The Washington herald., 1916-07-30
AMERICAN FLEET ONLY JUNK,
SAYS BRITISH NAVAL EXPERT


Pollen replied. "Jutland shows the bigh
value, indeed the necessity, of speedy cap
ltal ships. But whether the necessary
fast division should consist of ships OF
the Lion type or be like the Queen Eliza
beths. not so fast. but more heavily ar
mored and gunned than the Lions Is an
other matter 1t is possible that when
al! the aspects of the action are consid.
cred British naval opinion will gravitate
toward single standard fighting ship
of the Queen Elizabeth type,
Dreadnoughts Decid. i.xue.
But the issue OF Jutland was decided
by the Dreadnought battleships. When
the British grand fleet came into action
the German ships withdrew quite rightly
because If they had remained In action
! they would all have been sunk But our
battle cruisers were in action both with
battle cruisers and battleships OF the
enemy for more than four hours without
all the battle cruisers on either side being
sunk. Each side probably lost three bat
lie cruisers, but so far as the British
ships arc concerned 1t would be Incorrect
TO attribute their sinking to the fact that
they We're too lightly armored. All three
were lost through single shots causing
explosions of character | am not at
liberty TO discuss, but which could have
been avoided, and will be made impossible
IN all future ships We have no details to
explain exactly how the destruction OF
the German battle cruisers came about
! but II seems that they were shot to pieces
The battle cruiser is ship that car
! ries, Eay, four-hfths the armament of
a battleship, and armor of only about
hat the thickness But half the thick
{ ness OF armOr does not mean half the
protection. II twelve inches Of arnoor
VIII keep out Finch shell. that does
not mean that six inches of armor will
/ keep out half of that shell. 1t will no
/ no protection at all. The shell will go
4 through as though the armor were not
! there. | find II very diflcult to make
| up my mind whether the battle proves
/ batl" cruisers mistake OF Dreadnoughts
a mistake. That six battle cruisers could
iemain in action for a considerable time
| against battleships without all being sunk
seems to show that armor is not abso4
lutely necessary. They were all hit fire.
J quenty and it apparently did them no
/ harm 1t is obvious that a great deal
can be said on both sides of the ques-
tioh. But taking in the whole experience
/ OF the war it cannot be disputed that
armor that will keep out the cnemv's
shells at long range has this enormous
ralue-that It is safeguard against
ships being lost by chance shots At the
4 DosT@r Bank, for instance. the Lion was
put out of action by a shot that dis
ablod her engines. Thick armor would
have excluded this shot and though the
ship WAS not lost she was useless for
the purposes of the battle"
sixteen Inch Gun. Foolish.
We have just ordered eight six
teen-inch guns for our two newest
battleships." l said. They will be
| larger than any you are using so far
as the public knows. DO you think
the change We made from twelve four
teen-inch guns to eight sixtecns was
wise" Il think the change mis-
take said Mr.. Pollen. The principle
! on which you prefer a big gun to
small one is that the bigger the gun,
the easier it is to hit with it as the
range increases. That is the adyan-
tage Of the big gun. The dfsadvan-
tage is that the larger the gun the
fewer guns you can carry And the
number OF guns in broadside is in
itself factor in hitting. because hit
ting depends upon the corrections you
can make by observing where your
/ shots pitch in the water The more
shots you fire in a saliva. the more
SP!aShNS you make and the easier il Is
to Identify and correct the range
"SiNteen-inch guns. with the turreta
ammunition and mounting would
roughly sreaking. weight from a quarter
to a fifth more than fifteen-inch guns
( In other words. for the same displace-
ment and expenditure. YOU could take ten
hftecn-inCh guns into action where YOU
could only take eight siXtecn-inch. and
your Pennsylvania. on the same principle,
will carry twelve fourteen where our
ship carry ten fifreens. 1t will seem to
you paradOKiCal when | say that We are
right in putting ten fifteen-inch guns
on our ships instead Of twelve fOurteens
but that you are wrong in CARRYING out
the same principle by using eight six
teens. ] am quite satisfied that the ad-
vance from fourteen to fifteen inch
raliher is worth the sacrifice of two
guns, because not only is the fiftecn-inch
shell more powerful, hut the difference
in hitting cara 'ity at high ranges up to
l7,oO0 yards is considerable and material.
Theoretically the SiXteen-inCh gun will
give better results at high ranges. and
lenEthen the range. But in pra tice
think it will he found that 100 yards
Is about the extreme possible range be-
cause it is impossible to see much
farther than that Some shooting took
place al 1900 Yards at Jutland. but
doubt whether any hits were registered.
Jutland was a good test Of ranges, for
visibility was very good for some part
Of the time. though not unfortunately.
when the critical period arrived Since.
then, the sixtc"n-inCh gun will not make
II pOSSlble 10 ShOt Iarther, the increased
destructive power of the shell must be
weighed in the balance against the loss
OF the two guns that the ship could carry
if she mounted fifteens."
Did the Eunncry at Jutland come up
to expectations?" I asked
Gunnery 1-25O Effective.
AT the battle of Jutland," Mr. Pollen
said "gunnery realized one two-hundred-
and-fiftieth part of its possibilities. l
mean by this that had naval Gunnery
been able to overcome the difficulties
set up by the problem OF finding the
range and keeping it, and seeing in bad
light. each gun could have made 2i9 more
hits than it actually did. do not mean
that the guns realized one two-hundred-
and-fftleth of tho standard of battle
practice. because that standard is little
better than one-hfteth OF what guns
ought to do. The standard l am taking
is that of stationary guns shooting at
n stationary mark at a fixed range. The
only difference between that and any
other conditions is the Introduction of
movement. which gives uncertainty of
range II you add to that the uncer-
tanty of vision which you get in mist
and bad light YOU have the master diff
ruIties Of gunnery