NAVY ESTIMATES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 February 1940, Page 6

NAVY ESTIMATES

ONCE AGAIN INTRODUCED BY MR CHURCHILL AFTER QUARTER OF CENTURY. FACTS OF THE DESTRUCTION OF U-BOATS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.5 a.m.) RUGBY, Februai-y 27. Mr Winston Churchill, introducing' the first Navy Estimates of the war, as he had done in 191’). said picturesquely: “I come before the House on behalf of the Navy. 'l'lie Department asks for a few men. some ships and a little money.” He regretted that it was inexpedient to give the precise facts and figures of the proposed strength and cost of the Navy for the coming year. Referring to the U-boat campaign. Mr Churchill said: "I believe it is safe to say that by the end of 1939 the Germans had lost, from all causes, at least half their U-boat fleet with which they began the war. If we put that fleet at seventy, this would leave thirty-five. On the other hand, I was in error when I told the House that the rate of German new building of U-boats must be counted at two weekly. This and even more may be true in the future, but it was not true up to 1939. I doubt very much whether even ten fresh U-boats came into action in that period. Thus the enemy may have ended the year with about forty-five, of which, of course, about twenty would be required for training, leaving perhaps twenty-five for active operations. In connection with newspaper reports stating that one U-boat was sunk yesterday. Mr Churchill said the Admiralty did not announce U-boat sinkings unless there was some feature of-special interest. "Actually in the last two days." he added, "there was one certain sinking and two almost certain.”

Turning to the British building programme Mr Churchill said: "We will be building for the Navy all this summer at extreme capacity, subject only to the necessity to increase the rate of merchant shipbuilding.” NEW BATTLESHIPS FIVE TO JOIN FLEET SHORTLY. NAVAL LOSSES MUCH LIGHTER THAN IN LAST WAR. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) RUGBY, February 27. In the course of his House of Commons speech Mr Churchill revealed that in a short time the fleet would be reinforced by five modern battleships of the King George V class. Referring to the capacity of the new ships, which had been built to stand up to air bomb and underwater explosives. he said.: “When the Barham was hit by a torpedo, although an old ship, she stood up well to the heavy blow and was able to proceed under her own steam. She will soon be repaired and ready for sea. Again, when, in the early part of December, the Nelson, a more modern ship, but still fifteen years old, was damaged by a magnetic mine, she was able to return to harbour under her own steam. She too will soon be rejoining the fleet. Apart from the Royal Oak and the Courageous, no other large ships have been damaged or sunk since the outbreak of war.” Mr Churchill stated that Britain had lost 63.000 tons of warships since the outbreak of war, or about half the losses sustained in the same period of the last war. We had lost, on the balance of loss and gain, less than 200,000 tons of merchant shipping, out of 17.500.000 tons of ocean-going ships.