Evening star., 1943-01-10
British Navy Comes Through
Holds Against Huge Odds Till U. S. Comes In
MarQuis

Looking back on the smashing sue
cesses in Egypt and Libya, the British
are justly proud of the record of their
navy, which in large part made those
achievements possible. The victories
have served to point up not only the
prelude to the defeat of Rommel, which
was the sending of vast amount of
war material over many thousands of
miles of sea, but the long and perilous
task OF the British Navy in guarding
the ocean routes of the world for, more
than three years.
For more than two years of that time
the British did the job alone, aided only
by such equipment as we could spare,
including, of course, the all-important
transfer of so old destroyers. British
ships and British seamen held the line
against seemingly inSuperable obstacles.
And in doing so they hung up records
which are likely to stand for long time.
Ocean conveys, according to recent
statement of Vice Admiral Wake Walker,
have totaled 1875, 100000 miles, the equiv
alent of 5000 times around the world
More than 10000 conveys have been
escorted, in which 1879 out of every 200
vessels have reached port safely, accord
ing to figures provided by an authorita-
tive source.
600 Ships at Sea.
Britain has constantly at sea 600 war
ships and auxiliaries. In the Atlantic
alone 250000 men of the Royal Navy are
serving. The Admiralty patrols, with
varying degrees of watchfulness, 10000
miles of trade routes on which sail 1000
British and Allied merchantmen.
But mere figures do not tell the real
story. The epic has been written in the
individual narratives of the ships them
selves and of the unsung heroes who
man them. There is nothing conSpicu-
ously heroic in sweating for an 18-hour
watch in the engine room of a destroyer
Such men, thousands of them, have
made it possible for the British Navy to
maintain control of the seven seas.
Take, for example, the record of the
battleship H. M. S. Rodney. Since the
beginning of the war the Rodney, COM
manded by Capt. J. w. Rivett-C Carnac,
has steamed more than 10000 miles
For 30 out of the first SO months after
September, 1899, she has been at her
battle station or steamng about the
oceans protecting conveys, chasing raid
ers and helping to keep Hitlers cruisers
and destroyers confined to port. The
n I,oc i,, off
Norway, in the Mediterranean, in the
North Atlantic and in the South Atlantic
H. M. S. Rodney was one of the war
ships in on the kill of the NaN super
battleship Bismarck. The machinery Of
the 17-year old vessel was known at the
time to be badly in need Of repairs, yet
she steamed at full speed for 18 hours.
For keeping the ship going at high speed
when she should have been limping
home for repairs, the engineer officer in
charge was given the Distinguished
Service Order.
Just before the pursuit of the Bis
marck began in the North Atlantic the
Rodney was escorting a convoy. Boiler
trouble developed and the engineer in
charge shut down the defective boiler.
Then he and an engineroom assistant
climbed into the furnace to make tern-
porary repairs. The heat was such that
they could stand it for only five minutes
at time and when the job was COM
pleted they were pulled out exhausted.
But they had done in four and a half
hours repair job which would ordi-
narily have taken 10 hours, and because
of their devotion to duty the Rodney was