NAVAL PURSUIT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1941, Page 5

NAVAL PURSUIT

IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC DIFFICULTY IN LOCATING ENEMY. REVENGE FOR HOOD MAY BE POSTPONED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright! LONDON. May 25. Judging from the British and German communiques, the scene of the action between the Hood and the Bismarck appears to have been 900 to 1000 miles from the nearest point of Nazi-occupied Norway, and this distance would take the Bismarck nearly a day and a half to cover, supposing her speed—estimated at about 30 knots —has not been reduced in the action with the Hood. Though the distance to be covered by the fleeing German forces is a factor in favour of their pursuers, seamen point out that the difficulties of keeping contact with or finding ships at sea are not realised by those who have not had experience of them. Everything depends upon the visibility, and the balance in this respect is always in favour of a pursued vessel, which has the whole sea to choose from and can take advantage of local rainstorms or fog', apart from such artificial devices as smoke screens to change here course again and again when obscured from the view of the shadowing craft. If contact were not established by nightfall or early in the morning—and there are no indications that such is the case—it would bo. probable that the "beginner's 'hick" of Iho now Nazi warship would hold good, and it would bo advisable to postpone on this occasion the inevitable revenge which the Navy would exact.