Fleet of Sturdy Little Vessels Maintain Eternal Vigilance Against Nazi Mines and Submarines'
WWE ore thinks of the British Navy the picture which immediately springs to mind is a formidable battle Armada of mighty battle-cruisers, ponderous dreadnoughts, sleek, speedy cruisers and giant air craft carriers. In the face of this imposing array of sea power the smaller craft, humble armed trawlers, minesweepers and anti-submarine vessels, are relegated to relative. obscurity, but the truth of the matter is that these nondescript oats are seeing a lot more action in this war than any other branch of the fleet. operate in narrow seas or coastal As Germany's desperate effort to waters. These little vessels are con-break the British sea blockade re~ structed with hulls of double skin volves around ruthless warfare with mahogany that are divided Into ive mines and submarines it is expedient water-tight "compartments, 'These that the Navy counteract this type of warfare with adequate defensive boats normally carry a crow of officer, two EPOS and nine other weapons. 'Thus, in order to check-naval ratings. 'The motor minesweepmate the Nazi' under-sea drive, a ers are each, equipped with two horde of daring little minesweepers Sweeping winches at the stern and and anti-submarine boats have been fare armed. with four machine-guns [commissioned for the maintenance of each, They have a maximum apeed continuous vigilance in the North of 16% denats but this is reduced to Sea and the waters surrounding the bout' 10" knots "when engaged in British Isles, German submarine sweeping operation warfare can" only be successfully waged provided there are sufficient outlets established beyond the block-fade lines, It is for the prime purpose of stopping any such outlets or hunting down any under-sea raiders which may have eluded the blockade that the anti-submarine vessels have been designed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.