GERMAN NAVAL SURPRISE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 76, 29 March 1916, Page 7

GERMAN NAVAL SURPRISE.

■l7-INCH GUNS. A,.great deal of attention has been attracted by an article that Mr. James Douglas has contributed to the London Daily N«,ws and Leader, in which he asks whether Germany is preparing a naval surprise for this country, and suggests that her fleet is being equipped with 17-inch guns, superior to tht: 15-inch guns, which is the most po\v<" ful weapon yet mounted in the British Fleet. In his article Mr. Douglas wrote: "When the war broke out our Navy was immensely superior to the German Navy. The - basis of its superiority, was the 15-inch gun. If Von Spee's fl'igship had been armed with 17-inch guns it would have sunk the Invincible. Is it possible to arm a squadron of German battleships or battle-cruisers with 17-inch guns? I ask the question, say that the expert is not a safe guide If he was wrong about the 16-incl siege -howitzer (of the Germans, whlsh was scoffed at before the war) ho might also be wrong about the 17-inch naval gun." He points out that 17-inch shells feil into Dunkirk, fired from a weapon 20 mik-s away. They were not fired from a German warship, but from a gun made for a German warship, as no German howitzer could throw a shell 20 miles. The 17-inch gun, then, exists. One of the new German • ships, building when the war began, has undoubtedly been completed, the Hindenburg. Has she been . armed with 17-inch guns! If not, what was the gun which fired on Dunkirk made for?

"The expert may declare that it is impossible to put 17-inch guns into a ship which was not designed to carry them. Here again I say the expert is not a safe guide. If you can put a 15inch gun into a monitor, you may be able to put a 17-inch gun into a ship designed for a 15-inch gun. The Germans may have put their 17-inch gur> into some new type designed to convey and cover transports. "We are in the dark as to Hie method of the employment of the, 17-inch naval gun. That is will be employed is rertain. Have we got an effective answer to the 17-inch naval gun?"