NAVY'S BIG SHIPS GO OFF DUTY

Chronicle (Levin), 20 November 1946, Page 9

NAVY'S BIG SHIPS GO OFF DUTY

THREE LEFT ON FULL SERYICE Received Tuesday, 7 p.m. LONDON, Nov. .15. Of tlie 15 eapital ships the Royal Xavy had in commission when the war ended, only three are now in full service and oue of these, Vanguard, which »is to be used for the Royal visit to youth Africa, will not be available for fleet duty for some tiine to come. The other two eapital ships in full commission are King George V, the flagship of the Home Fleet, aud Duke ot' York. The only other two really modern battleships, Anson and Howe, are at present being used as training ships. They are being used for this purpose because the present manpower situation makes it impossible to man them fullv. Rodney, Queen Elizabeth and Renown are all on vvhat technically is kirown as the care and juaintenance basis — that is to say they are laid up with only maintenaiu-e parties on board. Nelson, sister ship of Rodney, is also being used as a training vessel. Queen Elizabeth had all its guns renioved aiul is to be scrapped. Three niore eapital ships, Valiant, Ramillies and Revenge. are all being used as training ships for stokers, Malaya and Resolution are being used for training at the Portsmouth Torpedo School, and Warspite is to be scrapped. Royal Sov vreign has been transferred to the Russian Xavy. The Rovai Sovereign and Queen Elizabeth elass of battleships, however, are all 30 years old and their sc.rappiiig or relega tion to training is inevitable. Their disappearance leaves the Navy with the live battleships completed during the war, two sister ships of Vanguard, Lion and Temeraire, which are in the linal stages of completion, and Nelsou and Rodney dating from 1927. The Xavy's manpower ditiiculties are not considered so serious as they appear. The intake of new recruits is reported sutisfactory and there is a large reserve of experieiiced officers and petty officers to traiu them. Even so the Navy's strength has been reduced from S45,UU9 at the end of the war to 200,00(1 but by way of comparison there was a period between the wars when it fell as low as S6,000.