Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 21, 2025
Air communication between the various portions of the Empire may prove of inestimable value in a future world war, and Dominion air forces may be able quickly to concentrate against enemy territory which is out of the range of aircraft operating from home. We have seen the value of aircraft operating from land bases for naval patrol, anti-submarine action, and direct attack on enemy shipping.
Coast defence, reconnaissance, anti-submarine work, escort, and the bombing of enemy bases, will doubtless continue and develop with ever-increasing machinery and equipment; but torpedo attack by aircraft may reach a point where the very existence of opposing fleets may be endangered.
This entire force, under command of Rear-Admiral Albert Gleaves, whose ability and resource have been tested and established in this great service in co-operation with the destroyer flotilla operating abroad, has developed an anti-submarine convoy and escort system the results of which have surpassed even the most sanguine expectations.
For the present the only anti-submarine help is the help we may be able to give to patrol the wide area off Ireland. If we had one hundred destroyers to send, the job there could, I am told, be quickly done. A third of that number will help mightily. At the present rate of destruction more than four million tons will be sunk before the summer is gone. Such is this dire submarine danger.
The ground between Anzac and the Sari Bair crestline is worse than the Khyber Pass but both Birdwood and Godley say that their troops can tackle it. There are one or two in the know who think me "venturesome" but, after all, is not "nothing venture nothing win" an unanswerable retort? De Robeck is excited over some new anti-submarine nets.
Admiral Capelle in his testimony referred to the weakening of their efforts due to "indifferent material and second-rate crews." Transport Work Dependent in large measure upon the anti-submarine campaign for its safety and success, yet in itself an immense achievement, the transport of over 2,000,000 American troops to France must be regarded as one of the major naval operations of the war.
Most of the ships are sunk to the westward and southward of Ireland. The British have in that area every available anti-submarine craft, but their force is so insufficient that they hardly discourage the submarines. The British transport of troops and supplies is already strained to the utmost, and the maintenance of the armies in the field is threatened.
Of all the anti-submarine measures employed, prior to the North Sea Barrage and the Zeebrugge attack, the adoption of the convoy system was undoubtedly the most effective in checking the loss of tonnage at the height of the submarine campaign.
This gave the United States Navy the definite means to offer an anti-submarine barrage, on the German coast or elsewhere, and the result was the northern mine-barrage in the North Sea, stretching from the Orkneys 280 miles to Norway, which the Secretary of the Navy's annual report characterizes as "the outstanding anti-submarine offensive product of of the year."
There are at least seventeen more destroyers employed on our Atlantic coast, where there is no war, not to mention numerous other very useful anti-submarine craft, including sea-going tugs, etc. Can you not do something to bring our Government to an understanding of how very serious the situation is? Would it not be well to send another telegram to Mr.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking