ON EQUAL TERMS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 123, 27 May 1942, Page 7

ON EQUAL TERMS

CAN MEET ENEMY Admiral Cunningham Has Every Confidence United Press Association.—Copyright. Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, May 26. "The time has come when we have forces to meet the enemy in the Mediterranean on terms of equality," said Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham. "I have every confidence that if we have learned the lessons of 1940-41-42 we will rapidly and surely overwhelm him. Until now we have lacked the very essentials for victory. If, in the circumstances of the past, men could achieve so much, what will they not be able to do when, at length, they have the means? "We must learn the lesson that sufficient trained air forces are an indispensable part of sea power. The navy can never have complete mastery of its own element unless it controls absolutely all tactical instruments requisite for action at sea. The passage of the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen through the Channel suggests that, however good the liaison between the Coastal Command and the navy may be, there is room for improvement. If the Services could integrate the problem would be solved. , "We have already lost a formidable fleet in Far Eastern waters, chiefly due to dive-bombers and torpedocarriers. British ships appear to succumb more readily to this form of attack than enemy vessels. The question arises whether enemy ships are better armoured than ours or whetiier critisTi Torpedoes are less powerful. There is urgent need to provide the Fleet Air Arm with better torpedo-carrying machines. "Dive-bombers are excellent and most dangerous weapons, but they have not much range. There are other methods of destroying a fleet" Adrfiiral Cunningham said he did not believe the French Fleet at Toulon would fall into German hands.