ABOUT THE RUSSIAN FLEET.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 185, 23 June 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

ABOUT THE RUSSIAN FLEET.

A DIFFERENT FIGHTING PROPOSITION FROM THE NAVY OF TWELVE YEARS AGO. WONDERFUL INFLUENCE OF THE WAR. (By a Special Correspondent of the London "Tinies")

Little has been written about the Russian Fleet and its contribution to the tremendous task of defending the country against a ruth'ess and indefatigable foe, yet that contribution is, and has been," a far from negligible one. It may he asserted that the safety of the Russian capital it-elf in no small degree depends upon the ability of the fleet to prevent a landing of the enemy on the shores of the Gulf of Riga, and the responsible duty thus confided to it is being discharged by Admiral Kanin with unceasing vigilance and conspicuous ability. Unlike the army, the navy is very little in the public eye. There are no correspondents with the fleet, and. as in the ease of its British confrere, many and many a gallant deed must pass unrecorded. WORK OF THE FLEET. At length however, a coiner of the veil has been lifted by a correspondent of the "Novoe Vremya," who conversed with the Admiral for more than an hour. "The fundamental strategic picture," said the Admiral, "is amply clear. The Russian Fleet is a continuation of the extreme ilank of the army; the task of the fleet is to support the movements of the army as far as possible, protecting it against envelopment by the German Fleet. What will happen in the future, who knows? So far, however, we may deem our work not futile. One English specialist has said that in the present war there have been two turning points, rx-ithcr of them particularly brilliant or vivid, but extraordinarily important— the Marne and Riga Gulf. Paris was saved on the Marne, while in the Riga Gulf the struggle for the Approaches to Petrograd terminated n our favour, ft is impossible to deny this. What would be the situation of the arniv if the Germans now occupied Riga and th? entire Gulf of Riga? Look at the map and you will un Lifetime! for yourself. "The struggle for the Gulf was very difficult. There was such a. fog for five or siic days that the Germans trawled our mines with the utmost calmness. They came up gradually, quit? unpunished; and we could not shoot at them in the fog. They opened up a passage. Two torpedo-boats got through, and it was just at this moment that one of the most effective actions took place. On the Novik there were four four-inch guns, and on the torpedo-boats three each—viz., *■]>: against four. The Xovik was the Cist to open fire, with such accuracy that one of the torpedo-boats was at once disabled, while the Novik on her part sustained no damage whatever. The torpedo-boat tried 10 retreat, but 'hindered into an area that had not been trawled and instantly blew up. other followed and escaped in the fog. and we don't know what became of it.

of it? It may seem so to him. Anyhow, le r , him come to the Gulf of Finland." MILITARISATION OF THE NAVY. One of the elose-t assistants of Admiral Kanin said to me. "So far luck has lieen on our side. But, of course, it niu<t be borne in mind that tiie Fleet to-day isn't what it was twelve years ago. The experience ol the Russo-Japanese war has told: and moreover the work of the late Admiral fvsen must bp remembered with the greatest gratitude. As regards the experience of the Rii'wo-.Japaneso war, that has led chiefly to the militarisation of the .\avy. It is strange now to reca'l that quite recently we iiad no higher educational establishment at winch specialists could be prepared or where strategic questions could be worked out. In those days they studied at the Naval Academy just as it the Fleet were a mercantile one and the branches were all of a pacific character, as. lor example, hydrographic, mechanical, shipbuilding; there was no war section. It cannot even be said precisely that even the idea was present that before constructing a fleet a plan of naval warfare.should be created. To-day we have a properly organised Academy of the General Staff. and the majority of the officers graduating therefrom and working near the commander of the Fleet can now apply their theoretical knowledge in practice. Thanks only to the fact that militarisation nowadays iias eaten into the flesh and blood of the Navy we are able systematically (and not without success) to carry out our fundamental plan—of active defence. ADMIRAL ESSEX'S WORK. "The late Admiral Essen worked wonders with the Navy. His fundamental idea was simple —the Fleet must know the entire Baltic, not excluding the most remote rocks; and lor this purpose it must cruise not less than ten months in the year. Formerly this seemed wholly impossible! I remember my own younger days. We set out upon a tremendous round-the-world voyage, studied, gatnered experience/and worked. The decisive moment was the naval inspection after our return from the cruise. Gold, velvet I The inspection over, and suddenly all fell to pieces. And really it could not be otherwise; the wood had rotted, the sails had lien devoured by rats. It was necessary to remove a'l til's into dry, well-aired storehouses; otherwise everything would have perished—and it was removed. What was the result? There, so to'speak, was a locomotive in all its glory; it was taken to pieces and conveyed in parts somewhere into a shop. This locomotive could be assembled anew, bur it would then be another locomotive. The crew had dispersed and the officers separated. The experience gathered was not parsed on to the new people. "But now 2 This is my third year on the same boat. A. M. P. (he pointed to a senior officer) has been nero already five year-. Under such circumstances a man does really begin to know what he has in his hands. Thanks to this, there cannot be any mobilisation for us. We have a term for moi'isatbion—such and such an hour and such and such a minute. \\ hen war was declared we received absolutely nothing from any depot. Perhaps a few things were taken ashore—valuable prizes, relics: but neither stores nor men were required by us; we had everything on hand. In four hours wo put to sea. We attained this result solely owing to the fact that the lata Admiral Ksson refuved to have barracks for the crews.

MENACING THE ENEMY'S FLANK

"If you recall how the German r-.1-vanee vanee on Riga proceeded you will rtcogni-e the important aid rend :ivc! by our constant menace to the enmv's left think. It was not for nni'i.-u: that thiis Hank continually fe'l lock frm the remaining arniv. It fell hue;; and fell back, until at length it got Hulled up, and its check has greatly helped the stoppage of the entire German army. Land troops cannot fignt against chips' artillery. The Gallipoli operation-showed this; with what perfect ease "'ere the troops ro-embark-od! In the Gulf of Hi.ua there have been several attacks made by us against the foe. At Kemmern, for instance. We i-ent out three torpedoboats on which in all there were six guns. We had great difficulty m getting the range. Tne distance to the Gorman positions was so great that tin- torpedo-boats had to be heeled ever artificially, otherwise the shells would not have reached their mark. But then what happened when the shoot ing began? Ymi can hardly imagin • it. We .-helled the foe only five minutes in all; yet all the German positions were razed to the ground. The Germans retreated in such haste that they abandoned even all the adjacent trenches." THE BRITISH SUBMARINES. Conversation then turned on the individual performances of officers. "To enumerate them.'' said the Admiral, -would be inadvisable. All cur offices do their best to the extent of their ability; the only difference is that one is'lucky enough to do something which has a practical effect and another ia not. "Nevertheless," the Admiral continued, with a more animated air, "I wish to remark that no have been helped extraordinarily by the English submarines. Admitting that the'.r boats are magnificent, it mu-t ali-o be said that the officers themselves are fine young i'e'lows. Their bearing, you know" is wonderful—and their coolness ' GEK.MAN LIES. The Admiral began to laugh gfiodhiimoredly. " It isn't the i-ame i\ith us as with the Germans," he said. " 1 II give you an anecd-'te showing you how they iie officiallv. In the Gulf of Riga one oi' the German hydroplanes was brought down by our fire and settled on the water. The wind blew it in our direction -o that our torpedo-boat, the V.i skv : lanin, wa- able to pick up both the ob-oiver and pilot They came op on deck and began to chatter. •Well.' tliev asked, 'cur hydrnp'am - give von a lot of trouble r' 'That'.- all Hunt.' our fellows replied. 'They tiu-ow bombs a< tin,'--. 'And they 1 it' J '' 'No that ha-u't happened mi i.,,- thank' God!' 'Look here, what are yioi leilins us? A<-eording to our caleida-tioii our hydroplanes have bloun up eight of your torpedoboats '' 'Suielv not ':' our fellows berrnn to biii-h. 'The German m> w an,ov and said. 'Listen, then. My petty officer received the Iron Cro-s lor sinkjniT the Moskvitanin. and tne order therefor.- rea-ds to that elfect.' Would -eon believe it. Wt> had to bring h m the log and show it to him before he'd l,,.|je\e lien he was actually Oil board tin- Mo-kvitanin herself!" We rose. The Admiral gave me his hand and said, "Sec for yourself. The officers will give you further < details. Get to know theni and you will judge us better." "Your Excellency, the German specialist., Captain von Pers us, in his \ew Y,.ar's reportf"ofTii ins that the Gorn his h ive command of the Baltic.'' 't| u< Admiral •inil-1. "Well, what

CRUISING AMONG THE HOCKS. "If n fleet cruises anion.!: rocks ten months in the voar, the risk, of course, is considerable. 1 should miner think so! At times one sails alongside, absolutely vertical walls! Or, suddenly, us happened recently, a twelve-foot rock is revealed in a spot where not a single pilot : s aware that it exists. A reform of that kind cannot ho effected without risk. But Erisen allowed us to run risks: and it was not deemed a. crimp to run risks. IE" know that in the business of risk the exercise of superfluous severity might underinino the moral of an officer. You remember: one admiral was punished tor having fired too soon, and another for having fired too late. Essen personally enrsed among the rocks. Sometime*! we simply dodged through a chink; and the presence of an experienced, nniversaJly-'ovod admiral, of course, did away with all hesitation on the rtnrt of the junior officers. "The word 'impossible' disappeared ontirelv: everything seemed possible. Essen loved to sav that a wreck was repairable; the only thing irrepairable was the decline of spirit in the Navy. As a result, of course, the Navy attained a very advantageous position. Hero in -1 now we are lyinsr in tne ice. Tf an urgent order should come we can put out. And right away, no matter how severe the cold, we go ahead—we begin to cut the surrounding : ce like butter. Only a week ago. in'"a temperature of 20 degrees, a battleshin came in and moored alongside n s Eormerlv nobody would have believed that such a thing was possible To me myself it would have seemed just a. preposterous to manoeuvre an atmv a million stronn in a forty-degree fini. Hut it [troves to be possible. THE MEN ON SHORE.

"Tims life with us pors nt full suing

—training for llio spori.il c-InsstH-i for tin- officers. Horo'.s ;i Rood exnmp'o of tlio r.sult. Tuo holidayhave oiilv jiiir-t finished. A largo nuiu|,or of bluejackets woro constantly pomp ashore, hut for all those days \\o liav-cn't Karl a sinplo charge, not n -iuplo tloliaiioli. not a sinplo arrest, no) a Miiplo punishment. The sailor poos to a raff! or cinematograph and spends his lime peacefully. The war has had a wonderful infliionc.'. and llio warlike sinrii is maintained, tiinnk' to tin' joint labours of officers and men. . . On partinp the officer quoted above <sa : d to the correspondent, "\\o shall ho very phid if von will describe our manner of life to the public. Try to draw nltention to our surprisingly voutliful personnel, and to tli.-> tact that notwithstanding their youth, aII these officers are fully acquainted each with a special technical section. We have everything here—minors, magnificent gunners, experienced wireless operators airmen, every arm is represented. Tiiev learned their technical skill not nn the Naval Corps, but here in the Navv. All their knowledge h tlio result of the work of the Navy itself."