Loyola College - Review Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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LOYOLA Page 3 COLLEGE REVIEW NAVAL POWERS OF THE WORLD BY mc:-:ARD Bl.ANcHFlEl.D, '44 HE deadly conflict in which we are now engaged is being waged on land, in the air, and at sea, everywhere in the world. The naval engagements which this struggle has produced have been embraced in two main theatres, the European, where Britainis ageless fleet guards the lifelines of democracy against the inroads of sea forces of Germany and Italy, and the Pacific, where the navies of Imperial japan and the United States of America are locked in mortal combat. It is the battle-covered flotillas of Great Britain which bear the brunt of naval war in the Atlantic and Mediterranean against the combined might of Germany and Italy. At the head of the British forces sail the mighty ships of the line, from the old 'cRoyal Sovereignn and HP1evenge', to the new 40,000-ton giants 'tLion', and c'Temeraire,'. Amongst her seventeen dreadnaughts Britain numbers tried and true ships such as the i'ValiantD, 'iWarspite,,, and Malayan, and modern floating fortresses such as the 33,900-ton sister ships Nelsonv and c'Rodney , the four remaining ships of the King George VU class, and the latest additions, 1'Lion', and TemeraireU. In ships of the line in the Atlantic the Axis is far inferior, the main threat, the uAdmiral von Tirpitzn, supposedly of 37,500 tons, but of much greater tonnage and possessing high speed and heavy armament, is confined to the fjords of Norway by the superior numbers and eternal vigilance of her foes. Supplementing her are two Jpocketn battleships and the badly - mauled battle cruisers uScharnhorstv and c'Gneisenau',. Despite the appearance of the new German 'cGraf Zeppelin and Deutschlandn, Britain has the field to herself in carriers, but she has found comparatively little use for them in the waters of Europe, close to land-based aircraft. Their greatest achieve- ment was the crippling of the Bismarck by planes from the much sunk uArlc Royalv and the G'Victoriousv, two of Britainis seven large carriers. Britannia truly rules the waves in the cruiser class. Her sixty cruisers range far and wide protecting the world-wide shipping of the Empire. Against this mighty cruiser fleet Hitler can pit but seven sea-rangers of his own, and beside the destroyer Hotillas of England the German destroyer force is insignificant. . The real threat is the German Unter see booty or U-boatn. This weapon of the Axis has sunk a terrifying tonnage of Allied merchant shipping and has threatened to cripple seriously the war effort of the Allied nations by striking at their vulnerable lines of supply. To counter this threat, an ever-increasing emphasis has been placed upon convoys and convoy escort craft. In this field, Canada has distinguished her- self. Besides building scores of corvettes and other small escort ships she has expanded her sheep-dog navyv from fifteen to over four hundred ships and has taken over fully one-third of the convoy escort tasks in the North Atlantic. This is truly an

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1- r -1 v Hrs., .,... l X, W LOYO L A COLLEGE Page 2 REVIEW Recent surveys in the United States, the results of which may be taken as a fair indication of public reaction in the Whole English-speaking World, showed that a miserably small percentage of the populace were conversant with the Articles of the Atlantic Charter. American soldiers questioned in North Africa were found to be giving little thought to the building of a new World after the War. We cannot but lament this state of affairs, for We must avoid at all costs a recur- rence of the confusion which followed 1918, and which proved a fertile field for the seeds of the present World conflict. Our leaders must have the courage to state plainly, clearly, and in concrete terms what kind of international World order we in- tend to establish after our victory. Failure to do so is a confession of inadequacy in the righteousness of our cause. 1 1 Y Spring-1943 Now generals talk of campaigns lost and won, Of battles to be fought. They speak of men As if of flies. Two million here , and then Perehance they'll die in webs weaoed by the Hun. And all the while the happy, smiling sun Makes soldiers dream of home, and when As youths on golden days they ran o'er fen. But now they march until the job is done. Montgomery sweeps the western desert clean Of German tanks and men. In Russia stench And mud, like parting hands, stay armies' might, And Europe starving waits, restless and keen. Rest still, my soul, no longer tug and wrenchg Soon I will heed thy call to the great fight. PATRICK DEVAUX, '45. 1 1 1 Spring Uprising Do you hear the call of Spring? F locks of birds upon the wing? Flowers pushing from the ground In triumph and in glory hound? Snow that melts on mountains high, Bent to quench the streams so dry? Who is willing to help out Natures swelling, gaudy rout? TOM SULLIVAN, H.S. '45, 1 JJ-,-J'

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LOYOLA S COLLEGE Page 4 REVIEW amazing feat when we compare the pre-war navies of Canada and Great Britain and their relative ship-building capacities. The struggle has been ferocious, and still hangs in the balance, though the scales have begun to tip ever so slightly in our favor. Isolated on the other side of the fortress of Gibraltar lie the ships of the Royal Italian Navy, holed up in Cagliari, Spezia, Naples, Taranto, and Brindisi. The history of Italy's paper navy resembles that of the youngsteris paper bagg blown up to such colossal proportions that Mussolini called the blue inland sea mare nostrumn, it emitted a loud bang under the blows of Taranto and Cape Matapan and suffered subsequent deflation. Despite its heavy losses the Italian Navy constitutes a formid- able force on paper with five battleships, two of the new Littonov class, 12 cruisers, the fastest-of necessity-in the world, and several destroyers, submarines and lesser craft. But the unknown quantity is the morale of its crews, who have already shown themselves poor battle-sailors. The once mighty fleet of France has been dispersed about the world and has suffered the scuttling of its main strength in Toulon harbor. In 1939 it numbered nine battleships, 18 cruisers and about 70 destroyers, including i'Le Terriblev, the world's fastest, and a large undersea fleet. The huge new battlewagons, g'Clemen- ceaun and Kflascognev, on the ways at Brest, were said to have been dynamited in June 1940, and whether the tale be true or false, the invaders' have been unable to put them to their use. An hemisphere away the conflict rages between the navies of Japan and the United States. The greatest surface naval strength of the Axis here has full play. Here, too, the aircraft carrier has come into its own as a weapon of attack in the battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and the Solomon Islands. Since the disastrous crippling of eight capital ships and numerous auxiliaries at Pearl Harbor the U. S. has commissioned four new 35,000-ton dreadnaughts, and launched the first two of her coming fleet of 45,000-ton giants, the Iowan and HN ew Jerseyn. She now out- numbers the Japanese in capital ships by a margin of 19 to 12, of which 12, five are new ships of 40,000 tons, the Nissin', and Takamatic', being at present in action. However, some of Americays battleship strength is on duty in the Atlantic and so cannot be brought to bear on Japan. Japan, on the other hand, which entered the war with a preponderance in carriers, has tumbled to second place in this category with the American launching of four large carriers of the Essen, class, and five smaller carriers converted from 10,000-ton cruisers, and the conversion of many merchantmen to plane carrying duty. The cruiser strength of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which stood at 42 on the day of Pearl Harbor, and which since has been completely obliterated by over- enthusiastic American reporters, has been at least seriously depleted. Cruisers flaunt- ing the Stars and Stripes numbered 44 on the same date, and although eight of that 44 have been lost, and at least six seriously damaged, new launchings and destruction of enemy vessels have given them the upper hand over their enemy counterparts. In destroyers and smaller craft Japan suffered severely in her Indies conquests, and in these categories American shipbuilding has far outstripped Japan. ..-all-vii.