REPLY TO WBOATS

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21371, 15 March 1941, Page 2

REPLY TO WBOATS

BRITISH USE “CORVETTES” A machine-gun that fires backwards from a mounting beneath the nose of an aeroplane was said to be the Royal Air Force’s latest weapon, said a London correspondent writing on January 4. The new Vickers gun. aimed and operated by the navigator through a series of mirrors, was described as, intended to beat off attackers who come up from below and behind the planes. A fleet of fast new “ Corvettes,” which look like streamlined, supercharged United States Coast Guard cutters, is Great Britain’s latest answer to the German submarine menace, it was disclosed today. The new ships, which an informed source said are being built in large , numbers in both Britain and Canada, already are credited with a number . of successes against undersea commerce raiders. Shallow-bottomed, speedy, brist- , ling with guns and depth charges, the “ Corvettes ” w r ere designed to ‘ meet the need for small craft which ! could be built quickly at low cost. Production is “ in full swing,” it | was said, and the vessels are rapidly taking over much of the merchant • convoy work which converted trawl- ; ers tried to assume at the outset of the war. The “ Corvettes ” —named for one ? of the fastest types of 19th century ? sailing vessls—were said to have proved themselves extremely sea- ■ worthy, to be much speedier than the i trawlers, and to have demonstrated t their abiLity to operate further from f bases.