THE NAVAL EXCURSION.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1916, Page 7

THE NAVAL EXCURSION.

WHAT GERMANY AIMED AT. A FLIGHT OF RAIDERS, London, June 15. It is improbable that the Admiralty will state what view it holds as to the intentions of the German Admiralty in sending the High Sea Fleet to sea at the end ot May, with the result now known to be so disastrous to itself. It is quite evident that the movement was well planned and on a large scale. Our Navy is at a great disadvantage in not possessing fiirships of the Zeppelin type for scouting and reconnaissance, but its intelligence apparently discovered the intention of the Germans before the Dlan had proceeded far. THEIR LITTLE GAME. One cannot speculate too far on tie object the Germans had in view. It seems to be agreed, however, that to appease public uneasiness in the Fatherland the High Sea Fleet was called on to do something to weaken our blockade; for in spite of the yells of a section of the press here we have for some time past maintained a very strict blockade against Germany. The plan was partly defensive and partly offensive. A clutch of new fast cruisers of the Rostock and Wiesbaden type, which are several knots faster than even the Karlsruhe—the fastest of the raiders of the first month* of war—was to breakthrough into • the Atlantic under cover pf the High Sea Fleet. This manoeuvre if sucessful, would have been a serious matter for British commerce, and doubtless some millions of pounds' worth of damage would have been done before we could have rounded up the raider. The ofl'ect of this diversion would have been twofold. In the first place, we should iiave had to withdraw a considerable number of our cruisers from the WRteh on the North Sea to chase the raiders in the Atlantic. In the second place, our mercantile marine, already so much reduced that rising freights are pressing on the civil population of the Allies like an invading army, would probably have been much more diminished in. tonnage. Both these results would have been a feather in the "cap of the Admiralitatstab. A BLOW AT RUSSIA. A second part of the programme, according to a French authority (Admiral Hautefeuille) was to send a powerful squadron northward to intercept ships carrying food and munitions to and from Russia, and to smash up the new warm-water port of Kola, and the ship, ping facilities at Archangel. This would have been a formidable blow to aim at V country which is depending on these two ports for practically its life-blood. FEATURES OF THE BATTLE. The battle was rather a shock to those scaremongers who have been telling m in dismal tones for months past that Germany has been constructing new and marvellous machines of war in her secret dockyards. Some people would not speak of German naval guns in terms of less than 17 inches, and would have it that our 15 guns, of which there are something like 80 afloat, would be knocked into a cocked hat by the amazing creations of the Teutons. When Lowestoft and Yarmouth were bombarded we were fed up with tales of 15 inch shells falling like hail into the place. In point of fact, nothing more than "12 inch was thrown into Yarmouth and Lowestoft. That did not necessarily prove thai Tirpitiz had nothing bigger, but this startling fact is now borne out by the battle of Horn Reef. We did not, ipso facto, get ihe whole benefit of the su--1 periority of a loin guns over a 12in gun, for, as on this occasion, the low visibility may enable the shorter range guns to get a bead on Lts longer-range opponent simultaneously. The only ship in the battle; pf Horn Reef that complained of being outranged were the armoured cruisers Black Prince, Warrior, and Defence, and they, of course, carried only f1.2 guns. So apparently the whole myth of the superlative German guns is knocked on the head.

THE MAGAZINE BLOW The one feature of the battle which gives rise to uneasiness is the apparent vulnerability of some of otir magazines. The big ships which we lost all seem to have gone under to the same sort of blow, an explosion in the. magazine, and we have testimony that several ol the German ships blew up from that same cause. Of course, any ship that is set on fire will blow up sooner 'or later when the flames reach the magazine, but in the recent battle the explosion of the magazine was the tot hint of. serious injury. Nov do the s'rells seem to have reached their mark dhectiy, What appears "to have happened is that shells struck the turrets, and the (xplosion went down to tile there being no armored deck be lew tin; turret to protect the magazine. Gorman thips, too, came to grief in the same way. This battle, like that of the Dogger Bank, demonstrated that an armored ship can stand any amount of batter ing oil- the armor plating. The Blouchcr, it will be remembered, blundered ahead for many miles under heavy concentrated fire from our battle-cruisers before she sank. In the same way the Warrior, an old armored cruiser, took a deadly pounding with equanimity, and made a very good attempt to get home, after it. She was towed for 10 hours before she sank.