Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-12-21
British Admiralty
Adopts Offensive as
'Deadwood' Goes
Escape Of Nozi Fleet
Indicates Heavy Ships
Of England Scattered
BY MAJ. GEORGE FIELDING
ELIOT.

tempo. 1t has happened before.
1t always seems to be necessary in
Britain's admiralty when a war
begins. In the last World War,
1t was dynamic "Jacky" Fisher In
the post of first sea lord, backed
up by the same energetic and
imaginative cabinet minister who
now heads the board of admiralty,
Winston Churchill, who brought
about the change.
Today Mr.. Churchill, after a
three-month tenure of Office, has
as his right hand admiral of the
feet Sir Dudley Pound to fill Fish
ers place, a different type in many
ways than Fisher, but no less force
full and no less clear-sighted-not
as likely to fly to extremes, in fact
a most excellent complement to
Mr. Churchill. Pound has scarcely
been longer at the admiralty than
Churchill. On neither is to be
placed the blame for the rather
sorry state of affairs which they
inherited, and which they have
barely had the time to begin cor
recting.
Defensive Policy Loosened.
Not the least of their handicaps
was the defensive policy forced
upon them by the government, of
which Mr.. Churchill was but a
single member. This shackle ap-
pears to be loosening its grip. We
ind British submarines and British
airplanes taking the offensive in
the North Sea, and not without
success as far as the submarines,
at least, are concerned One Of
them, the Salmon, reports having
seen the major part of the Ger
man fleet at seattle two new bat
tleships Scharnhorst and Gueise-
nau, a pocket battleship (presuma-
bly, the DeutschlandD, the heavy
cruisers Hyper and Bluecher, a
light cruiser and a destroyer flo
tilla.
This confirms our previous con-
lecture that Vice Admiral Marshall,
commanding the battleship squad
ron, went out to cover the Deutsch-
land into portland perhaps also
the Bremen, which the Salmon also
sighted but did not attack. She was
not so careful Of the warships. She
reports having torpedoed at least
one heavy cruiser, perhaps two
cruisers, though she could not stay
to see what results her torpedoes
obtained. Naturally not, for the
destroyers must have been upon her
like hungry wolves. But the very
fact that Marshall was out indi-
Gates how much the British armored
ships must now be scattered in
search for German raiders, or on
convoy protection duty.
Canadian Division Escorted.
One very important phase of this
would be the escorting to Britain
OF the just-arrived Canadian di.
vision. 1t will be recalled that in
the last war the battle cruiser Prin-
cess Royal was detached to cover
the crossing of the first Canadian
contingent at a time when Sturdee's
Two battle cruisers were away in the
South Atlantic chasing the squadron
OF Admiral Count Spec. Just at
this time, also, the battleship King
George V had to 60 into backward
for the retubing of her condensers.
and a collision between the battle
ships Conqueror and Monarch put
them both temporarily out of &C
ton. This net withdrawal of six
capital ships left Admiral Jellicoe
with little if any numerical SUI
periorlty over the Germans, a fact
which. he writes with relief in his
memoirs, the Germans did not
grasp IN time to be of any use to
them.
Now that German armored raid
ers are known to be at sea, a single
capital ship would not be enough
1or the escort. No chances of an
attack on the Canadian troopships
could be taken, Perhaps Marshall
was out for this very purpose and
found 1t lmpracticable. More likely
ne did not know of the Canadian
troop movement in time to deliver
an attack.
AS we have previously suggested
1t may be that the British dispersal
may afford some opportunity to the
Germans for attempting to avenge
the loss Of the Graf Spec. 1t NAV
be that the activities of British
submarines in the North Sea are
Tor the very purpose of preventing
such German enterprise. Or it
may be that they mark the open-
ing phase of a new series of often.
slVe operations intended to confine
the German fleet to the vicinity
OF Its coasts in order to cover the
crossing OF supplies and perhaps re-
Inducements to Scandinavian ports.
en- route to Finland.
Finnish Angle Enters.
The decision to support Finland
as far as possible" having been
taken, the first prerequisite is an
assured line of communications by
which this may be done. The direct
route by sea is, of course, through
the Skagerrak, the Kattegat and
the Baltic. But this route is com.
manded at one point by German
coast artillery, at many by German
submarines, light craft and air.
planes. One has to envisage the
Germans standing quietly by and
watch their enemies pour in sup
Plies to be used against their quasi.
ally. 1t does not seem likely. It is
certainly not safe to count upon
it, especially as German policy in
the Russo-Finnish affair is as vet
unclarified. The other route is via
Norwegian ports, then rail into Fin
land, or transshipment at Swedish
port on the Gulf of Bothnia, into
which the Russian fleet has not vet
penetrated. This seems to be safer
and the more likely choice.
But in the last war the British
found that from Scapa Flow they
could not always assure the safety
of conveys proceeding to Bergen,
They may now be starting a CAM
paign to tie up German naval activi-