GERMAN NAVY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1939, Page 11

GERMAN NAVY

USE OF POCKET BATTLESHIPS THREAT TO TRADE ROUTES. HOW RAIDERS WOULD BE HUNTED. What is this new German Navy going to be used for? That is the question which is agitating the world today, writes Lieutenant-Commander Kenneth Edwards in the "Sunday Graphic.” London. The Germany of today is a Continental rather than a maritime Power, although Germany has also built up in recent years an extensive and efficient mercantile marine. This mercantile marine, however, cannot be threatened unless Germany herself provokes war. and Germany certainly does not need a navy of the size that she is building for the defence of'her short coast lines. Admiral Gladisch, of the German Navy, has made it very clear that Germany believes in the use of air power for attack on trade and the ports at which cargoes are unloaded for distribution. He contends that air attack on merchant ships would not be an infringement of international law because the enemy would be forced to place his merchant ships in convoys protected by warships. This would, he says, at once allow them to be attacked without any of the formalities demanded by international law. Another German admiral, referring in a speech to the new aircraft carriers being built for the German Navy, stated that these ships were designed to work not only in the North Sea or the Baltic, but far out on the great trade routes of the Atlantic Ocean. Germany plans to paralyse the trade of Britain.

The German “pocket battleships” [ are vessels particularly suited for war ; on the great trade routes. Their very . large radius of action would make , them far less dependent upon supplies - than the German trade route raiders of the Great War. ONE PURPOSE ONLY. If German “pocket battleships” were at large on the ocean trade routes in the event of'war, the complete protection of merchant shipping could only be achieved by placing all merchant ships in convoys and providing all convoys with escorts stronger than the German "pocket battleships.” This would mean that every convoy would have to be given a battleship escort. However, the fact cannot be ignored that the German “pocket battleships” ‘are virtually useless for any other purpose. At present they, with the S'charnhorst and Gneisenau, form Germany’s whole capital ship strength; yet theycannot hope to lie in the line of battle against full-sized battleships better protected and with much heavier gunpower. At the same time there is evidence that Germany has such a great belief in her policy of creating threats that she does not wish to provoke a general war upon the colonial or any other issue. In addition, there is the fact that Germany’s naval power is at present so much weaker than that of the British Empire that she could only hope for defeat in the event of war. ADEQUATE PROTECTION. Anti-aircraft gunnery has also made great strides, and this, in conjunction with the production of special antiaircraft escort vessels, should be adequate for the protection of merchant ship convoys against air attack. The hunting-down of enemy raiders is also today far more simple than it was twenty-five years ago, because practically all ships are now fitted with wireless, and all ships which would be detailed for the protection of the ocean trade routes carry aircraft, which enormously increase their range of vision. Once the position of a raider is known, her movements can be followed while a superior force is being concentrated.