BATTLES AT SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 January 1917, Page 6

BATTLES AT SEA.

GERMANY'S DESPERATE ENTERiBBISES. THE INVASION OP ENGLAND. When a flotilla, of ten German de stroyers stole out during the gale last week and attacked our communications between Dover and Calais thev not only destroyed two small vessels of our fleet and an empty Channel transport, but also struck another blow at. the old doctrine of England's inviolability from invasion (writes the Sydney Sun's London correspondent under date November 7)..

It was a dashing episode, and it gain; i,ts meed of appreciation from this na tion of seamen, as all Oermany's true sea exploits in this war have. It, synchronised with the announcement tiiat Hiiulenburg had taken control of the Gorman navy and emphasised again the old warrior's belief in the initiative. The Germans ehose a night of black storm and were upon our Channel patrols before warning had come. In the unequal fight one destroyer, the Flirt, went dowji under shellfire, and the enemy went on through the Straits of Dover before they encountered superior forces and lied homewards. It is believed that as they went two of their number encountered our mines and were sunk—a story confirmed to some extent by a fugitive Belgian, who ha; told the Times' correspondent in Amsterdam that German sailors at Zeebrngge are mourning comrades of two destroyers which went out recently in a flotilla and did not- return. As the whole voyage was done in darkness, and the Germans were in far too great a hurry on the return journey to save their drowning men, the German Admiralty may have some justification for regarding these two vessels as merely "missing"—a term meaning that the sea lords refrain from announcing their disappearance in the hope that they will yet turn up again.

A BLOW AT LONDON. These Channel raids arc expected by those who know how severe is the tax at present upon British patrol ships, and how essential it is that our great fighting fleet shall be concentrated in the north But no incident in the war, except the death of Kitchener, has more affected the pride of the people of these islands, for one has to go back to the days of the Dutch wars to find enemy ships in the outer waters of the Thames.

Tlie naval and military experts have throughout the war taken a much more serious view of the possibility of an invasion than the view accepted in Australia. Kitchener believed that an attempt was probable, and it is likely that lie would have measured up Hindeuburg as an opponent likely to try it. It is an open secret that large bodies of troops are kept in the country, and that railway building and trench construction on an extensive scale has been carried through, ivliilst official recognition has boon given to the volunteer.'!, who throughout the country drill in their spare time vnd camp during holidays at tiki seaside. The volunteers .ax old and unseasoned; they invariably remind one- of good eating-houses as they march stoically through the parks. Vo'r weight they would compare '.villi dnV force that has ever carried arms. T'.iry admit bravely that they like Uieir parades to be dismissed at points convenient for refreshments and their periods of trench-digging are varied by times of rest on the sands of pleasant beaches. But they are in earnest. They are 'steadily improving as .1 fighting for;e, and the War Office says it might still have use for them. "Invasion," said Lord French iu ad- , dressing them yesterday, "is a distant possibility, but whenever we hear of naval engagements in ti:e Channel, large or small, it is always possible that bejhind those ships of war transports may be 'bringing troops to land in this country at some unexpected point. The whole history of war teaches us that what happens is what wc don't expect." TRANSPORTS IN ANTWERP. So many dangers lurk for an invading aimy that it may be claimed that Napoleon's saying still holds true: "I see a hundred nays of getting an army into England, but not one of getting it out." Even in the unlikely event of the Grand Fleet being crippled and Germany temporarily in command of the sea the German line of communications would be harassed and disturbed, if not destroyed, by our submarines and destroyer flotillas. And if the Grand Fleet be still paramount, we would soon concentrate such forces from France as would wipe out any army that icould be landed here.

Some naval experts who have made the possibility of an invasion the study of their life-time are strongly of the opinion that the effort will some day be made, because of the immensity of the prize. Certainly a blow at London is the greatest temptation Hindcnburg has to face. Tl the British Empire were eliminated from the war the\ Allies would collapse in a few and the only way of eliminating the Empire is to seize the garrison of England, with its capital, and starve the people. The essentials are the landing of a fullyequipped army, and such dislocation of the communications between England and France as would prevent the arrival of strong reinforcements from General Ifaig's command. The disappearance of the 'Grand Fleet would not be necessary, for in the scattered sea fighting that would be part of the general plan there would be swarms of submarines to prey upon transports. Asfnian attacks in France would endeavor to hold in the British lines all divisions there engaged.

It is beyond doubt that Germany could land some troops on these shores. Her port of Antwerp, secluded, large and well stocked with German merchantmen, is peculiarly fitted for a base. And so carefully do the Germans conceal what is happening there that we know nothing of the history of Antwerp during the last year. The Admiralty spy system is one of the wonders of the war, and Captain Hall, the cool and daring Chief of Intelligence, probably knows a great deal: but even he could not say that at no time was it possible for a fully-equipped German expeditionary force to steal forth from the Scheldt, ignoring with Prussian abruptness the sovereignty of Holland, and dart in the darkness towards a British port. The Germans would have to be prepared to pay the price. Transports would be sunk with their men. warships would be destroyed in plenty. But certainly some men/Could be landed in England. THE UNPOPULAB ADMIEALTY.' British Ministers sometimes say ruefully that the only thing the public

wants is victories, and a Government Which cannot at once produce them is necessarily unpopular. Though the Admiralty has kept these shores inviolate, held the Empire secure from attack, and transported not only the food and trade of the nation, but also its vast armies, Mr. Balfour and the Naval Lords are to-day amongst the truly unpopular men in tire country. Their work has been silent. Twice they have practically annihilated the German submarine fleet. Once they j hammered a large section iof the High Seas Fleet, and on many occasions they have torpedoed patrol ships and cruisers. Yet the public feels, rightly or wrongly, that they are unaggressive, that they have no surprises in store for the enemy, that they play always for safety, and that though 'correct they are not adventurous. The haphazard events which maintained the reputation of the Navy in the early days of the war—the sending of Sturdee'with his two Dreadnoughts to the Falklands, the construction of the monitors, and the defeat of the first submarine campaign by remarkable resources—are attributed to the short but moving regime of Lord Fisher. Since then there have been safety, steadiness and frank apologies for all mistakes; but the sea fights have been at best victories with an element of doubt in them, or plain and unvarnished minor triumphs for the enemy. The public is grumbling loudly. The discontent has been brought to a climax partly by the Channel affair, which was accompanied by many German taunts of flotillas (rom "German Bay"—the Germanised name for Zecbrugge coast—having sunk eleven British ships and returned without damage. More irritating to the public than this has been the great extension during the last three months of the submarine campaign, which has reached proportions more serious than ever/before. During the Inst three months the Germans have torpedoed or destroyed by submarines more ships than in any previous seven months of the war. I am not allowed to publish the figures, but oan say that during August, September and October the sinkings reached' a tctal meriting, serious thought.

GERMAN BOASTS. * To-day news comes of two sea events —the sinking of the Australian:" liner Arabia in the Mediterranean, ana the launening of the new German superDreadnought Bayern, one of the two ships of the 1014 programme, which ~'ere to be built at Kiel. The extent of the Mediterranean catastrophe is not yet known. Until the relief ships arrive at Malta and Marseilles no particulars will he available, hut the Germans are already scattering by wireless all over the world the news of their double achievement. The air is indeed full of their boast:-. They claim that the destroyer flotilla which raided the Channel passed unobserved on its way from Kmden to Zeebrugge, showing that no British patrols dare put their noses into that section of the "German Ocean." The Frankfurter Zeitung, organ of the Government, has supplied for the wireless propaganda an article in which it asserts that, '■although no one can expect the German fleet to sever wholly the vital nerve of the English expeditionary force in France, the British and French navies will have to double or treble their vigilance, assembling more fleets than before in the Channel, and thus diminish their observation elsewhere." The Frankfurter Zeitung asks Norway what England could do to save it from invasion, considering that the German ileet controls the Skager Rack, and could convoy transports without interruption to the south-eastern Norwegian coast. It adds: "The sea fight is no longer a matter oi isolated eases. The reverses and losses of England are multiplying. Already much has crumbled away. We have still much to hope for." Desperate men have to hope the hardest. It is the only thing left them. Meanwhile our great fleets grow in size, far surpassing the fleets with which we entered the war. And in the general success of the naval campaigns to date we can claim a record surpassing that of any previous war.