Evening star., 1939-10-27
Deutschland Menaces
Conveys as Much as
Sub PeriIs Single Ship
Con Outrun and Outrunoe
Destroyers, Then Sink
Rest Of Ships at Leisure
BY COL. FREDERICK PALMER
Noted Military Expert.

the seas broaden and threaten from
Washington to Murmansk and to
ships conveys fearful of the ap-
proach Of the pocket battleship
Deutschland. now at large on the
high seas. She has as fatal a mes
sage Tor a convoy of merchant ships
escorted by destroyers as a subma-
rlne Tor q single unescorted ship.
1t was the convoy system, it will
be remembered. which was the safe
guard successfully established in the
World War against the submarine.
The destroyers protecting the zig
tagging company of merchant ships
were instantly in swift pursuit to
drop their depth charges when a
perlscope was sighted.
The Deutschland has six l1-inch
guns, which fire shells about Is
miles. Any 1l-inch shell with a rea-
sonably fair hit will sink a large
merchant ship. But the Deutsch-
land can afford to approach much
closer than Is miles to the targets,
unless a light cruiser Is escorting
the convoy. If so, with her bigger
guns and superior range, the
Deutschland can keep out of the
cruisers reach and beat her down.
Might Sink the Whole Convoy.
AS for the 4.7-inch guns of the
escorting destroyers. the Deutsch-
land is too heavily armored for them
to be effective, and her secondary
battery of eight 59-inch guns ought
easily to finish the unarmored de-
stroyers before they can get in tor
pedo range. Then the Deutsch-
lands SOS could send all the ships
in the convoy to the bottom without
having drawn on her magazine for
any 1l-inch shells.
She would seem to be able to go
her way, sinking single ships be-
tween the big bags, until run down
by superior gunfire and captured,
sunk or driven into neutral port
Or, until she runs short of fuel and
cannot refuel from a captured ship,
a servant tanker that has escaped
the enemy's detection, or possibly
in such a neutral port as Murmansk
may turn out to be.
How was she able to slip through
the British naval blockade into the
open sea? Or was she already out
when the war began? Is it possible,
as has been suggested, that she stood
by, screened in Spanish harbor,
after the last cruise of the German
sible that one or both of her sister
pocket battleships. the Admiral Graf
Spec and Admiral Scheer, are al
ready out, and the New Emden, or
one of the faster cruisers, is, too.
Probably Came Out in Fog.
The only chance for pocket bat
tleship or cruiser-unless the Ger
mans, who never deny they are
wonder-workers, have found a
magic way to make an armored
steel hull invisible by day-to slip
past the British naval patrol at the
exit from Wilhelmshaven would
seem to be in the fog at night. Then
she might disappear in an unknown
direction, especially if she had elud-
ed the guard of British battleships,
of which she would have the speed.
Speed and -power-twin rulers
of the sea!
Very likely the officers and crew
of the British battle cruiser Hood
are on their toes, eager in the re-
lease of offensive action as a break
from patrol or preparing at an
chor to resist German bombers
raids. The 42,000-ton Hood, largest
warship in the world, is obviously
the one for the chase of the 10000
ton Deutschland, the limit of the
size stipulated by the Versailles
treaty for the German Navy.
In the concentration of armor
and gun power in the Deutschland's
design and that of her two sister
ships the Germans sought to get
the same edge in arms progress they
gained over the British before the
World War. Early in the World
War the German shells were SUI
perior in penetration of armor to
the British.
A Streamlined Shell.
Now the Germans have made an
innovation which is. in appearance,
like going back to the old days of the
blunderbuss. The guns on the pock-
ct battleships have what looks like a
bell mouth, firing a streamlined
projectile, which is supposed to give
an unequaled range and muzzle
and hitting velocity. Gun eleva-
ton is 60 degrees for more plung-
ing and penetrating fire.
The 3l-knot Hood should easily
overhaul the 26-knot Deutschland,
but first must locate her, when. in
her own blackout, she may be able
to give her pursuer the slip under
the blackout of dark night.
Once in striking distance, the
Hood, with her eight 15-inch guns,
firing shells weighing 1920 pounds
each, by sheer overwhelming weight
of metal ought to make short work
of crushing the Deutschland, with
her six 11-inch guns firing shells
weighing $40 pounds, unless these
have sensationally superior penetra-
ton to the British, plus superior
accuracy.
Also the British have two other
battel cruisers, the RenoWn and the
Repulse. A German report, en-
phatically denied by the British,
says the Repulse has already been
damaged by submarine torpedo at
tack. Both have six 15-inch guns
and are listed at % knots, COM
pared to the Deutschland's listed 26.
Two listed knots may not make
much difference in practice.
French Might Take Her On. ,
The French have the Dunkerque
and the Strasbourg, listed at 30
knots, with eight 13-inch guns,
which might look after the Deutsch-
land If the British battle cruisers
are. needed elsewhere.
The big British battleships, any
one of which should account for the