The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-29
DEFENDS FRENCH
 BATTLESH|PS0F
 NEWEST DESIGNS
Expert Explains Principle of Superdreadnoughts of
 the Normandie Class

recently been added to the French Ma w, and which mount four guns to a turret and have been designed espec- tally to resist torpedo attack. are dis cussed in the June IA issue of The Navy and Army Record of London. The article in which the story of the is told for the first time since they went into commission was by J.B Gautreau, the French military writer.
 "At the moment when the first bat tleships of the quadruple turretj type are probably due for completion" says M. Gautreau. their relative fighting worth, as determined by the lessons of the war, is matter of special import ance, and no wonder that it is a subject of controversy in Paris. While the partisans of poussiere navale cannot find in the French vocabulary enough words to express the depth of their and pity for a policy that exposes, in these times, units of 25.000 tons, carrying 1,20O lives, and costing each over f8,000,o0o, to the tender mercies of the deadly mine and tor pedo, the great majority of experts, of those who have spent most time pom dering over the leasons of the Anglo Boche encounters, feel strengthened in thir opinion that the Normandies rep resent a splendid investment, and are probably the best pre-war design in the French and in any other navy.
 "Of course, nobody thinks of con- testing the tactical superiority, made up of superior speed and range, (25 knots against 22; eight 15-inch against twelve 1S.4-inch guns,) that belongs to the English Queen Eli4abeths and their belated German copies; but this ad- vantage is not deemed to be vital, decisive one in the light of the teach ings of the conflict.
 ''The dreadnought idea of securing the advantage of the first blows and disabling the enemy at long range, so sound in theory, is not held to have as yet been vindicated in practice. Diff ference of cahbres does not explain the Falkland and Dogger Bank actions 50 much as the difference in gunnery and the fact that the British reaped the advantage of a vigorous offensive against an enemy who only thought of running away, this being conflrma- ton of the lessons of history. No doubt, the practical range of artillery is being gradually increased with the improvement of optical appliances and the possibilities of aerial fire control, but, nevertheless, no decision is to be looked for in contests at extreme dis tances, and an enormous amount of battering appears to be necessary to sink even poorly defended ships (for instance even Butcher and the Scharn- horsts). Hence, the conclusion that the second tent of the dreadnought school, viz, keep on hitting is the point of vital importance, volume Sof fire united to adequate penetration constituting the, most reliable fight ing asset, which is the very principle that determined the designing of the Normandie. AfN
 Now, if we suppose a Normandie pitted against a, much larger German E-Woerth, the advantage at decisive ranges will be decided on the side of the Frenchmah, who will soppose broadside twelve weapons to eight, twenty -four shells per minute to four | teen or sixteen at the most, and will probably in practice be found to hit nearly twice as fast. Quadruple tur- rets have proved success. in the the matter of rate of fire, and. moreover, 13.4-inch guns fo forty-five calibre length (1912 model) have shown, in a series of. experiGents their ability to pierce the thickest battleship armor 1 Cup t o14-inch) at a distance of 10000 meters. 11,000 yardsy which is still
 regarded here as the range at which
 begins the decisive phase in an artil- lery duel.
 "As to the possibility of the Norman
 die being disabled at extreme range by
 the heavier German shells, that is re-
 garded as a danger very remote, the
 Normandie being excellently protected
 against horizontal and obliQue hits by
 a u2-inch belt of great widths com
 plete1y armored sides, and three ar
 mored decks. The GaIlic ship has very likely the superiority here, twice as
 much displacement in her longer Ger
 man rival being absorbed by the mo- I tors. i-, | "In what concerns vulnerability tc
 submarine explosions, 1t is remarked that the Normandie is very much bet.
 ter off than the Jean Bart. which sur vived hit by an Austrian torpedo o1 the latest type. Elastic armored lon i gitudinal bulkheads, robust transver. sal bulkheads, and an improved dis tribution of the coal bunkers, together with the placing of shellrooms at 6
 good distance from the hull, and up-to. date devices to maintain or restore tho stability, must be said to place the most recent additions to our battl. fleet in favorable position to success fully withstand the shock of torpedo or mine. though 1t is generally felt thu Isubmarine menace was not given quite sufficient attention on the part of thu designers; but this is of course a sor
 of reproach to which are open all tn, contemporaries of the Norinandie.
 | "A further subject for congratulatfo1 is that the four quadruple-turret cui
 rasses have been fitted with small tub'
 boilers of the Normand, Guyot, Belle
 vile, and Niclausse types, especial.
 studied with view to high rate O
 combustion Cup to 225 kilos per squar'
 meter of grate), and to adaptability tt
 military requirements in the matter O
 smokelessness and sudden changes O speed. Mediterranean experience, i
 will be remembered. proved rather un
 favorable, in these respects. to thu
 large-tube Niclausses and Bellevilles
 which it has too long been the fashion
 to exclusively fit in our large ships. } "The reported decision of America
 to construct 6,000-ton battle cruisers
 armed with ten guns of 14-inch bore
 is causing some surprise here, ant
 some doubt is expressed as to wheth CT these projected mastodons will three or four years hence. be wortl