoiding-action,

The Bomb That Bounced Off

·

£5,000 A Time

50 YEARS TIFF LOVE AGAIN

A ROMANCE STARTED FIFTY

As we have come to call it, can. YEARS AGO AND WRECKED BY There is an important difference always be taken and is always A LOVERS TIFF, HAS JUST tactically between the bomb and falten as soon as the direction ENDED IN THE MARRIAGE OF the airborne torpedo. You will from which the attack will de- EDWARD SMITHSON, 76, notice in studying any accounts velop can be foreseen. WIDOWER, AND MISS MARION of the war at sea that whereas And there is always the war- HOLMES, 73, POTE bombs have been able to damage ship's anti-aircraft armament to Their old quarrel" was made the smaller ships such as destroy bear in mind. The torpedo-drop-up recently. They were murried ers and light cruisers, and even to ping plane must come down at the Methodist Church, Knott damage them so severely that they almost to water level and within End, Lancashire, si cannot get back to harbour, the half a mile of the target in carry Edward Smithson was a shon bigger ships (the battleships and ing out an attack, It doesn't re-assistant when they quarrelled battle-cruisers) have been quire very much imagination to Marion, in the words of a rom more or less unharmed by bomb picture the inferno of explosive lative; "never bothered about ing:

shell; through which the pilot has another young man."