NAVAL REVIEW

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 136, 10 June 1937, Page 10

NAVAL REVIEW

KING INSPECTS FLEET

SIGHT TO BE REMEMBERED

THE NIGHT DISPLAY

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, May 22.

The Coronation Naval Review at Spithead saw the concentration of shipping over an area of 24 square miles, |: and the most cosmopolitan array of | vessels to congregate off Portsmouth : since the Coronation Review of 1911. : When the King, accompanied by the • Queen and Princess Elizabeth, sailed between the nine long lines of vessels ' he saw Britain's mightiest battleships, ■ the pride of her merchantmen, and ' the most graceful of her yachts. Flags : of all the great nations, with the excep- , tion of Italy—still peevish because ] Abyssinian representatives should have been invited to the Coronation —flut- i tered in the mist and sunshine as the ] Royal yacht, the Victoria and Albert, : proceeded slowly past. German, Rus- ] sian, Japanese, and French cheers ; echoed those from British throats. It was a sight to be remembered as : the lines were approached on the tour i of inspection. A haze hung low over i the water, shrouding the huge grey : shapes, but the sun struggled through ' the woolly clouds, changed the sea from ■ dull grey to dancing green, and lit the strings of bunting on the battleships. ■ A silence enshrouded the scene, punc- i tured on two occasions only, once when i more than 100 warships thundered a : salute as the Royal Yacht slipped out i on its voyage of inspection, and again, . after the review, when four long lines of aeroplanes—loß machines of the Fleet Air Arm —roared out of the mist and over the Fleet. Naval ratings lined the deck rails and linked hands as the King was passing. With their dark : clothing and white-topped hats, picked out by the sun, they provided a living fringe to each vessel. DOWN THE LI.YES. First, the great battleships were passed, the dark grey of the Home Fleet contrasting sharply with the lighter tones of the Mediterranean Fleet. Then the gigantic and seemingly unwieldy aircraft carriers^ slipped by dim lights hiding in the huge dark spaces under the massive decks accentuating the impression that they were gloomy caverns. Next came the destroyers and submarines, the former almost small and squat in comparison with the battleships and the latter like great lolling whales—an impression belied only by the straight lines of the crews and the fluttering bunting. Vessel after vessel was passed, each appearing gradually out of the mist and then receding again, so many big bulking shadowy forms. As the Victoria and Albert swung round to proceed up another lane on its return, yachts of the Royal Yacht Squadron came into view, all gaily decorated, small fry, but colourful. Behind them, in the haze reared the four huge red funnels of the Aquitama, keeping company with the Comorin, the Orontes, the Otranto, and other familiar vessels. Soon the warships were reached again and foreign voices greeted the King, from- the Asigara (Japan), the Admiral Graf Spec (Germany), the Marat (U.S.S.R.), the Dunkerque (France), and the New York (America) on the starboard. To port of the Royal yacht were the giants of the Home Fleet, the Resolution, Ramilles, Rodney, and Nelson. So the King reached the top pi the line and completed his review of his battleships, and then watched the switt passing of the Air Arm, flying low and dipping in salute. STRExNGTH OF THE FLEET. There were at the Review nearly 150 men-of-war and auxiliaries representing every type of vessel in the Navy, and 30,000 officers and men. The Reserve Fleet was also assembled, under the command of Admiral G. C. Dickens, who flew his flag from H.M.S. Dunedin, the cruiser which returned some weeks ago from long service in the New Zealand Division. Although taken over by the British Admiralty at the beginning of May, there were still a number of New Zealand ratings on board for the review. Memories were' stirred by the sight of the Iron Duke, which lay next to the gigantic Hood, the biggest battleship afloat. Twenty-five years old this year, the Iron Duke was the only warship present which had taken part in the 1914 review, the only ship which had flown the flag of a commander-in-chief at Jutland—Jellicoe's at Jutland. Another interesting warship was France's Dunkerque, which had only just finished her trials in time to be present. A vessel of 26,500 tons, she carries eight 13-inch guns and sixteen 5.1-inch guns. The 13-inch guns are mounted in two four-gun turrets—the first quadruple heavy gun turrets to appear in any navy. The Dunkerque is France's reply to the German "pocket battleships," and astern of the Dunkerque in the Review lay an example of these powerful little German battleships, the Admiral Graf Spec. NEW ZEALAND GUESTS. , , New Zealanders to see the Review included the Prime Minister (Mr. M. J. Savage), who was the guest of the Admiralty. Mr. Savage paid a visit to the Leander on which Mr. W. Nash (Minister of Finance) and Mr. W. J. Jordan (High Commissioner) were guests. I The King wore the full-dress uniform of Admiral of the Fleet, and he stood on the yacht's upper bridge during the inspection. With him was the Queen, in a chair, and Princess Elizabeth, the latter hatless, her curls blowing in the breeze. With their Majesties were the Duke of Kent, wearing captain's* uniform, the Duchess of Kent, and other members of the Royal Party, which included the First Lord, Sir Samuel Hoare, and the First Sea Lord, Sir Ernie Chatfield. The Victoria and Albert, with her beautifully tinted bell-mouth funnels, graceful swan bow, shining black hull picked out in gold lines, her- raked masts, and dark blue boats, made a perfect setting for the distinguished company she carried. Following her in procession, nearly a mile apart, were ten other vessels, including the Rangitiki and the Strathmore, the latter carrying the Dominion Prime Ministers., THE ILLUMINATIONS. At night all ships over the 24 square miles area were illuminated, and the greatest electrical display for years was staged. Every ship of the line, stretching out nearly 12 miles, stood silhouetted in her own frame of golden light with ensign floating floodlit at the masthead. Hundreds of searchlights sprang simultaneously into life, their myriad beams lying across one another against the sky. So they remained poised for a minute, then together they began to sweep proudly —gliding, swaying fingers. The lights were swept down to the sea level, but shortly again they rose slowly to the skies, and they continued to rise and fall slowly in unison with all the precision of a trained ballet. Suddenly the hundreds of beams of light stood pointing straight to the skies, and again they dropped, At a given signal the battleships and the aircraft-carriers Courageous,

Furious, and Glorious, fired a rain of coloured shells. Cruisers and depot ships and different other sections of the Fleet sent up a shower of rockets, one section in red, another in white, and a third in blue. Last came a series of waterfalls of golden rain, playing from some of the ships, while others punctuated the blackness with parachute flares.

The Coronation Review foreshadowed rather than depicted the full naval might of the British Commonwealth, for the fleet now under construction will be little inferior in combatant power to the entire force assembled at Spithead. Even three years hence, when the first stage of the re-armament programme is completed, the strength of the Navy will have been increased by at least 50 per cent. Within a few years the King would have seen the following in their places:—Five battleships, five giant aircraft carriers, 21 cruisers, 48 destroyers, and 19 submarines, totalling 98 vessels of nearly 550.000 tons, all of which are now building or about to be laid down.