THE TEUTON AND WE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 476, 7 April 1909, Page 8

THE TEUTON AND WE.

■ WAYS IN WAR. HOW SH^;,AE.E"MANOEUVRED. [Ijr-GTito.] Like a,-threatening figure by a desolate roadside, lit for a-moment by ono's belated carriage lamp and then'swallowed up in the xigli'i)" there lias , ' just-' como to us a vision of , Serm'a'n, r'mucli'bettor equipped for mischief than'aome.suspected. It is tho purpose of .theW writer' to :handld one or two of tho 'features' which;',WouM''Snark a war botween ■ah'd' ,, Gr6rniiiliy,'keeping well clear of the region of guesswork, and not smothering the ..subject. ,witn, .meaningless military and :naval terms\i l.u-> ...Ij J,-. As these words'aro 'running off tho pen; I seem to recall ma'hy" a 'quiet German home, where I have spent' Hours talking over tho magic events of August, 1870, and I remember, with some estiremo definition, how ono old veteran of th'6 r Trussian Guard, after describing how'■eOOO'.'the'n of tho Guard fell in !l 'ten'minutes' at" 1 Grayolotte in tho little 'bloody, patch"iir'front , bf the village of St. Private first sighed, and then thumped the table,' "oxcliimilig, as , lie did so, "You English! You vos against der unification—dor ■unification of Germany." And then, after 'an.excursiontintoihia native Low Gorman, he .used to,.add;."But,.netfer meindtl Neffor moindtl,' We.willliafTder navy soon!" Well, they have it'now'Jpr nearly so. In the Krupp .shops which dot'the I 'smoke-stained Wupper Valley, Jan aThiy 'oWps' of physicists are bending down with "note-books to tako tho hourly readings of tho pyrometers, which show whether..or not tlie.'gie'at.'-.blistering plates aro hardening ■ iii : accordance with "Tresider's formula'".'or'not. - - ■(Among tb.O"'' scare "■> controversies which .have arisen.over this-discovery is a particularly : interesting; the all-big-gun ship ■ renders.' other-.types obsolete. The sub-■jecb'would'-hardlyi.havo'been worth mentioning i£ v it. wore, foot,,th"atiithe_ opponents of the monster, ship; include.:. Sir William White, ■lately director-of! British Naval Construction. .He thinks.that three Lord Nelsons would beat one" Dreadrfoughtv'* This is true. On the jothei , *_t.n'.reb^ 'Dreadnoughts would beat ■twenty] Lord' Nelsons; ; It is a curious position,' and one that'can'only be mado clear by ■diagtiims. ,; 'ln!'pa'ss'ihgY it should be mentipned'thatnlost of'the, current, literature relating v 'w nsyal_ affairs is hardly worth the paper' that. i£".'is' 'pniAed on ; so that tho Teader.i'who , 'is' approaching this subject with prtsconcoived '.and, not" very friendly ideas (generally 'drawn'•from popular magazines) must not rush"at the views to set out below as D6n',.Quisbte"swept"':down on the wind- ; ■■'";>-'.•'",>;;

A crimson sword waved over a battle - scarred [leek, a man in a cocked hat covered with medals and " honourable wounds " is childhood's conception of an admiral, but No. 1 of "Fighting Instructions," issued to British admirals, makes do mention of these . melodramatic things. It merely states: — " . . and his Dhief duty, in presence of the enemy is to select the method of ap-' proach and turn up at an appropriate bearing." The more one looks into this the,more one. sees how important it is. The ■ turrets i>n every battleship are "keyed" so that they can 3nly train over a certain arc, and no more. To train past that arc would mean •KTiocKing- crown*-'one s< own funnels, splitting up T - superstructure, and I 'friendly turrets situated; bn:'bne'k v 'own deck. And it is the simplestHhing'in the-world,to lead a line of shipsMnto'action'so that while you yourself oan>only"bririg ; a':few'guns to bear on the .target^'the' ! '■■other -fdllow" can "bear" whole .batteries'of''them.. "{For- the first twenty minutes of'the battle , of 'TsU-shima, for example, Togo. I j''hearing:',' '68 heavy guns, while ■liojdestvensky?-could!only bear eleven. This was the.deadly,manoeuvre known as "crossing, theJT."..- ,:, : -.7r For.,show ; .purposes, a. fleet may sail in scores.of I fancy ifdnnations, but, for fighting, there,is.only:ono,! ; and that one is "line ahead.'.': An. adiniralj'dn selecting the method of approach,-oriay;'steam forward to battle in plane line abreast, indented line abreast, or columns rbf' divisions/ but he knows very well that, however, he approaches, his enemy can, : by one turn of ihe wheel, compel him to resolve himself into "line ahead." So as isoon as .the. presence ,pf an enemy is suspeoted, he shows hull up over tho horizon, '.eVery, fleet straightens itsolf out into one'lbngj, snaky line. It is true that Admiral Ilojae'stvensky approached Togo in double coluijip;,;but he paid for it, and, indeed, eveiThe to shako himself out into single line, after it was too late. . . ,'■■'■" '.' ~ Having'' now,;;gpf' thjfough_ some tedious, 'thou'gli',-|jlecebsary, preliminaries, it is time to ih(j;'cl6udland of generality to the'clearvalley'dr,particularity. Our threo pr.qadnougll^^t la .yp) }?& us say, manoeuvred into a'pqsitioii^on'tho port bow of a' whole armada 6f,' : Lora7Nelson's, as shown in diagram' ir."Those' > 'fam'iliar' with the. deck plan

of ■ tie' Dreadnought will realise that each •Dreadnought.'in Me. diagram can bring six 12-inch~'.guns iinUi action on that compass bearing, or eighteen guns for tho three ships. ,0n ; tho other hand, each Lord Nelson will be "bearing"'the two 12-inch guns in her bow turret,'and one 9.2-inch gun. Sixteen Lord Nelsons- would"thorofore "bear" 48 guns to the 18.guns.-of the three Dreadnoughts. At .first sight it seems a bad position for tho 'Dreadnoughts,,.... ':' :. ~ Buy here-another matter conies in. Naval battle-ranges are, not tho cxtremo ranges of. the guns, ,but only those which enable the effect, of .the cannonade to bo obsorved and. corrected by tho "spotters" in the firecontrol'Stations.- Tho Russians at Tsu-sliimn began. at 8000. yards--quito ineffectively— but .Togo; bfsld. on .till ho was within 7000 ;yards, and only then was tho first pistolgrip in- the fore-turret of the Mikasa rei leased, la an ordinary grey day on the

North Sea, ono conceives 7500 yards as a suitable distanco for opening, but, the exact figure is immaterial, for, iu any case, a Dreadnought, having tho call in speed, can always impose tho limit rango on her adversary, whatever that rango may bo. Ivow, to that fact add this nest one, and one will perceive how invincible a Dreadnought is. In lino ahead, each ship has to keep an interval of two cables between her and her next astern as a safety margin against collision with one's own friends in the stress_of battle. Consequently, thrco ships, with their intervals, occupy a milo of room. It follows that, in our long column of Lord Nelsons, only two or three of tho leading ships are potent in tho fray. The rest aro outside the limit of effective fire. Our three Dreadnoughts in diagram 1 may therefore concentrate on the leading Lord Nelson, and reduce her to ruins. When sho drops help less out of the line, her next astern will bo shot to pieces, and so on. Could tho trapped Lord Nelsons not manoeuvre into some other position? Yes, into scores of new positions, but not into any that will save the situation. The simplest and best move would be to deploy on the leading ship and como into lino abreast as shown in diagram 2. If the three Dreadnoughts waited for that evolution to complete itself they would find themselves in tho centre of a of shot. But there would bo no need to wait. Long before the Lord Nelsons had assumed the dotted positions indicating "line abreast" (B) the funnels of the Dreadnoughts would bo belching smoke like volcanoes, and the three monsters would be racing on a heavy port helm towards the position marked D. Then the plight of the Lord Nelsons would be worse than before. The Dreadnoughts would be on their flank, at right angles to their line. In short, tho T would be crossed. Tho Dreadnoughts would bo "bearing" twenty-four heavy guns; the Lord Nelsons only four. To describe all other possible moves on tho board would exhaust a .wliolo issue of Tub Dominion, and, perhaps, enough has been said. A winning position for the Lord Nelsons is not within tho bounds of possibility, and, if it were,' tho Dreadnoughts do not need to stand to faco it. They have' tho speed to get away from it if they choose. In another article, the writer will describe the German harbours, and show the chances of blockade or bombardment. Meantime the expert view of Dreadnoughts can be summed up in ono sentence: Othsr things bolng equal, that fleet (whether English or Ccrman) will win which can concentrate the largest number of heavy guns into the shortest line of battle. ' It should be added that Sir William White does not hold this view, but nearly all the experts of England, Germany, and America do.