ALLIED COHESION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20096, 16 November 1939, Page 6

ALLIED COHESION

ANGLO-FRENCH NAVIES DECISIVE WAR FACTOR : | CHECK TO U-BOATS NAZI SURFACE CRAFT (Kloe. Tel. ('oi\vri;:lit — ITnitrd Press Assn.) ! (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 1.30 p.m. RUGBY, Nov. 15. Many competent naval authorities! believe that the close co-operation of the French and British navies is likely ; to prove one of the decisive factors in 1 the war. Anglo-French naval co-! operation was planned before the outbreak of the war. The exchange of visits by French j and British warships to each other's ports this summer was an example. | Close touch has been maintained between the two administrations. The result was that when the war was forced upon the Western democracies j 'by Herr Hitler, plans for close naval, co-operation between the Allied navies j were ready to be put into immediate! execution. There was a firm basis of understanding between the personnels, and when tlie war broke out the French Navy at once took over the control of certain patrol zones, where it is constantly at sea hunting German submarines, protecting sea-borne Allied commerce, and sweeping the German trade off the seas.

Expansion of Fleets

Both fleets were being expanded meanwhile upon a war footing. Numbers of vessels with normally peaceful careers were taken over and fitted out as reinforcements for the fleet. Notable among these were a number of large and exceptionally seaworthy trawlers, which are now playing an important part with the patrolling forces. With the expansion, the French navy increased its co-operation. The French patrol zones were widened and they now have been largely merged into the British zones, so that French and British patrols are working in a closely dove-tailed scheme. Some convoys are operated entirely by the French navy. Others are under its protection during part of the voyage. Others again have escorts provided by both the French and British fleets.

The French navy is also playing a notable part in circumscribing the activities of German surface raiders. That the two German pocket battleships which are at large have clone so little damage to the seaborne trade of the Allies must be ascribed to their reluctance to risk being brought to action by the Allied naval units. The co-operation between the two navies is constantly under review. It is likely that the French navy's contribution to the Allied war effort at sea may increase, not in order to reduce the burden on the British navy, but to assume even more effective Allied command of the seas and reply to the German war upon merchant vessels.