1940-10-29 — Page 3

Tuesday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH D

October 29-1940.

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DESTROYERS

FROM

The news that fifty American destroyers

are being disposed of to Britain will come with unfeigned relief and satisfaction to those who

AMERICA FUNNY SIDE UP By Abner Dean

By TAFFRAIL

know something of the work of the British des-famous British Naval

troyers since the beginning of the war.

Ships of round about 1,200 tons and 35 knots.speed, armed with 4-inch guns, the for destroyers transferred

service under the White En- sign are no longer new.. They form part of the United States bullding programme of the last war, most of them, having been completed between 1918 and 1920.

with the

After serving United States feet, they were later relegated to the reserve and kept in full running con- dition and ready for any emer- gency. Their age does not

British matter. Many

rles- troyera of similar date have done yeoman service as con- voy escorts and in many other -directions during the last few

months.

The names of not a few of these older craft have cropped up in connection with the operations in Norway, and Holland, and during the now historic withdrawal of the British and Allied troops from Boulogne and Dunkirk.

Between 1014 and 1918 there was hardly a purpose for which des- troyers were not, employed at one time or another. They were used as anti-submarine screens with th heavy-slips-of-the-fleet whenever they went to sen, for beating off hoolile destroyer attacks with then Funs, for attacking the

German

fleet with their torpedoes, as well us for making protective smoke- screens. They escorted minelayers and aircraft-carriers, und towed kite balloons.

Provided with listening devices, rams and depth charges, they formed hunting flotillas for harry- ing the U-boats. They were usert for coastal patrols, and for con- voying transports and merchant- men for out at sea in every sort of weather.

In the Dardanelles they landed and embarked troops, while in the same campaign, in the Suez Canal and on the Flanders coast, they bombarded troops and gun posi- tlons ashore. They were utilzed for minelaying and for minesweep-, ing, as well as for raiding harbours in the islands of the Aegean,

It has been much the same in this war, except that their work has been more varied still, and much more onerous, with the nd vent of aircraft and such things as magnetic mines.

Their work at Boulogne and Dunkirk is known all over the world; but who at the beginning of this war, would have thought of ocean-going destroyers chasing the through a two-hundred

Germans

yard

milice

Kup

་

in Norwegian flord ten well beyond the Arelle Circle, and varying in width be tween three-quarters and a quarter ter-of-a-mile. Yet this they did at The second battle of Narvik сп April 13, to see their stricken ad- versaries hard up against tho lee nt the very end of the narrow water- way,

✩

When this war started the British Empire possessed 185 destroyers of all ages, count- ing those in the Royal Austra- lian and Canadian Navics. Some thirty-eight others were under construction or project- ed, of which the greater num- ber must now be completed or nearing completion..

It can be assured, too, that the buliding programme in ships of the destroyer typo has been greatly enhanced since the outbreak war, as they are needed for so. many different. purposes.

of

Their losses, thirty at the time of writing, have not been light.

In

inoru

It is unwise to estimate the num ber of British destroyers now

required service; but with those with the fleets In Home waters, the Eastern and Western Mediterran- can, the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, besides others working with convoys of merchantmen, in sub- marine hunting and a variety of other purposes, it cannot be sald. that Britain his ove; -suffetent, for her manifold needs.

the

In the last war, when, during the unrestricted submarine

campaign

of 1917, Britain had more than 400 vessels of the

50

writer

That this amount of steaming hus been possible is a tribute to the designers and builders, but still the personnel of all branches who have maintained the efficiency of their ships under the most difcult conditions, especially in view of the dilution of comple- ments which has of necessity taken place."

And what of the future?

✩

Britain has been spoken of as a fortress, as indeed she is, armed at every point and her armaments constantly increas

Germany holds 2,000 miles of the coast from Nor-

way, through Denmark, Hoi- land, Belgium and France to the Spanish frontier.

ing. destroyer class in operation, they were spoken of by the naval historian, Sir Julian Cor- bett, as being "run off their legs." He went on to say that no praise could be too high for the men who endured the strain, or for those who built the no-less-sorely-tried hulls und engines.

CO-

Six American destroyers sailed from the United States to operate on April 24, 1917, and by July 5, there were thirty-four American destroyers working from Queenstown,

some meeting the trom American re-inforcements France far out at sea, others the ordinary convoys of merchantmen coming to the British Isles.

Some 400 American vessels-of- war and 81,000 officers and men of the United States Navy saw ser- vice in Euopean waters before the armistice in November, 1918, Or the ships eighty-five were destroy- ers, most of them modern; but six, old and under 500 tons displace- ment, made the long journey of 12.000 miles from the Philippines to Gibraltar.

*

-

The value of the services of. the Americans can hardly be exaggerated. Before their arrival, in an area of about 26,000 square miles in the western upproaches to, the English Channel, through which flowed an enormous volume of trade, there were -sometimes as few as four available British destroyers for patrol work. Never were there more than fifteen./

The American building program- ne, embarked upon Immediately ofter her rupture with Germany, was almost without precedent. It included 275 destroyers, 147 sub- marine chasers, 09 submarines. 112 "Engle boats" intended for constal patrol work, and 54 minesweepers, not all of which were completed by November, 1010,

The speed with which some of the destroyers were built constitut- ed a world's record. The pre-war time for completion was between twenty months and two years, but 1917 one,

the "Ward," was launch- nd 17 days after her iceel had been laid, and commissioned In. seventy days. The "Red" was commissioned in 45% working days from the time she was Inld down.

As already indicated, the British destroyers have been hard driven since the beginning of this war. One of them steamed 52,248 miles In the first nine months; another, 5,849 miles from September 3 to December 31, 1930, during which she was at sea for 101 days out of 110.

One escort destroyer which I was on board for more than a week had done a thirteen-day trip atson, followed by thirty-six hours in harbour for refuelling, storing and provisioning, and then another eleven days at sea. As a goneral rule, worse the weather or the fog- gler, the longer the sea trips.

the

In an order to the fleet in March the Admiralty appreciated, the large expenditure of effort which caro and maintenance of machinery and equipment through- out the winter months has involved in circumstances of continuous watchkeeping..

The Royal Navy is buslly en- gaged in home waters, on both basins of the Mediterranean, in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in any and every sea throughout the world where German or Italian activity may be manifest by sur- face ships, U-boats and aircraft. Never, since the beginning of its history has the British

Empire in been engaged so gigantic a struggle against the forces of evil and for the benefit of all

mankind.

However, it is idle to talk of Britain, the heart and nerve centre of the Empire, being in any sense a beleaguered fortress. In spite of the merchant ship losses, new cons- truċlion. captures, and tennage acquired through the Gerinan de cupation of Norway, Denmark, Holland, Eelgium and France, the mercantile tonnage working in the

SAN KLINK PRISON

140 by thihad Perimi tradhe

"Hello again, Wardon.

Allied cause is greater than at the beginning of the war.

Moreover, and what is more im- portant still, neither German nor Italian merchantmen are at sen on the broad oceans, while the British merchant fleet continues lis task. of supplying the country with the essentials without which it cannot exist. This all comes about through of the overwhelming strength British Sea Power.

Driteln-may-bo-hard pressed; but, is successfully holding her own.

VETERANS OF

From RICHARD CAPELL

The green and plea- sant counties compris- ed in the area of the Southern Command

looked

never beautiful.

more

But this time the reason for a tour of these pastoral valleys, these headlands and beaches, was not the charm of the country, but the defences, military and naval.

Compared with Eastern England, the South was al- ways a kind of Cinderella as An in- regards its defences. vasion of Eastern England was in '14-18. a. possibility always taken into account, but the South was naturally considered to be practically anfe.

When last June the whole face of things changed, there had been no land defences constructed in the South since the days of Napoleon III's Empire. Now, Palmerston's mid-Victorian forts may, after all, come in useful.

To see the South after the East and the North is to be. struck once again with the variety of landscapo and sea- scape contained within our little England,

The South presents pro- bloms to the Army Com- mander remarkably différent

from those of other areas, but it also puts trump cards in his hand.

In a tour of many hundred miles it was agreeable to think, as we made our steep and winding way through Southern England one day, of the plight in which hostile tanks would surely find them- selves between those high hedges, where the narrow and twisting road presents no view.

men

In exalted positions in the Southern Command one meets who won or enhanced their reputations this year in France, and they are concern- ed with the lessons not of '14-'18 but of 1940.

The core of the Southern Army consists of troops who have fought in France and Norway, and in the eyes of veterans. the rest they are "The now soldiers hang on their words"-this was an ex- pression I heard at one head- quarters.

..we got homesick!"

Neither German U-boat nor air- craft have prevented British war- ships from operating, or her mer- chantmen from sailing the seas.

Nevertheless, the acquisition of fifty most useful destroyers from the United States is a most hear- tening and timely addition to our naval strength, and a token of the sympathy and unity of feeling that animates the peoples of the two a troubled great Democracies of world

1940

bile. It is an army on wheels. Fitty, 60 and 70 miles a day are covered in marching exercises

The parrying of an invasion is the absorbing thought, as well it may be with the enemy in occupa- tion of Normandy and Brittany.

Invasion may come any night: that is a thought all are taught to bear in mind. And the watchword is: "If the invaders can't be shot' in their boats they must not bo allowed above high-water mark.

HOME GUARD'S

VALUE

Again, as in the North so in the South, appreciation of the Home Guard was heard in the highest quarters.

The G.O.C.-in-C., Lt.-Gen. Au- chinleck, says that since June he has been compelled to change his mind about the Home Guard. He began by being a little sceptical about their usefulness, but is glad now to allow that they may play a vital part.

The men are getting more useful every day, and the more they are the asked to extend their scope

Το

it put better they like it. roughly: The task of the Home Guard is to hold pill-boxes and road-blocks, leaving to the Army proper the job of counter-attacking and throwing the enemy back into

THREE SERVICES MEET the sea.

There is a new collaboration be- tween the Navy, the Army and the Air Force in the defensive work in the South. "Wo meet," a general said to me, "at high-water mark on the beaches."

Close co-operation within the Army is a result of this year's cam- The career of paign In France, the British professional soldier is typically a business of guarding out- posts of Empire with small forces. But now in the organisation of the defence of England all arms. are closely associated In exercises and preparation:

The Southern, like the Eastern and Northern armies, is very mo-

A morning was spent will the gunners who look out to sea from the neighbourhood of one of the southern ports. They will, one feels, be disappointed if the oppor tunity never comes for them to fing their missiles at an Invading' armada.

A day or two with the Royal Navy is a heartening experience, Circumstances have brought into the Royal Navy, or into association with it,'ahipa and men more na- tionalities than it has over embraced In all the centuries. The admirsi who commonds at one centre_has half a League of Nations under him. He speaks in the highest terms of the Poles,

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