ALLIED NAVIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24226, 19 February 1940, Page 7

ALLIED NAVIES

CLOSE CO-OPERATION SUCCESS OF CONVOYS (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, Feb. 16. Details of the manner in which the French and British naval forces are co-operating have now become known. In addition to escorting large numbers of French colonial troops to France and French soldiers overseas, French torpedo boats, with escort vessels and planes, protected the transports taking the B.E.F. to France. Naval protection of the convoy of transports which brought the second Canadian Contingent to Britain was entrusted to a French admiral, while a French cruiser cooperated in the escort of the Australian and New Zealand troops who landed recently in Egypt. Apart from the convoys of merchant ships organised under the British Admiralty, and including ships of various nationalities, convoys have been organised by the French Admiralty and escorted exclusively by French naval units. The French navy has also co-operated with the British Navy in escorting convoys. Of 100 vessels escorted solely by French naval units only four have been sunk by enemy action. THE FRENCH NAVY NOT ONE VESSEL LOST (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, Feb. 17. (Received Feb. 18, at 7 p.m.) In connection with Franco-British naval co-operation the fact that since the beginning of the war the French navy has suffered not a single loss of a ship from enemy action is recognised in London naval circles as a remarkable achievement in view of the considerable size of the French navy and the übiquity of its units. The French navy consists of five capital ships, of which the Dunkerque and Strasbourg are the most modem and fastest capital ships in the world; seven 10,000-ton cruisers armed with 8-inch guns, 12 cruisers between 6000 and 8000 tons with 6-inch guns, 32 smaller vessels which are regarded by .rtaval experts here as small cruisers, ,38 destroyers, 37 escort vessels, 27 submarines, one aircraft and one seaplane carrier, and an important fleet of auxiliary vessels.