SPEEDED UP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1938, Page 9

SPEEDED UP

BRITISH NAVAL REARMAMENT MOBILISATION LESSONS. VAST ORGANISATION WORK. Charges that the Navy was not fully prepared for war when the emergency arose last month, and, in particular, that the naval construction programme is seriously in arrears, have been made in certain quarters recently. They have little foundation in fact, wrote Hectoj; Bywater, in the “Daily Telegraph and Morning Post,” on October 31. On the whole, last month’s mobilisation of the Fleet was carried out more quickly and efficiently than even the officers had anticipated. At very short notice the Home Fleet, with its ships’ companies brought up to war strength, had quietly reached its potential war bases.

Normally battleships and cruisers have on board only about 80 per cent of their war complements. The remaining 20 per cent joined the Fleet in less than three days. In the same period every vessel of the Home Fleet was provided with its full quota of fuel, stores, and munitions. The Mediterranean Fleet was equally ready for action, as. was every squadron on the more distant stations, from Australia to South America. At home the dockyards performed wonders in getting cruisers and destroyers of the Reserve Fleet ready for sea. LINERS RAN TO SCHEDULE. While it would necessarily have taken some time for the Navy to develop its full fighting power, including the provision of armed liners and hundreds of auxiliary patrol craft, the forces it did assemble wel-e undoubtedly strong enough to ensure Britain’s command of the sea. The fact that with one exception — where the ship was required for Government purposes—all the British liner services continued to rim to schedule during the crisis is proof of the confidence that was felt in the strength and efficiency of our naval defences. The current shipbuilding programme embraces about 130 ships, aggregating well ovei - 6000,000 tons. Its execution has thrown a heavy strain on the industries concerned. This strain was the more severe because for many years previously the industries had been working at the lowest pressure. Another factor tending to cause delay was the entirely novel design of practically all the new ships. Even before the ships themselves were laid clown, many thousands of tons, of armour plate and thousands of guns of all calibres from the new 14in monsters down to light anti-aircraft pieces, together with their complex mountings, were ordered. GUNS FOR DESTROYERS. To give one example, the destroyer programme alone calls for the delivery of nearly 300 4.7 in guns, including reserves, of a new model with high-angle mountings of a type never before seen in the Navy.

Such delays as have occurred in completing new ships, and they are not serious, have been due mainly to congestion in the armaments industry, which has also to cope with large orders for the Army and the Air Force.

An unprecedented number of older warships has also been undergoing modernisation. In many cases this involves practically the rebuilding of the ship.

| It is no exaggeration to say that the Navy is beginning to receive a veritable flood of new construction, the volume of which will increase greatly during the next few years. Taking all the facts into consideration, the progress of naval rearmament to date is an achievement of the first magnitude. Not the least remarkable feature of it is the expansion of the Navy’s personnel by 30,000 officers and men within four years.