European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 14, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse                              The Sun sets on the Joseph w. Grigg up staff writer n the increasingly rare occasions these Days when a band strikes up lie Britannia Britannia rules the byes there Are Apt to be More sings from listening britons than chests offing out with Pride. Navy that ruled the Waves in heroic Days of Drake and Nelson and ring most of the 19th Century when finish naval might lorded it on the yen seas is no More. It ended with orld War ii and the breakup of the Empire on which once the Sun r set Britain Long ago was outstripped by lie United states and the soviet Union naval Power. Economic troubles ave forced successive British govern cents to axe More and More ships. 1 by the Early 1970s the British Nav longer will have an aircraft Carrier Battle Wagon or a Large Cruiser in inset. This being so some britons wondered suddenly they d been transported Back the glorious past when they read recent series of double Page ads by the Royal Navy appealing for officer Candi dates. The appeals read Why Well always need a Strong Navy. And Strong men to Man it. We re i surrounded we Are an Island. A great trading nation. Our very survival de pends upon the sea. And in this troubled world that Means we need a Strong Navy with men Strong in character initiative i determination and intelligence. We need a Navy with worldwide capability and always  the Appeal to tradition was Plain enough. Britons always have been highly once mighty and proud was the British Atlantic Fleet shown Here in 1925 led by Battle Wagon has Rodney which helped sink the German Bismarck in 1941. A n ruled the Waves during heroic Days of Admiral Horatio Nelson. Conscious that their land is an Island and surrounded. That s Why they needed to Rule the  Are britons still alive who can remember the Fleet review in 1911 when the Royal Navy gathered at Spithead off the South coast of England the greatest Assembly of warships Ever seen in the world s history in Honor of the Coronation of King George v. In it were dreadnoughts packing 12-Inch guns and giant super dreadnoughts with 13.5 Inch guns that could steam a nearly 30 knots to display Britain s naval Power anywhere in the  was the High noon of a British naval glory dating Back More than 1,000 years to the Days of King Alfred the great who first created a Fleet to defend eng land s shores against marauding Vikings in 9th Century. Over those 1,000 years it was sea Power that brought a Small Island people to a position of preeminence among the world s nations and wrested for it the leadership of the mightiest Empire the world had  1,000-year history of the British Navy was highlighted by the names of epic naval victories destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the capture of Gibraltar in 1704, the Battle of the saints off Guadeloupe in 1782 and he victories of Cape St. Vincent Copenhagen an Trafalgar in the Napoleonic wars. It was a gallery too of names of naval heroes. Among them were sir Walter Raleigh and sir Francis Drake lord Howard of Effingham and Grenville Redney Hood Howe and finally the greatest of All lord Nelson Victor of Trafalgar in 1805. This was the Mill Niue of naval might to which the Spithead coronal Ion review in 1911 was the Climax. J. Free years later Britain entered world War i with a Navy More than twice the size of that of her nearest rival  Battle of Jutland in pm was a near standoff though the Imperial Ger Man Fleet never ventured out of its bases again to Challenge the Royal , though Britain s Battle Fleet remained supremo. Britain suffered fear Ful losses from he German a boats an entirely now Factor in naval  period Between the wars was per haps the Golden evening of the Royal Navy the White ensigns of Britain s Gray balls wagons dominated the Mediterranean from Malta and the far East from Singapore. But the United stat Sand Japan were fast catching up. Britain entered world War ii As pain fully vulnerable to a boat attack As in the first War. World War ii marked the by Inisi Dikof the end of British naval dominance. Only the leasing of 50 Over age Ameri can destroyers in 1910 As Antisubmarine escorts saved Britain from disaster attic hands of the nazi a boats. The sinking of the battleships Prince of Wales and repulse by japanese planes in 1941 and the loss of Singapore soon afterwards were blows from which British sea Power never really recovered. The 23 years since world War ii have seen the progressive reduction of the continued on 1 tit a i a june 1968 the stars and stripes 11