ANTI-AIRCRAFT SHIPS

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 144, 10 February 1939, Page 4

ANTI-AIRCRAFT SHIPS

BRITISH NAVAL PLANS 40 VESSELS REARMED LONDON, Jan. 9.—Anti-aircraft ships for the British Navy are planned by the Admiralty, according to Mr. H. C. Bywater, the naval correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. He states that at least 40 vessels have been specially rearmed, and equipped to engage hostile aircraft, and that submarines will soon be available for the defence of convoys, into which the greater part of the British merchant navy would be organised, in wartime. “The figure,” lie continues, “does not include eight ships specially built for the same purpose. It, is partly to expedite the. completion o! the programmes that the ltosyth Dockyard is being reopened on a limited scale.

“The contingency of submarine and air attack possibly combined on merchant convoys in war-time has to he reckoned with hy the hi aval authorities, though, in the opinion, of many ■jurists, such aiF"attack would be a gross violation of international Jaw. The anti-aircraft vessel is considered to be the host counter, to the lowaltitude bomber, which the experience of the Spanish civil war nas proved to he a. most serious danger to merchant vessels.”