APPLE-PIE ORDER

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 92, 15 October 1940, Page 10

APPLE-PIE ORDER

AMERICAN DESTROYERS

BRITISH NAVY PLEASED

WELCOME ADDITION

(British Official wireless.)

(Received October 15, 2 p.m.)

RUGBY, October 14.

A naval officer who saw a batch of American destroyers delivered to the British Navy at an eastern Canadian port and travelled back to England in one of them described it as an unforgettable experience.

Remarking that the co-operational helpfulness of our American friends was wonderful, he said: "The ships were sailed to Canada by their American crews. The American guns, torpedoes, depth-charges, anti-submarine equipment, engines, and boilers differ slightly from ours so a day was spent with the American officers and men explaining details to their British opposite numbers.

"The destroyers, which had been refitted throughout, were scrupulously clean and in apple-pie order. Full outfits of ammunition and other warlike equipment were left on board, together with stores of all kinds. Everything was left, rope, paint, mess traps, silver, china, linen, towels, sheets, blankets, and pillows. Instruments were also provided—sextant, chronometer, watch, high-powered binoculars for the use of officers and look-outs, parallel rulers for navigational purposes, typewriter, paper, envelopes, patent pencil sharpeners, pencils—everything and anything one can imagine, even to an electric coffee machine in the wardroom and a refrigerator and ice-water faucet on the deck."

The naval officer added: "Admittedly, as destroyers go, they are old ships, but between 40 and 50 British destroyers of equal age have done yeoman service since the war started. Destroyers have borne a heavy burden since the outbreak of hostilities. Their losses, 32 to date, have not been slight. Coming as it does at a critical time, this reinforcement from America of 50 fast and well-armed vessels will be a most welcome accession to our already hard-worked flotillas, for which we are duly grateful."