RELATIVE GUN STRENGTH.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12538, 8 May 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

RELATIVE GUN STRENGTH.

A correspondent of. the London "Globe," having resard to the. accessions of naval strength which-have bc-?n made sines the outbreak of the war and will be made in the immediate future, has gone to some trouble to calculate ihe relative strengths of the British and German fleets in'gun power. He lias reached the conclusion that if the two large German armoured vessels of the 1913 programme are completed by the end of the year the main armaments cf the British and German battle fleets will be as follows :

points out, even flu's comparison" can hardly he regarded as affording an entirelv accurate contrast of the. relative o-uii-power of the two fleets. In the first place it is based upon the assumption that all the large British armoured ships of recent, construction are in or near the North' Sea; in the second place, credit is not given to the British Fleet fcr the large"number of 9.2-inch suns which it mounts. There are over 100 of these weapons carried in battleships" and armoured cruisers. Moreover, some of the armoured cruisers' under the British flag are very much superior in fighting .power to the German battleships ""which carry the 9.4-; inch gun: With' every week that passes the relative, strencth 'of the Germans is declining. As the First, Lord of the Admiral! v"observed xhe other day, the great merit of Admiral Sir David Beatty's last action is that "it shows us and the world that there, is at present no reason to assume that, ship for ship, gun for gun, and man for man, we cannot give a very good account of ourselves." .Moreover, the actions which have already taken place-ap-pear to vindicate the virtue of Admiralty policy in ensuring to the British Fleet bitrger- 511113 than those mounted in German ships.

British. German. 15-inch . .. 80 .. 15 14-inch .. 10 ., — 13.5-ineU ... 130 .. — 12-ineh .. 258 .. .. 138 11-inch . — ■ .. 88 9.4-inch. — 40 But as the ' 'Naval and Milita rv Record