Through 18 June 1948
UNITED STATES
Adm. King Proves Need for Carriers
N. Y. Times, June 6.—The decisive Battle of Midway, in which the Japanese lost four airplane carriers, was cited today by the Navy—on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the battle—as vital proof of the value of carriers in both offensive and defensive war at sea.
Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, former Commander in Chief of the Fleet, broke his retirement silence to cite Midway as proof that carriers could approach enemy shores within fighting range without detection and, conversely, that carriers provided "the versatile power of a mobile air base in a defensive situation."
Dive-Bomber Action Recalled
Proof of the first contention, he said, lay in the fact that despite far-ranging United States patrols and intelligence services, the Japanese carriers were not detected until they were within striking distance of Midway Island.
Proof of the second was found, he said, in the fact that four Japanese carriers were sunk by Navy dive-bombers while Army B-17's joined in the battle made no hits. Other killing blows were delivered on the Japanese force by torpedo bombers and submarines working in unison, he added. The Navy carrier bombers were supplemented by land-based Navy aircraft.
The official conclusions from this battle were stated by the Navy as follows:
"1. Dive-bombers were effective instruments of attack. All bomb hits on the Japanese carriers were scored by this type of plane.
"2. Strong fighter protection was required for attacking groups. Such protection might have reduced the heavy losses to the United States Navy's torpedo planes and the B-26's (Army bombers) which carried torpedoes, according to a report by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who was then Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet.
"Carriers Difficult to Detect"
"3. Aircraft carriers were found to be difficult to detect on the high seas without early, accurate and continuous information as to their whereabouts. Although accurate intelligence reports placed the Japanese fleet on the route to Midway, none of the enemy carriers was located until after the carriers were close enough to Midway Island to launch a plane attack."
Big Carrier Described
N. Y. Times, June 4.—The Navy's projected 65,000-ton carrier, which has been receiving considerable attention in Congress and in the press, will carry more than a score of 100,000-pound four-engined planes, will have a designed speed of about thirty-three knots and will be the seventh ship in the United States Navy too wide to pass through the present 110-foot locks of the Panama Canal. ,
The new carrier, which now bears simply the design designation of 6-A, but for which the names Pearl Harbor, United States and George Washington have been suggested, will displace, it is expected, about 80,000 tons full load.
It will have an armored flight deck and other armor and it will bristle with antiaircraft guns of improved design. Its high-pressure, high-temperature boilers will supply steam turbines capable of producing about 280,000 horse-power. Its over-all length will be 1,090 feet; its beam, 130 feet.
Dimensions No Handicap
These dimensions, however, are not in any way insuperable handicaps to its strategic use. The Coral Sea, Midway and Franklin D. Roosevelt—45,000-ton battle carriers which displace 62,000 tons full load—have beams of 113 feet and hence are too wide to pass through the present Panama Canal locks. So, too, are the Tennessee, California, and West Virginia, old battleships, modernized with blisters, the beams of which are 114 feet.
Studies for the modernization of the Panama Canal are, however, being made and either a sea-level canal, or a lock-canal with new locks 130 to 150 feet wide will some day be built.
The new carrier's estimated cost will be about $124,000,000 at time of completion. At peacetime tempo the building would take forty-six months. The ship, the largest warship in world history, could be built at any one of three Navy yards or at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company.
Planes Being Designed
By the time this super-carrier is completed the Navy expects to have available the planes which will endow it with such strategic importance. These planes, already in an advanced design stage, will be four-engined 100,000-pound craft, probably powered by turbine-driven propellers, and will be, it is hoped, capable of top speeds of 400 to 450 knots, and operating radii of 1,500 to 2,000 miles.
These planes, though capable of carrying atomic bombs, will not be fully comparable in range to the Boeing B-50 "Superfort," which is expected to be the "workhorse" of the Air Force in the immediate future. They will, however, be faster and capable of quick, darting surprise raids from a mobile base.
The Navy already has adequate authorization to build this carrier and the funds to start it—about $6,000,000—are provided in the 1949 fiscal year naval appropriation bill.
Trumpetfish to Visit England
N. Y. Herald Tribune, May 22.—The U.S.S. Trumpetfish, one of the United States Navy's most modern high-speed submarines equipped with a secret breathing device for extended underwater cruising, is on its way to England "at the invitation of the British Admiralty," it was learned last night.
The Trumpetfish left Portsmouth, N. H., on May 7, according to the Navy Department, and will arrive at a British port—probably Portsmouth—about June 1. Because the surfaced speed of the submarine is in excess of sixteen knots, the unexplained length of the submarine's 2,900-mile voyage aroused speculation last night that the undersea craft might be attempting the entire trip submerged. Navy officials would neither confirm nor deny this.
The submarine is the first United States undersea craft equipped with the new breathing device known as a schnorkel or schnozzola to leave the nation's continental waters.
It is reported also to be the first Navy undersea craft of any type to go into European waters since World War II. Its skipper, Commander Kenneth G. Schacht, served in the Pacific aboard submarines in World War II and was for a time a prisoner of the Japanese.
Veteran Warships for Targets
N. Y. Herald Tribune, May 27. With the United States 1st Task Fleet, off California.—Two torpedo hits sank the cruiser Salt Lake City yesterday after bombs, shells and rockets had battered the vessel for hours.
The cruiser went down in 2,000 fathoms—more than two miles—of water 130 miles off the coast of southern California. Although five, six and eight-inch shells were hurled at the ship, and 100, 500 and 1,000-pound bombs tore chunks from her sides and superstructure she was still afloat, with only a slight list to port, until the first torpedo struck. It tore a hole in her port bow, and she gradually keeled over. Fires broke out fore and aft.
Her main deck was almost awash when the second torpedo—fired by Commander E. P. Hadley, of the Bronx, New York, from the submarine Blenny—struck amidships.
As the Salt Lake City went down, Navy committal services were held on the submarine tender Nereus, standing off a couple of miles.
Rear Admiral Bertram J. Rodgers, a former captain of the cruiser, said: "Today the Navy is doing what the Japs could not do—we are sinking our own ship. She has fulfilled her destiny."
Admiral C. D. Ramsey, commander of the Pacific Fleet, who witnessed the sinking, said: "In general, the functioning of material was excellent. The Salt Lake City, a grand veteran of war and peace, has completed her last service. A final well done."
The Salt Lake City was built at Camden, N. J., nineteen years ago. She took part in thirty-one Pacific war engagements, and was one of the targets in the Bikini atom-bomb tests two years ago. The ship was still radioactive. A tug towed her out from San Pedro, Calif., for the final day at sea.
N. Y. Times, June 9.—The battleships New York and Nevada, veterans of the atomic bomb tests at Bikini, and now moored in Pearl Harbor, will be sunk in July about fifty miles off Oahu as a climax to the Navy's Eniwetok experiment.
The Navy has been conducting tests with other Bikini victims for the past five weeks to sharpen Pacific Fleet's teeth in experiments involving the Navy's non-atomic weapons in event of an immediate emergency.
The 34-year-old New York, veteran of two World Wars and two atomic blasts, will be used as a target early in July for fire power of Task Force 38, which includes the aircraft carriers Boxer and Princeton and supporting air, surface and submarine units.
The orange-painted Nevada, bullseye for the atomic bomb drop on the Bikini fleet in the summer of 1946, will be sunk later in July after the 27,000-ton Ol Maru is first used to test new types of explosives and then turned over to the battleship Iowa and the cruisers Springfield, Astoria and Pasadena for her coup de grâce.
These sinkings will highlight visits to Hawaiian waters of 3,300 midshipmen who will be aboard the attacking vessels.
The comprehensive fleet testing program using Bikini target victims began on May 3 after nine radioactive ships anchored in the Kwajalein lagoon were scuttled just outside the harbor to forestall their sinking in shoal water and blocking the anchorage.
Fourteen vessels anchored at Kwajalein have been used since as targets for the fleet's firepower, which has included the latest and best non-atomic weapons available. These sinkings have left only five of the original twenty-eight Bikini targets anchored at Kwajalein. Eight other ships which survived the "Able" and "Baker" explosions but were no longer combat worthy were towed from Kwajalein more than a year ago for further scientific study. These included the cruiser Salt Lake City, sunk recently during First Task Fleet exercises.
To Exhibit U-Boat at Chicago
Chicago Tribune, June 1.—The Science Museum in Jackson park is planning to exhibit a German submarine captured in 1944 by a task force commanded by a Chicagoborn officer.
Sen. Brooks (R., Ill.) is sponsoring a bill to authorize the Navy to deliver the submarine, now at Portsmouth, N. H., to Maj. Lenox R. Lohr at the museum.
Rear Adm. Daniel V. Gallery, a graduate of St. Ignatius High School, won the distinguished service medal for capturing the U-505, a 1,000 ton German submarine.
Eager to Get Exhibit
Lohr said he was eager to get the submarine as an exhibit and said that Chicago should have it because of Gallery's family connections here.
Gallery was captain of the escort carrier U.S.S. Guadalcanal, with an escort of destroyers in his task force, when he spotted the submarine off French West Africa. After detailed preparations, the U-boat was forced to surface and the crew abandoned the vessel June 4, 1944.
A boarding party kept the submarine afloat and Gallery entered the craft ahead of his men to make sure there were no booby traps. Valuable material was turned over to naval intelligence.
The boarding operation and the extensive preparations were filmed under Gallery's orders.
Ships Assigned U.S.N.R. on Great Lakes
Chicago, Tribune, June 14.—The Navy said today it has more than 30 vessels including four "nonoperative" submarines assigned in the Great Lakes for naval reserve training.
These vessels are mostly small patrol or auxiliary types and are not classified as armed vessels because their guns have either been removed or cannot be used. The submarines cannot be submerged. The Navy said it has no regular naval warship in the Great Lakes at this time.
The presence of armed vessels in the Great Lakes is governed by an American-Canadian treaty under which each government is required to obtain the consent of the other.
(Editor's Note: 31 vessels to be exact.)
U. S. Truce Officers Palestine Bound
N. Y. Times, June 9.—Washington—Seven United States Navy and Marine officers left here today for Palestine, where they will be joined by seven Army and seven Air Force officers from the European theatre to serve as truce observers.
Announcement of the arrangement was made by the State Department. The assignments were made at the request for observers by Count Folke Bernadotte, the United Nations Mediator in the Holy Land. Observers are being sent also by France and Belgium, the other nations represented in the consular truce commission in Jerusalem.
According to the State Department, the Mediator has authority, under the truce resolution of the Security Council, to request observers, and the same authority is held by the truce commission.
Russia has asked the Security Council to send observers from her Army. The Council postponed action on this until Thursday.
The United States Navy Officers going to Palestine are Capts. S. D. Willingham of Portland, Ore., and Daniel T. Eddy of Honolulu, Comdrs. Carson Hawkins of Reno, Nev., and Harold D. Huxley of San Francisco and Lieut. Vladimir L. Ruchly of Cicero, Ill. The Marine officers involved are Majs. Regan Fuller of Washington and Roy D. Miller of Cincinnati.
Adm. Denfeld Calls Fleet Ready in Mediterranean
N. Y. Herald Tribune, June 3.—The United States Mediterranean Fleet is "ready for action" and has for one of its missions a "show of force" to deter "any nation" from possible hostile action, hitherto secret Navy testimony revealed today.
Speaking May 19 before a closed session of the House Naval Appropriations Subcommittee, Admiral Louis E. Denfeld, Chief of Naval Operations, bluntly amplified the original United States Mediterranean Naval policy laid down Sept. 30, 1946, by Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, then Secretary of the Navy.
Questioned by Representative Charles A. Plumley, Republican of Vermont, subcommittee chairman, as to whether the present American Mediterranean Fleet of a carrier, three cruisers and ten destroyers is "a sufficient number to protect the Mediterranean area," Admiral Denfeld replied: "it is not a sufficient number to protect that area, but it is a number which would give us a start, and we could put more ships in there in a short time."
"Are those ships so assigned and complemented that they are ready for action, if necessary?" Mr. Plumley asked.
"Yes, sir," Admiral Denfeld replied. "All the ships we have in the forward areas are manned with sufficient men to act in any emergency."
In response to another question, Admiral Denfeld said: "The reason we have this force … in the Mediterranean is to be available in the event that our occupation forces have to be evacuated. We have in Europe occupation forces in Germany, in Trieste; we have missions in Greece and in Turkey, and these ships are there not only to be available to evacuate these personnel in case of emergency, but also as a show of force to prevent any nation from taking any action which they might take if our ships were not present there."
Later, Mr. Plumley said: "The maintenance of that fleet has another purpose other than that of possible evacuation of troops. It has as a purpose the determination of the United States to keep the sea lanes open?"
"That is correct, sir," Admiral Denfeld replied.
Admiral Denfeld's secret testimony was given twenty-four hours after the Navy announced that the Mediterranean Fleet, with its complement of Marines, which had been reinforced during the last year, would be relieved on station about June 10 in accordance with Navy policy of rotating vessels in the area. The ships relieved will return to the United States, but late this month and early in July the midshipmen's cruise squadron of thirteen ships, led by the battleship Missouri, will join the Mediterranean Fleet for joint exercises. The combined squadrons in the Mediterranean at that time will total about thirty fighting craft aggregating 200,000 tons, the largest American peace-time sea-power force ever assembled in the region.
Leper Colony on Tinian
N. Y. Times, June 5.—The island of Tinian in the Marshall Islands, wartime base for B-29 atomic bombing missions against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has been selected by the Navy as the site of a proposed leper colony for Pacific Island natives, Admiral DeWitt C. Ramsey, commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, announced here yesterday upon his return from West Coast First Task Fleet exercises.
Tinian, which is a hundred and ten miles north of the Guam naval base, was selected because of its proximity to the center of logistics support for the western Pacific area, Admiral Ramsey said. The island is inhabited at present by 275 persons, and is the site of a commercial farming project. There are no military personnel there. Its area is about forty square miles.
A hospital ship which is being converted into a floating medical laboratory for an extended medical survey of natives in Pacific trust territory is scheduled to leave here about Aug. 1 to minister to the needs of 50,000 Pacific island natives under naval administration. While making the survey in the Marshalls, Marianas and Carolines, the medical staff will locate ailing lepers in need of treatment. These will then be transported to Tinian, where medical facilities will be set up and a staff of Navy medical men assigned.
Increased Strength in Alaska
N. Y. Times, June 5.—Anchorage—American soldiers in relatively small numbers have been moving into Alaska for the past few weeks. Some of them are replacements for United States troops who have already served a hitch in the United States' northernmost outpost, but most of them represent additional strength. Before the troop movement is completed this summer more than 2,000 troops will be moved into the territory.
No one in authority here will say that there is any immediate possibility of trouble in Alaska. But officers and men go about their daily tasks wearing sidearms or carrying rifles and carbines. The feeling here is clear and unmistakable: There can be no risk of another Pearl Harbor.
Fort Richardson, a sprawling post that abuts upon Elmendord Field, the chief air base, is the headquarters for the United States Alaskan Command. A huge modern stone and steel building dominates the post. Off to the right and left of the big building stand rusting steel skeletons of two more large permanent buildings on which work has been halted temporarily.
Building Costs Are High
The cost of putting up buildings of a permanent type is extremely high in Alaska. All of the materials must be freighted in and the men and machines to do the work have to be recruited and gathered in the States and transported north to work during the short warm season. The cost of building has been estimated as being from three to five times greater than in the United States.
Because of the position of Alaska and the physical nature of the territory, the bulk of the responsibility for the defense of Alaska has been placed on the Air Force. Naturally, most of the military activity here has to do with aviation.
At the present time the Air Force has relatively small units of bombers, fighters, reconnaissance, weather and testing aircraft here. In addition there is an Arctic Indoctrination School at Marks Air Force base in Nome and a Search and Rescue Squadron that operates through all the Air Force bases from Point Barrow in the north to Adak in the Aleutian Islands.
There are units of the Troop Carrier Command, some of which serve as an airline for the Air Force, and out on Adak Island there is an all-weather fighter squadron that has proved it can operate efficiently at all times.
Air Force Has Fourfold Mission
Radar and radio warning nets for Alaska are still far from what the military would like to have, but the warning net has been greatly improved in recent months.
The mission of the Air Force in Alaska has been described as being fourfold. The Alaskan Air Command is charged with (1) defending Alaska and the northwest approaches to the United States; (2) conducting aerial reconnaissance and surveillance in the area; (3) denying the area to any enemy who would seek to establish bases and operate from them against the United States; (4) establishing and maintaining a training program which will provide Arctic training for tactical units of the United States Air Force.
A reconnaissance squadron of B-29's based on Ladd Field near Fairbanks has been working on thirty different projects in recent months. Some of the projects are classified and cannot be revealed, but others include the mapping of the Alaskan mainland and photo reconnaissance work.
A weather squadron which flies B-29's and operates from the North Pole to California is also based on Ladd Field. Besides gaining much knowledge of the problems of flying at and near the North Pole it has contributed much to weather forecasts in Alaska and the United States.
Commercial airlines—scheduled and unscheduled—operating from Alaska to the United States and within the limits of Alaska are welcomed by the military as well as by the people of Alaska. In a country so vast and with so poor a system of transportation, the airplane is doubly welcome.
Northwest Airlines, which flies through Alaska and the Aleutian Islands on its way from New York to Japan, China and the Philippines, uses Air Force bases, Air Force navigational aids and Air Force ground landing aids. One high ranking Air Force officer pointed out that in addition to the knowledge of flying conditions gained in the area by the airline, the Air Force and the Army would have a transport airline in being if it were ever needed.
(Editor's Note: More details in Proceedings of November 1947.)
Russian Protest Rejected
N. Y. Times, May 28.—The United States has rejected protests by the Soviet Union against low-flying military and naval aircraft in the western Pacific, the State Department announced today. A formal note to that effect was delivered in Moscow by Ambassador Walter Bedell Smith on Tuesday.
In a series of communications over the past several months, the Soviet Union has listed more than fifty cases in which, it was alleged, United States aircraft had flown so close to Soviet vessels at sea as to menace their safety. The State Department's note denied any danger was involved, and added that Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur had ordered all pilots to avoid creation of any hazard in performing their sea-search patrols.
The note pointed out that General MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, was responsible for the occupation and control of Japan.
"In carrying out this responsibility," the State Department's announcement said, "the Supreme Commander has used the Air, Army and Naval forces at his disposal to prevent smuggling and illegal entry into Japan.
"Effective measures to accomplish this mission must include surface and aerial surveillance of shipping in off-shore waters of the areas concerned, as well as ground action on peripheral shores. Low flying within the limits of safety is absolutely necessary for recognition purposes.
"These activities serve the interests of the Soviet Government as well as of other nations concerned with the occupation and control of Japan."
The note stated that the United States considered such activities to be legitimate and was unable to accept the Soviet contention that they constituted a violation of the freedom of shipping.
U.S. Seeks Approval of Atomic Energy Control
N. Y. Times, June 12.—For the first time since atomic talks began two years ago, the United States called on the United Nations Security Council today to give its approval to the outline of a powerful international control agency.
Facing certain Russian veto, Dr. Philip C. Jessup of the United States moved formally that the Council back the three reports of the majority of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. The first two sketch the principles and duties of the control agency, and the third declares that the steadfast opposition of the Soviet Union makes further progress of the commission impossible.
Dr. Jessup combined his motion with a warning that there was no middle road between effective international atomic control and an atomic arms race. He urged the Council to support the commission's move to transfer the atomic debate to the General Assembly session in Paris this fall.
Russian to Speak Wednesday
In quick order, Canada and the United Kingdom gave their support to the United States resolution. Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko said he would have his say next Wednesday, and the Council put off a vote until then.
Packers of the American motion were certain that it would get the usual majority of nine since commission and Council membership is identical. And they were just as certain that it would be vetoed by the Soviet Union, which has demanded that the commission be allowed to continue work.
The purpose of the United States resolution, it was said in United States circles, was to get the majority of the Security Council—the parent of the commission—on record as favoring the Russian-opposed plan for atomic control.
(Editor's Note: It was vetoed by U.S.S.R.)
GREAT BRITAIN
North Sea Exercises
The Aeroplane, May 28.—Exercise "Dawn," the largest combined naval/air exercise to take place since 1939, was not intended to have any tactical significance; for the R.A.F., the purpose of the exercise was to provide practice for personnel of Bomber, Coastal and Fighter Commands in detecting, shadowing by radar, bombing, and striking seaborne forces, and in anti-submarine patrols and strikes. So far as the Navy was concerned, Exercise "Dawn" was a prelude to the Home Fleet's Autumn cruise, and provided sea experience under simulated combat conditions for National Service men and boy entrants. From our vantage point in the Operations room of H.Q. 18 Group, Coastal Command, at Pitreavie, Fife, the whole business struck us as being inconclusive in view of the many recent developments in military weapons, while the fuel restrictions on the range of the exercise prevented its true value from being exploited.
Two separate forces participated, both of which consisted of aircraft and ships, and in the traditional fashion they were named Red and Blue Force. An added significance, however, might be construed on the names, for by coincidence or otherwise they could very well represent the opposing forces—the Dominant C's—in the present World structure. The "enemy" (i.e., Red Force) composed of the battleships Anson and Howe, the Fleet Carrier Implacable, and a supporting screen of lighter vessels, were presumed to be steaming for attacks on Atlantic shipping. Blue Force was entirely composed of aircraft, with the exception of eight submarines which assisted in one phase of the exercise.
When the exercise began, at dawn on May 13, the Red Fleet was steaming about 100 miles from the East coast of Scotland. It was first spotted after a creeping line-ahead search by one of three Lancasters from Leuchars which maintained contact out of radar range of the fleet. After radar identification by the Lancasters, two Mosquitos were due to give a low-level visual identification. While the first Lancaster continued to shadow the fleet, reporting its position, the other two orbited in order to "home" the bomber stream and decoy forces which constituted the next phase of the exercise.
The first attack was to have been made by 18 Lincolns escorted by Hornets (which covered top and bottom of the main bomber stream at its most vulnerable point, at 20,000 ft.) co-ordinated with a low-level strike by land-based Naval aircraft. Seven Lancasters from Stradishall dropping "Window" provided a divisionary force at 18,000 ft. from the East, to draw off the Naval aircraft from the Implacable. On take-off, visibility for these Lancasters was down to about 100 yds., and goose-necked flares had to be used. Timing, however, was good, although thick cloud formed over the North Sea and prevented a visual attack by the main bomber stream. The "gate" aircraft was not identified as radar reception was bad, perhaps because of the diversionary "Window," and the aircraft were ordered to return to base.
Attacks from All Levels
The Naval strike, meanwhile, continued at a low level, and although the Seafires did not locate the target, Firebrands and Fireflies attacked and claimed "hits" with torpedoes and rockets on the aircraft carrier and escort vessels. There was no fighter opposition except for two Sea Hornets which attacked a straggler.
Before the bomber stream had reached their bases, they were recalled to the attack, to find broken cloud over the target area. With the element of surprise, the first bombing run was made at 18,000 ft. out of the sun, without fighter opposition, but the following attack drew stiff opposition from the defending ship- and shore-based fighters. Because of cloud patches, no photographs of the fleet were obtained by the attacking bombers, but one Lincoln went down to 7,000 ft. and obtained the photographic equivalent of a successful attack. As the escorting Hornets had landed before the bombers had been recalled, there was no fighter escort, and cloud cover was sought during the withdrawal. The Lincolns reported many contacts with the Sea Furies, which were operating as a squadron from the Implacable, for the first time, and two Sea Hornets and some Seafires on Carrier Air Patrol from shore bases. As the result of this attack, the Implacable was considered to have been straddled by bombs.
Tactical Attacks
Following the high-level bombing, 12 R.A.F. Hornets which had been refuelled, took off for a low attack on the Red Fleet. Each Hornet was assumed to be carrying 16 rocket projectiles in addition to its normal armament of four 20-mm. cannon and the squadron broke off in sections of six for the attack at 250 knots. Coming in at sea level, the first six aircraft attacked with their cannon to engage the flak, while the other section climbed to 2,000 ft. to deliver a rocket attack. Sea Hornets and Sea Furies opposed the aircraft while the sections changed, but the Hornet pilots considered that they put at least two destroyers out of action. After the Hornets had withdrawn, No. 14 Carrier Air Group made a further strike on the Red Fleet, ending Serial 1 of the exercise.
Serial 2, which began at 13.00 hrs. on May 13, and continued for 12 hours, was a long running battle between the fleet, assisted by the Leuchars Lancasters and eight submarines of the Blue Force. Sunderlands shadowed the fleet through the night, while the Lancasters sought out the "U-boats" by radar and made several successful attacks. The submarines which were waiting off the Orkneys, had no success at all, most of them being assumed sunk by the escort vessels, which were very much on the qui vive. In the early hours of May 14, Lancaster "G" from Leuchars, which had taken over the shadowing from the Sunderland, was "shot down" by Sea Furies from the Implacable, and retired, in accordance with the rules, for half an hour.
A further high-level bombing attack by Lincolns followed from 15,000 ft. in good weather and radar conditions, and the R.A.F. claimed to have sunk a large part of the fleet. The Navy was equally convinced that it had shot down most of the attacking aircraft. In actual combat conditions, a similar naval force would not have stood much chance operating so close to land-based air power of any strength, although the ships could certainly have given a good account of themselves. The main bomber stream, with an imaginary escort of fighters, was detected by radar 55 miles away from the Fleet, which was using Fireflies flying at 100 ft. to supplement the ships' radar. Interceptions took place before the "time to attack" was reached, and the "Window" was not successful in diverting the naval fighters. The Naval C.-in-C. considered that the tactics of the Blue Force were well conceived, but thought that conditions militated against a successful attack.
The exercises closed with an anti-submarine offensive against six of the submarines which had operated with the Blue Fleet, and gave the R.A.F. crews some practice in operating against this type of target. The submarines, all of which were fitted with "Schnorkel" for underwater operations, did not attempt to avoid detection, so it was not surprising that most of them were discovered and attacked.
Watching the progress of the various phases of the exercise from the Operations Room beneath 90 ft. of concrete in an air-conditioned calm akin to that in an operating theatre, we were struck by the dignity of events compared with the swift cycle in a Fighter control centre. The symbols on the brightly coloured and illuminated wall map moved so much more slowly; three rectangles in the North Sea marked the limits of the Fleet's operations. Some surprise was caused in the Operations Room in the initial stages of the exercise when the position of the Naval units was given as being a considerable distance away from the rectangles, by one of the Lancaster crews. This, and similar mistakes, can only be eliminated by constant practices.
Co-operation between the R.A.F. and the Navy played an important part in Exercise "Dawn," and although there was a preponderance in the air, there was no competition. It did give communications personnel from the Combined Operations valuable experience in "operational" conditions, and the exercise as a whole was considered "thoroughly well worth while" by the senior officers of the opposing forces.
As always on such occasions conditions are artificial, and often may savour of a certain lack of reality but this cannot be avoided. One certainly comes away convinced of the need for providing the Services with the means to stage the most realistic exercises possible.
H.M.C.S. Magnificent
The Aeroplane, May 21.—Canada's new Light Fleet Carrier H.M.C.S. Magnificent was commissioned on April 7 by her Captain, Commodore H. G. De Wolf, C.B.E., D.S.O., D.S.C. This 14,000-ton ship was rightly called "the most modern aircraft carrier in the World" and she was an obvious choice for our annual visit to sea with G-AERO. Thus, when the Canadian authorities agreed to allow us to witness some of the ship's proving trials it provided an excellent opportunity for us to describe this important phase in the life of the ship.
The Royal Canadian Navy have wisely chosen the Hawker Sea Fury XI as their strike-fighter and the Canadian Air Groups will also use special Fairey Firefly V antisubmarine aircraft. There is a trend towards using more anti-submarine aircraft instead of strike-fighters, but the exact balance between the numbers of aircraft required for these roles will presumably be adjusted from time to time according to the more comprehensive pattern of Canada's national security.
The Sea Furies are at present based at the Royal Naval Air Station at Eglinton in Northern Ireland, where there are several hundred members of the Royal Canadian Navy. This is quite a sizable "invasion" (by peacetime standards). In charge of the Air Group is Lieut. Comdr. H. G. Hunter, R.C.N.
After Magnificent was commissioned from Harland and Wolff's Belfast yard she started preliminary steaming trials in the vicinity and later she arrived in the Channel, where, based at Portsmouth she was scheduled for deck-landing trials with aircraft. The R.N. Carrier Trials Unit which is based at Royal Naval Air Station, Ford (Captain J. D. Luce, D.S.O., O.B.E.) was called upon to provide representative types of aircraft for deck-landing acceptance tests, and during May 4, 5 and 6 it was arranged that numbers of Seafires, Fireflies and Avengers (and G-AERO) should arrive.
In fact, the trials started a little late owing to high winds and low cloud with poor visibility, but, despite this unfortunate start, the ship's company worked until dusk on the first day with the result that on May 5, when G-AERO flew off the deck at 18.20, the entire programme had been completed.
During the first day's operations 24 landings were accomplished, and about the same number were achieved during the second day. All the arrester wires were pulled out the requisite number of times (with the exception of Nos. 7, 8, 9 and 10, which would involve striking the barriers); the accelerators were also exercised. It would probably be wrong to attempt to prejudge the outcome of these trials on superficial observation, but the results appeared to be satisfactory.
Co-ordinated by Ford's Commander (Air), Commander D. H. Elles, R.N., the Carrier Trials Unit certainly worked hard; the CO. Lieut. G. C. Baldwin, D.S.C, R.N., and his C.T.U. pilots were doing some extraordinarily quick circuits which consisted of an accelerated launch, followed by a couple of tight turns to land on. Pilots were not merely landing among the wires, but were aiming specifically to pull out a particular wire—No. 1 wire, for example, was thought to be a difficult one to contact because of its close position to the round-down.
Nearly all the take-offs were by the accelerator—late on the second day when the accelerator had finished its schedule there were a few free take-offs; and landings at different windspeeds were aimed at the wires which had not been previously used. In the end Seafire XVs were landing in a mere 18-knot wind and brought to a standstill with a fierce movement, while the decelerations (up to about 1.8g) were recorded.
A large number of representatives from all sections of the naval and aircraft organizations were present—there were too many to list separately—a mere 175 was the number of people being accommodated in the wardroom. A few organizations were, however, much in evidence: among the visitors were representatives from Harland and Wolff, the Bristol Engine Co., Fairey Aviation, and the R.C.A.F. Also present were representatives from the R.A.E., who were busily checking entry speeds. The Admiralty department probably most represented was the Directorate of Carrier Requirements.
Impressions of the Ship
I am a great believer in first impressions, both when sitting in an aircraft for the first time and when landing on a ship. As Bertrand Russell said during a recent broadcast (he happened to be talking about love at first sight), subsequent events often show that first impressions were wrong, and then later they were found to be right after all. Something intangible in the atmosphere of H.M.C.S. Magnificent makes me confident in prophesying that this will be "a happy ship." It is not an "unhappy" one now, but with all the scientists and other people on board she was not unnaturally a somewhat hectic ship. The Commander (Flying), Commander John C. Reed, D.S.C., R.C.N., had no easy task in his responsibility for the smooth working of the air operations.
Magnificent is one of the "improved light fleet carriers" in which a number of refinements and minor changes have been embodied. There is, for example, more insulation fitted in the bulkheads, and this, among other equipment, makes this ship tropicalized and also polarized (if such it can be called), so that she can be operated anywhere in the world; and she has rather better accommodation.
The British Light Fleet Carrier is 690 ft. long and has a beam of 80 ft. The hangars are all on one level and consist of one long compartment with a 54 ft. by 34 ft. lift at each end. A small amount of hangar space aft of the after lift is the workship section. The hangars are 17 ft. 6 ins. high, which gives 3 ft. more headroom than in some Fleet Carriers. The Canadians may be very glad of this extra space if air operations demand the carrying of more expendable equipment.
The deck-arrester gear is, no doubt, similar to that used in the former Canadian ship, the Light Fleet Carrier "Warrior" (now due for overhaul, prior to taking her turn in becoming our Trials Carrier). The approximate arrester-gear capacity is 15,500 lb., at an entry speed of 60 knots, which is ample for all types of aircraft that the Canadians propose to use. The Sea Furies approach at about 90 m.p.h. and the ship can steam at about 24 knots so that without wind the entry speed is close to its limit, but the weight is well under the allowable amount.
When the ship returns to Canada she will be based close to the Royal Canadian Air Station at Dartmouth, where there are training facilities for deck landing, for air mechanics, for gunnery practice and for a number of other branches of naval air work. There is also a Fleet Requirements Unit consisting of Ansons Firefly I's with other types—not forgetting a Stringbag—to help the people under training.
One does not need to be with the Canadians long to see the tremendous enthusiasm they have for the job. They seem to be really putting their backs into the task of getting this Light Fleet Carrier to work. Many of the men were previously in "Warrior," and some were formerly with the R.N. and transferred to the R.C.N., but some are entirely new to the work. The keenness and zest (H.M.S. "Zest," incidentally, was the destroyer screen) which each man put into his job was something really worth seeing. The R.N., and all those concerned, will wish this ship the best of luck in the "working-up" period and during subsequent operations.
Queen Elizabeth Decommissioned
London Times, May 17.—The full ceremony of lowering the colors marked the passing out of commission at Portsmouth on Saturday of the battleship Queen Elizabeth.
Royal Marines bands from the Royal Naval Barracks and H.M.S. Excellent beat retreat on the slip jetty in the dockyard to which the Queen Elizabeth has been made fast while the stores are being removed. Close by is the slip from which she was launched in 1914. As the ensign was hauled down for the last time the bands played a musical arrangement of "Sunset." The playing of "Auld Lang Syne" and the National Anthem ended the impressive ceremony.
Bomb Tests on Nelson
London limes, May 22.—Specially trained divers and frogmen will be among the crew to watch over H.M.S. Xelson when she is the target for bombing tests in the Firth of Forth this summer. The battleship left Rosyth today, and was berthed on the target station about a mile west of the island of Inchkeith.
The object of these trials is to test the effects of certain types of bombs against large armoured ships to find out what happens to both bomb and the ship's structure. In order to achieve this partly filled bombs will be used.
Kent's Bell to Cathedral
London Times, June 3.—The Duchess of Kent, in her uniform of Commandant of the Women's Royal Naval Service, visited Rochester Cathedral this morning to hand over the bell of H.M.S. Kent to the cathedral on behalf of the Association of Men of Kent and Kentish Men, of which she is patron. The bell was presented to the association when the cruiser Kent recently went for breaking up.
Large Army Remains Overseas
Chicago Tribune, May 26.—Britain's withdrawal of troops from India, Pakistan, Burma and Palestine will have a profound effect on British strategy, but her total military commitments are unlikely to be reduced.
It will make no difference to the planned reduction of the three services to a total peace time strength of 700,000, including conscripts, and no large scale home-coming of troops is anticipated.
A. V. Alexander, minister of defense, told the House of Commons last October that Britain's armed forces, which at the time numbered 940,000, would in the next 12 months be reduced by a further 224,000. Most of this reduction will be effected in demobilization of war time personnel and will have no effect on the regular forces. In fact, Britain's regular forces are to be increased.
One-Third Overseas
On Jan. 1, 1949, the army will have 190,000 regulars, the air force 130,000 and the navy, 125,000, compared with 160,000, 99,600, and 114,000 last January.
Last October, Alexander said one-third of Britain's armed services were serving overseas. This, it is understood, will continue to be the rough proportion of British troops abroad, on the basis of a peace time force of 700,000 (army 350,000, R.A.F. 200,000 and navy 150,000). This gives an average figure of 220,000 British soldiers, sailors and airmen overseas, considerably more than before the war.
Britain's commitments overseas have changed their character, but not their extent. Britain is now chiefly interested in the defense of the middle east and Western Europe and in the security of her sea routes to the dominions.
Position More Difficult
In any future war, Britain could hope to secure the coasts bordering the Indian ocean only by political means. She would have to persuade her youngest dominions and Burma to fight on her side, or at least to remain neutral. Her position in the middle east has also become more difficult.
She is evacuating Palestine, where she has hitherto kept up a large base. Whether or not she will be able to remain in the Suez canal zone will depend on the outcome of negotiations for the revision of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936, which have now been broken off.
As a result, her future position in the middle east and the security of vital oil supplies there depends upon her success in consolidating her system of friendly alliances with the Arab states.
Three Main Bases
Britain's main bases covering the middle east will in future therefore probably be Malta and Cyprus and possibly Cyrenaica, where a considerable proportion of her troops from Palestine are being sent.
Aircraft Spotting Exercises
The Aeroplane, May 21.—At the end of the War, those members of the public who take an intelligent interest in such matters (and even some highly placed officers of the R.A.F.) expressed the view that, owing to the development of jet-propelled aircraft, the ground-to-air part of our air defenses would have to be drastically overhauled, if not completely changed. It was thought that the considerable increase in level speeds and rates of climb of fighters would make it impossible or, at best, extremely difficult for the unaided eyes and ears of the Royal Observer Corps to continue to plot fighters and bombers across country and give the information which Fighter Command must have before interception of hostile aircraft can be made by fighters of the defense. It was also considered that, even if the observer posts could pick up rapidly, either by sight or sound, jet-propelled aircraft, identify them and ascertain the direction and altitude of their flight, the time-lag between their reporting this information to "centre" (the R.O.C. operations room for their particular group) and its being "told on" to Fighter Command would be too great to make accurate interception possible.
So far, however, the few post-war exercises which have been held by the R.O.C. tend to indicate that this pessimistic theory is wrong. It is true that during these exercises the sky has not been so full of aeroplanes that either the posts or centres have been overloaded with plots. Reports from posts and centres and careful study of the aircraft tracks plotted on the plotting tables, however, have shown that, at the moment at least, there is no need to make any alteration in the technique which proved its worth in the Battle of Britain and during the late War. The powers that be in the R.O.C. have come to the conclusion that there is a greater need than ever for a high standard of aircraft recognition and of reporting and plotting to be attained and maintained throughout the Corps. Accordingly, even greater care is taken than during the War, to ensure that only men and women who will prove to be efficient observers are accepted on the strength of the R.O.C. Everybody who volunteers for the Corps, whether he, or she, is to serve on a post or at a centre and regardless of whether he, or she, is a war-time "veteran" of the Corps, is placed on six months' probation. Then a searching test has to be passed before acceptance.
The R.O.C.'s latest, and largest, exercise was held on May 9, and was confined to the Midland area. The term "Midland" in this connection is rather a misnomer, for the area, comprising some 40,000 square miles, stretches from Berwick-on-Tweed in the North to Oxford in the South and includes all the East Coast from Aldeburgh northwards. It covers, in fact, the counties of Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Bedfordshire.
The object of the exercise was to give members of the R.O.C. in this area an opportunity to practice with the aid of R.A.F. and R.Aux.A.F. aircraft and to test the telephonic communications system, which has recently been overhauled.
Some 120 aircraft took part in the operation. They comprised Meteors and Vampires of Fighter Command, Lincolns of Bomber Command and Mosquitos, Spitfires, and Oxfords of the R.Aux.A.F.; a few Hornets were kindly "lent," almost at the last minute, by the Royal Navy. For the purpose of the exercise most of the fighters were based at Horsham St. Faith, near Norwich. The bombers operated from six aerodromes.
So that the observers at posts could be given the maximum possible practice with the number of aircraft airborne, the aeroplanes flew singly and not in formation. None flew above 10,000 feet and as visibility and cloud conditions were good over the greater part of the period of the exercise (10.00 hours to 18.00 hours) many came over at that height, although the majority flew considerably lower. The Fighter Command raid reporting system was not in operation, as the exercise was regarded as essentially an R.O.C. occasion.
I had the opportunity of watching the exercise from the ground from one of the centres—at Bedford—and from some of the posts in the immediate neighborhood of the centre. As an ex-R.O.C. observer who served throughout the War I was interested to see the post-war "set-up" and compare it with the war-time operation of the Corps. Although it has not been found necessary to introduce a new technique, the rank-and-file are being given a more thorough training than we "old sweats" received. As Air Commodore the Earl of Bandon, Commandant of the R.O.C, said in the afternoon, the traditions of the Corps appear to be well maintained, not only by the veterans who have rejoined, but by the entirely new recruits who have helped to bring the present total strength up to some 13,000 (about twice this number is the recruiting target).
I was told by post observers that they had little difficulty in dealing with "jets" and I was informed by an officer from Corps Headquarters that the R.O.C. observers who were on duty at the turning-points when the D.H.108 set up a new international record for the closed circuit, were able to get in two plots on the machine when it was travelling at an air speed of about 635 m.p.h., at 1,000 feet. They could, it is claimed, have plotted the aircraft for two miles each way and could have maintained a continuous straight-line track of it if that had been necessary.
Although, admittedly, during the exercises they were not busy, by Battle of Britain or "mass raid" standards, the observers (mostly girls) working on the plotting-table in the centre and the "tellers" passing the tracks into adjoining groups and (theoretically) to Fighter Command, seemed to be as quick and accurate as ever.
Close liaison is being established between the R.A.F. and the R.O.C; the functions of the Corps are given a prominent place in the general training of the R.A.F. and exchanges of visits between the two are encouraged. Royal Observer Corps observers are to be given more opportunities to fly in Service aircraft and to visit R.A.F. stations, and opportunities are to be given to Royal Air Force personnel to make contact with the R.O.C. at centres and posts.
Rocket Range Progress in Australia
Manchester Guardian, May 15.—With the announcement from Canberra that in three years guided-weapon tests should be possible at the rocket range at Woomera, in South Australia, the Empire controlled-missile project, with its implications in Imperial defense, has begun to take shape.
There have been delays, caused in part by strikes in Australian industry and transport and by the difficulty of establishing and maintaining a large number of men in one of the most inhospitable regions of the continent. There was also a Communist-inspired threat to boycott construction work on the range. That was countered by the responsible body of Australian unionism and a Federal Act rendering interference with defense projects a crime punishable by heavy penalty.
Substantial progress has been made, too, in laying out and building a town which eventually will house 1,500 workers and their families. It will have modern amenities—halls, shopping centres, churches, sporting fields, electricity, and reticulated water. For the first few months the camp lived on water which collected in a depression near the range head after the particularly heavy rain of last year, but the normal rainfall of that area is less than seven inches annually, so that a permanent reticulated supply is essential. With the collaboration of the South Australian Government, the pipeline which takes water from the River Murray 300 miles to the South Australian industrial town of Whyalla is being tapped and a spur main taken another 100 miles to Woomera.
Much of the work at Woomera and associated development at other places in South Australia has taken place in secrecy, but there can be no hiding the big convoys of motor transports taking earth-moving equipment and building material to the range, the arrival at Port Adelaide of a huge German V2 rocket bomb, and such things.
The range head itself is a screened area, and only official visitors are permitted. Even they are closely "vetted" before receiving permits. Strict supervision is also exercised over those working at the site. There have been alarms, such as the discovery of suspected Communists working as thinly disguised "prospectors" in the vicinity. However, the Prime Minister, Mr. Chilley, has told Parliament that he is satisfied that security measures are now adequate.
OTHER COUNTRIES
China
London Times, May 20.—The light cruiser Aurora, which became known to Italian seamen during the war as the silver phantom because of her exploits in the Mediterranean, was transferred at Portsmouth today to the Chinese Navy.
With her was transferred the destroyer Mendip. The Aurora will be known in future as the C.S. Chungking, and the Mendip as the C.S. Lingsu. The Chinese Ambassador, Dr. Cheng Tien-Hsi, with his son and daughter, attended the ceremony. The Board of Admiralty were represented by Rear-Admiral H. A. Packer, Fourth Sea Lord; Mr. John Dugdale, Parliamentary Secretary; Sir John G. Lang, Permanent Secretary; Rear-Admiral Sir. W. G. Agnew, Deputy Chief of Naval Personnel, who was captain of the Aurora during the war, and Mr. P. N. N. Synnott, Under-Secretary (Staff).
Israel
N. Y. Times, June 1.—An Israeli naval academy is to be established soon "somewhere on the seashore of Israel," it was made known today. There will be courses for ordinary seamen, mates, engineers, wireless operators and harbor personnel. Candidates, at the rate of 150 a year, will be selected by the army. The academy is to have a training ship in addition to school buildings.
(Editor's Note: An historical first item.)
Netherlands
La Revue Maritime, May, 1948.—On March 8, the Dutch Navy ceded back to Great Britain in the port of Plymouth the escort carrier Nairana (re-named Karel-Doorman by the Dutch), which had been transmitted to them on loan at the beginning of 1946. This carrier brought to England the 550 men who will man the light carrier Venerable, of which the Dutch will receive delivery at the end of April and which is completing its re-equipment at Devonport. The Venerable has been re-named Karel-Doorman. It can take on 44 planes. A second carrier of the same type will likewise be ceded in 1948 to Holland.
AVIATION
With the Speed of Sound
N. Y. Times, June 11.—An experimental airplane operated by the Air Force "has flown much faster than the speed of sound many times" in recent months, Secretary W. Stuart Symington dislosed today. The plane, known as the Bell XS-1, was piloted by a wartime ace, Capt. Charles E. Yeager, at the Muroc Air Force base.
This is the first recorded instance of piercing the sonic barrier in level flight, the Secretary added. Some other airplanes may have achieved such speed in dives.
The speed of sound varies with altitude, temperature, humidity and other conditions. It is figured by the Air Force, however, at 763 miles an hour at sea level under "standard conditions," when the temperature is 59 degrees Fahrenheit above zero. In the stratosphere, when the temperature drops to 67 degrees below zero, the speed of sound decreases to 662 miles an hour.
Whatever speed the XS-1 attained, a closely guarded secret, undoubtedly it was registered at a very high altitude, since the plane was designed to operate most efficiently at high levels.
This plane, one of two of its type in existence, is carried aloft under the belly of a heavy bomber and released high in the air for flights which at high speed last only between two or three minutes, despite fuel capacity almost twice the weight of the airplane.
The XS-1 has a wing span of twenty-eight feet, is thirty-one feet long and eleven feet high, with a recorded empty weight of 4,892 pounds. It carries 8,000 pounds of fuel for its rocket, mechanism. It was designed to reach a speed of more than 1,000 miles an hour at 40,000 feet and a theoretical speed of 1,700 miles an hour at 80,000 feet.
The pilot's compartment is so small, because of the room required by motive power, fuel and measuring devices crowded into the airplane, that Captain Yeager was chosen as its pilot for his size as well as his skill.
"Yeager is a little man," Mr. Symington explained. "He has to be."
Mr. Symington said that while he could not disclose the speed of the plane, "it is an interesting figure." Many assumed that the record was made at a high altitude but engineers have pointed out that high-altitude conditions increase rather than diminish the problems involved in flying faster than the speed of sound.
High Speeds in Navy Tests
In fact, the Navy has sent its experimental Douglas Skyrocket, with a turbo-jet engine, at a speed approaching 662 miles an hour, at a low level in relatively hot temperatures. The recognized world record for airplanes is held by Maj. Marion E. Carl of the Marine Corps, who flew a Douglas Skystreak over a measured course at a speed slightly greater than 650 miles an hour.
Secretary Symington's announcement today confirmed a report of the XS-1's performance published Dec. 22 by an aviation magazine, when the subject was listed as restricted. At that time the Air Force asked the Department of Justice to determine whether such publication violated any law. Recently, Attorney General Tom C. Clark ruled that it had not.
"We are making this information available for publication," Mr. Symington said, "in the light of the recent announcement by the Department of Justice that earlier publication of this previously classified fact did not constitute a violation of the Federal law. Although military classification does not have the force of law in peacetime outside the military establishment, there are certain obviously justifiable reasons for its observance.
"Publication of further details of the performance of this airplane, or others similarly under test by the Air Force cannot be authorized for reasons of national security."
(Editor's Note: Are we "bragging" ourselves into trouble?)
N. Y. Times, June 16.—It feels "pretty nice" to fly faster than the speed of sound, Capt. Charles E. Yeager said today. Captain Yeager is officially credited with being the first man to accomplish this feat in the experimental Bell XS-1 at Muroc Lake, Calif., last Oct. 14.
At this occasion, the Air Force disclosed that four other pilots subsequently passed the speed of sound in the same airplane—two other Air Force men and two test pilots of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. Captain Yeager was awarded an Oak Leaf Cluster, for his Distinguished Flying Cross, and the others won Air Medals for their exploits.
In apologizing for his unwillingness to answer leading questions, the young pilot said:
"If you had a gold mine, you wouldn't tell the world where it was, would you?"
The opening questions were concerned with whether he had experienced extreme turbulence as he approached the sonic barrier. For many years, aeronautic engineers believed that the phenomenon they called "compressibility" rendered supersonic flight impossible with airfoils now known. Wind tunnel and other tests showed that, at speeds approaching that of sound, the air tended to bank up ahead of the wind rendering its flow uneven and uncertain so that control was impeded, and that the wall might build up to a point where the conventional airplane would disintegrate as if it had hit a stone barrier.
Captain Yeager declined comment. In passing, he mentioned the sensation of "coming back through" but confined his clarification to the statement that "the airplane slows awful fast when you cut those rockets off."
Aviation Week, June 14.—North American's XF-86 has flown faster than the speed of sound. The F-86A, now being manufactured, will be the first supersonic combat aircraft, and the first supersonic plane to go into quantity production.
The Bell XS-1 was the first aircraft to fly faster than sound. It attained Mach number 1.0 (sonic speed) on Oct. 14, 1947 (Aviation Week, Dec. 22), and since has flown faster.
Both are U. S. Air Force planes.
The F-86A now is being manufactured in quantity at North American Aviation, Inc.'s, main plant at Los Angeles Municipal Airport, Inglewood, Calif. Initial order for 225 is expected to be increased substantially under the procurement program.
Test Program.—The XF-86 first flew at the speed of sound in a dive as part of a second series of performance tests (Phase II). The SX-1 made its initial supersonic flights in a steep climb. From the standpoint of sonic airflow, the action of the wing is the same aerodynamically whether in a dive, climb or level flight.
The supersonic performance of the XF-86 was attained with the standard GE-Allison J-35 (TG-180) axial-flow turbo-jet engine developing 4600 lb. static thrust.
The two prototype XF-86's are being fitted with the more powerful General Electric J-47 (TG-190) axial-flow turbo-jet engine rated at 5,000 lb. static thrust and capable of more than 6,000 lb. thrust (the power of the XS-1 rocket engine) through the use of water injection.
This 30 per cent increase in available thrust will push the F-86A well into supersonic speeds at least comparable to the performance of the XS-1.
However, the XS-1 is a special rocket-powered research airplane which has a powered flight duration of only two and one-half minutes, while the F-86A will have an endurance at top speed of one hour and a range at reduced speed of 1,800 miles.
Rocket Missiles
N. Y. Herald Tribune, June 15.—The installation of 950-mile-an-hour rocket missiles as standard armament on new F-84 Thunder-jet fighter planes of the United States Air Force was announced here today by the Republican Aircraft Corporation.
Officials of the company, which is building more than 1,000 jet-propelled F-84's, disclosed that secret firing tests at the Army Ordnance Proving Ground, Aberdeen, Md., resulted in the approval of the high-velocity rocket armament for routine military operations. This armament for the first time in production-line military aircraft includes retracting rocket mounts which disappear into the wing as the projectiles are fired.
In the future each rocket-firing Thunderjet will carry eight 140-pound missiles mounted four under each wing but fired individually, in addition to its normal operational armament of six M-3 fifty-caliber machine guns.
The special mounting for the rocket missiles will eliminate all speed-reducing wing obstructions under the wing which have been the main drawback to previous exterior-mounted aircraft rockets. They make it possible for the fighter pilot flying one of the new rocket-firing Thunderjets to obtain maximum 600-mile-an-hour speeds from his plane in combat.
During the Aberdeen tests the rocket missiles were fired from a Thunderjet at various speeds-up to 500 miles an hour by Captain Franklin Rizer, pilot for the Air Material Command. The entire test program was directed by Lieutenant Colonel F. S. Allen.
(Editor's Note: In March Proceedings the Aviation Notes indicate about 600 P-84's to be built. Speed of rocket plus speed of plane equals 950??)
Cockpit Designs for Fighter Pilots Lying Prone
N. Y. Times, May 25.—The Air Force is working on designs for a new high-speed plane that would be piloted by a man lying on his stomach.
The advantages of piloting a plane from a prone position are many, according to Maj. Gen. Malcolm C. Crow, Air Surgeon.
He said preliminary tests showed that men could lie prone for eight hours or more in perfect comfort. Some men reported after the tests they were less tired than if they had been in a sitting position.
A pilot in a prone position can dive and execute other sudden maneuvers with far less chance of "blacking out," General Grow said.
A major reason for developing ships in which the pilot would lie down is that in a small fighter plane built to pass the speed of sound nothing must break the smoothness of the streamlining. Most present fighter planes have a "bubble" canopy for the pilot and a thick fuselage.
General Grow said he reasoned that the flying wing was the most perfectly streamlined shape for an airplane. By having the pilot lying in a prone position, even a fighter plane of this design could be perfectly streamlined.
This would eliminate the bubble canopy as well as the fuselage. The pilot would lie prone in the center of the plane, facing forward. Vision above and to the rear would be assisted by means of mirrors and periscopes. These problems are still to be worked out.
Experts are at work on new controls for the proposed plane. One group is working on the possibility of putting all controls in one hand lever or instrument, and doing away with the foot controls of the rudders.
New Air-Sea Rescue Teams
N. Y. Times, June 2.—Highly trained rescue teams that combine the qualities of physicians, boatmen, lifesavers and parachutists are now being trained by the Air-Sea Rescue branch of the United States Air Force to save survivors of airplane crashes at sea, it was announced here yesterday.
The announcement was made at the second annual Search and Rescue seminar at the Washington Square branch of New York University under the direction of the Coast Guard and attended by representatives of the armed services and commercial airlines.
Among those present at the opening session of the two-day meeting were representatives of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, Navy Air Arm, Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Coast Guard, most of the commercial airlines that fly the Atlantic and some steamship lines that ply the same route.
The Air-Sea Rescue teams, which parachute to the survivors of ocean plane crashes, are made up of one physician and four men who are trained as doctors, Army style. About seventy men have taken all or part of the training, and their work was described by Lieut. Col. Walter Hamberg, commanding officer of the Fifth Rescue Squadron, based at MacDill Field, Fla.
Once an ocean crash has been located, a C-47 transport plane carrying one or more teams takes off for the scene. Shortly afterward a B-29 carrying a new type all-metal powered lifeboat under its fuselage leaves for the same spot. The boat, lowered to the water by a 100-foot parachute, can be controlled by radio from the plane aloft.
The rescue crew then parachutes to the water near the boat and picks up survivors.
Air Force Wants Academy
N. Y. Times, June 3.—The United States Air Force has tentative plans for an academy to train its own regular officers, probably at Randolph Field, in Texas, where eventually the enrollment would approximate the size of the Army's cadet corps at West Point. (Jen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, making this announcement today, said the cost of the academy had been estimated "very roughly" at about $90,000,000.
Discussion of the plans for the academy came about through questions asked by Representatives at an otherwise routine hearing conducted on the Air Force's program by a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. The current appropriation measures do not contain funds for the projected academy. Representative Carl Vinson of Georgia asked General Vandenberg if the Air Force contemplated drawing its officers from the Army and Navy academies or from its own school.
"We have examined the cost of increasing the capacity of the other academies to accommodate our needs," the general replied. "Our studies indicate it would be more costly to enlarge the two present academies than to build another one. This has been concurred in by both of the other services."
Randolph Field was tentatively chosen as the site for the new academy, he went on, because of the excellent flying conditions and the fact that the mild climate would make construction of facilities less costly than these would be in a more Northern climate. This field also has barracks built when the base was one of the principal schools for training pilots during the second World War.
Under current practice both West Point and Annapolis contribute some of their graduates to the Air Force. General Vandenberg said these academies did not prepare students for air careers as a specialty. West Point has found it difficult to add flight training to an already crowded schedule, he added, while the Navy stresses "familiarization" training rather than actual training of midshipmen as pilots.
(Editor's Note: Change in plans! See Professional Notes, February 1948 Proceedings.)
American Aid for Greek Aviation
Aviation Week, June 14.—In spite of the fierce civil war raging in Greece since the liberation of the country from the German and Italian occupation, Greek civil and military aviation has been considerably developed during the past twelve months, thanks in the main to the help it received from the American Mission for Aid to Greece (AMAG).
Accent on Military.—The accent naturally is laid, for the present, on military planes for the annihilation of the Communist-led partisan bands which operate in the mountainous parts of the country. Civil aviation, however, also has made remarkable progress.
On the military side, a new group of American Army planes recently has been delivered to the Royal Hellenic Air Force by the U. S. Army Group of AMAG. The planes were flown to Athens by pilots of the 86th U. S. Fighter Group in Germany. They were drawn from U. S. Air Force surplus stock but had been used only for instrument training. American officers said the planes are in excellent condition and can be used for observation, reconnaissance and combat operations.
Plane Cost.—Each plane originally cost the U. S. Government more than $25,000, but they were sold to AMAG for the Greek Government at only about $10,000 each. This is the second group of American Army planes turned over to the RHAF; the first group arrived during February of this year.
The chief of the air section of the Joint U. S. Military Advisory Planning Group (JUSMAPG) in Greece is Brigadier General William A. Matheny. Born in North Dakota in 1902, Gen. Matheny graduated as an electrical engineer from Marquette University in 1926. In 1929, he served as an aviation cadet and was commissioned a lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve. Formerly deputy commanding general of the 12th Air Force at March Field, Calif., he was made air adviser to Lieutenant General James A. Van Fleet, chief of the U. S. Army Group in Greece last month.
Airport Reconstruction
Besides giving planes to the RHAF, the main effort of AMAG, as far as aviation is concerned, is directed toward reconstruction of airports all over the country. Most of the Greek airports had only dry-weather strips, or had been severely bombed during the war. At present, the work is concentrated mainly on the modernization and improvement of the six major airfields to make them available for all-weather use.
The American Mission pays all costs and furnishes all materials including over $1,000,000 worth of pierced steel planking. Two million square feet of such planking have already been ordered in the U. S. for these jobs.
On schedule.—Officials of AMAG and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers say reconstruction of airports in Northern Greece is progressing "right on schedule."
Airborne Television Relay
N. Y. Herald Tribune, June 12.—A plan to cover the entire United States with television broadcasts through a series of high-altitude airplane relay stations was disclosed today by officials of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company, which have been working on the project for more than two years.
The scheme already has reached the stage where an experimental "stratovision" station, installed in a converted Boeing B-29 bomber flying at 25,000 feet above the Allegheny Mountains, on Thursday successfully relayed a local sports video program as far west as Cleveland.
This was nearly 300 miles from the Washington-Baltimore area where the telecast originated and is far beyond the normal earthbound horizon-distance limitations of such transmissions, even without intervening mountains.
Eventually, the Westinghouse-Martin program envisages fourteen flying relay stations circling 30,000 feet above the earth at strategic points over the country. This, they say, would be far less costly than laying inter-city coaxial transmission cables and making other necessary ground installations to accomplish the same result, even though it would require a fleet of thirty or forty planes.
The experts estimate that the fourteen "stratovision ships," supported by necessary relief planes and emergency spares, could supply continuous video service to at least 78 per cent of the population.
By simple co-ordination of the retelecasting hook-up, they believe it would be possible to render regional video service or, in the case of sufficiently important programs, to put on a nation-wide telecast from any originating station in the country.
The Westinghouse-Martin "stratovision" project began originally as an experiment in the relaying of frequency modulation broadcasts—the effectiveness of which also is limited to line-of-sight distances—and progressed from that to television.
Training in Interception
London Times, May.—A number of British shipping lines are helping in the navigational training of R.A.F. Coastal Command squadrons.
The liners Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary are met between 200 and 500 miles out from Land's End by Sunderland flying-boats and Lancaster bombers of No. 19 Group. Times of departure from New York or Cherbourg are known at group headquarters at Plymouth, and the ships' positions are estimated so that interceptions can be made at a given time. The aircraft have the task of locating, identifying, and shadowing the liners at extreme radar range, which might be up to 60 miles. Interceptions are made by day and night and in almost all weathers.
Ships belonging to other lines are also cooperating, thus providing a variety of interception positions.
British Aircraft for U.S. Show
The Aeroplane, May 28.—A composite squadron of representative naval aircraft was embarked on May 25 in the Light Fleet Carrier H.M.C.S. Magnificent (Commodore H. G. De Wolf, C.B.E., D.S.O., D.S.C.) for Canada on their way to New York, where the squadron will take part in the International Air Exposition, being held between July 31 and August 8.
The squadron will consist of two Sea Fury XI, two Sea Hornet XX and one Sea Vampire XX. Under the command of Lieut.-Commander D. B. Law, D.S.C, R.N., will be five officers and 30 ratings of the Royal Navy. The pilots will carry out demonstration flying at the exposition following eight weeks' "shake down" training with the Royal Canadian Naval Air Section at Dartmouth, Canada. The Royal Canadian Navy are co-operating in the provision of the stores and spare parts as necessary for the operations in the United States.
N. Y. Herald Tribune, June 15.—Six Royal Air Force Vampire III fighter planes will arrive over New York City on July 25 after making the first jet-powered trans-Atlantic flight in history to participate in the air exposition from July 31 through Aug. 8 at the New York International Airport at Idlewild, it was announced last night.
Squadron Leader John N. Stacey, assistant air attaché of the British Embassy in Washington, said that the flight was not regarded by the British Air Ministry as a stunt.
"It definitely is an exercise designed to develop the ability of Royal Air Force fighters equipped with jet engines to fly 3,000 miles and operate in the field with the air units of another friendly nation," Squadron Leader Stacey explained.
The Vampires, which are part of the 54th Squadron of the R.A.F., will take off from Stornaway on Lewis Island in the Hebrides on July 1 under Wing Commander D. F. MacDonald. They will fly in two formations of three planes each, with each formation led by a Mosquito long-range photo-reconnaissance plane for navigational purposes, and accompanied by a four-engine York military transport carrying ground crews, spare parts and equipment.
A total of seventeen officers, twelve senior non-commissioned officers and eighteen corporals and other ranks will make the flight.
On arriving at Dorval Airport near Montreal after touching at Iceland, Greenland and Labrador, the jet fighters will visit Toronto.
Airfield Approach Lighting
Engineering, June 4.—The new development in airfield approach lighting for use in foggy weather or at night, which was described by Mr. E. S. Calvert, B.Sc, A.R.C.Sc.L, before the Royal Aeronautical Society on Thursday, April 15, was demonstrated at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough on Thursday, April 22. The outline of the runway lights as seen by the pilot of an approaching aircraft may be misleading in poor visibility, and photographs and diagrams exhibited during the demonstration showed the difficulty of touching down accurately on the runway unless there were some form of horizon to aim at. For example, it is not always easy to tell from the configuration of the lighting whether the aircraft is approaching parallel to but slightly displaced from the runway, or whether it is banking over the correct approach line. The new system has been developed in order to reduce such difficulties; in principle it is very simple, and is comparatively cheap to install. Moreover, it involves no additional instrumentation within the aircraft, so that the pilot, having been guided to the approach run, is able to concentrate on the view ahead.
The system consists of parallel rows of lights placed horizontally across the approach area at equal distances apart, together with a central line of lights which lead, directly to the runway. Each row serves as an artificial horizon, which, with the central line, enables the pilot to gauge the direction and altitude of the aircraft in relation to the ground. The apparent length or angular width of a given row as seen by the pilot when passing over it naturally depends upon the height of the aircraft, becoming larger as height is reduced. Successive rows towards the runway are therefore made progressively shorter in length, and are spaced so that each appears of equal length provided the aircraft is coming in along the runway line at the proper height and at the correct gliding angle. If, for example, the gliding angle were too steep then successive rows would appear to increase in length, and the pilot would alter his flying controls accordingly. The arrangement of the lamps in each row can be used to indicate the distance from the runway. Some of the lighting effects as seen by the pilot were demonstrated by means of the "Cyclorama." This device, which was developed at the R.A.E., reproduces on a screen, which can be viewed directly or through a simple optical system, the pattern of lights as seen from the cockpit of an aircraft which is approaching to land. The intensity of the lighting pattern can be varied to simulate various conditions of visibility and dummy controls produce the visual effects which their action would cause in practice.
In the experimental lay-out at Farnborough, the rows of lamps are spaced 600 ft. apart over an approach run of 3,600 ft., and each row subtends an angle of 2½ deg. with the touchdown point on the runway. Sodium lamps in plain parabolic reflectors tilting 5 deg. upwards, and facing the general direction from which an approach should be made are used in the rows, while the central line consists of filament lamps set singly or in groups of two at intervals of 100 ft. Dimming arrangements to suit various degrees of visibility are not yet provided, and consequently there is some glare from the system at night. This new development, however, seems to be an improvement over the forms of approach lighting used hitherto, and plans are being made to install the system at London Airport in time for next winter.
51 Nations Adopt Air Traffic Code
N. Y. Times, April 23.—Montreal.—A code of the air, more detailed and more extensive than any code of the sea ever adopted went into effect here today with the passage by the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization of five categories of standards that now have the effect of law in fifty-one countries.
The result of almost four years' work by technical committees originating in the Chicago Civil Aviation Conference of 1944, the codes generally follow the United States concept of traffic regulation in the air. The single notable exception is the standards for mensuration. The code adopted today provides a gradual departure from the foot-mile and Fahrenheit dimensional standards of the Anglo-Saxon nations and envisages the worldwide adoption in the air by the end of 1959 of a completely metrical table of dimensions.
Regarded as most important are the standards for the aerial rules of the road, for air traffic control in such zones as is necessary and for blind-landing aids and radio and radar aids to navigation. The British had filed reservations to some phases of the visual flight rules, contending they were too restrictive. On final adoption their view was met in this respect, but it is considered possible that the British may make further reservations once they have formally received notice of the adoption of the standards.
Any nation can make such reservations, though adherence to the standards evidenced here indicates that few will develop. Though Russia has maintained her aloofness from the organization, some of her satellites, such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, have been represented on the working committees here, and it is expected that their governments will accept the worldwide flight rules now enacted here.
Have Force of Treaty Law
Under the international agreement constituting the Government, ratified by the United States Senate and by the Governments of fifty other countries with the force and effect of a treaty, the standards now adopted become annexes to the treaty, and have the force and effect of treaty law.
Some flexibility remains for local flying. Though all international airports are to be equipped with the omni-directional very high frequency ranges, the instrument landing systems and the ground control approach radar systems coming into universal use in the United States, airports serving only local traffic can use such British and continental aids to navigation as the British "Gee" and "Consol" systems.
In the tables for mensuration, the statute mile is already generally eliminated. By 1951 the nations must elect to use either the nautical mile or the kilometer to denote horizontal distances, and by 1959 all will be on nautical miles. There will be an intermediate period beginning in 1954 when, in all aeronautical publications and notices to airmen, feet as a measure of height can be used optionally. But after 1959 the metric system will be in force for all heights, vertical speeds, visibilities, altimeter settings and weights. The twenty-four-hour day, in which, for example, 1 p.m. becomes 1300, is already adopted for all international timing and time tables.
Less Resistance Expected
It is expected that international airmen will so have accustomed others of their English and American countrymen to this system that, by 1959, there will not be the resistance to the change from miles and feet that there might have been were the whole table adopted as of now.
Secrets of Russian Jets Revealed
Aviation Week, June 14.—Highlighted by the first view of a fighter-research plane designed for supersonic flight, authentic drawings obtained exclusively by Aviation Week show previously undisclosed details of latest Russian jet planes, which are already flying.
The drawings are the work of an experienced aviation artist who also is an aeronautical engineer. They are based on greatly-enlarged motion picture film smuggled from behind the Iron Curtain.
The photographs were taken from the ground with a camera equipped with a telescopic lens, as the planes were tested. They did not originate with the McGraw-Hill Moscow Bureau, but arrived in this country by a circuitous process.
Trained observers, both European and American, have been reporting rumors for months that a Russian jet plane has flown faster than sound. These reports have been bolstered by the confidential observation of an outstanding U. S. expert that at least one Russian plane over Korea had been tracked on radar at speeds above 600 m.p.h.
And last month, Russian newspapers reported that an aircraft in the May Day celebrations flew over Moscow "at the speed of sound."
This plane can now be identified as the Russian design of the DFS 346, a plane begun by the Germans.
Swept Wings.—Two versions of the DFS 346 are now flying. Both have swept-back wings. The first has a straight-through air flow with intake in the nose and outlet at the tail. The second has intakes on each side of the fuselage.
Both versions have a swept-back fin and swept-back tail surfaces set on top of the fin —a configuration that was used in this country on the Curtiss XF-15C experimental Navy fighter.
The German design of the DFS 346 was to have been patterned after the DFS 228, a high-altitude photo-reconnaissance sailplane powered by rocket engine. The Germans never finished the DFS 346 and it, along with its engineers, presumably went into Russian possession at the end of the war.
Four-Jet Bomber.—Vying for importance with the design features of the DFS 346 shown by the carefully-scaled drawings is the new information revealed on Russia's four-jet bomber. It is an Ilyushin design, but with touches that resemble the Boeing XB-47.
The Ilyushin plane has a very thin airfoil section with the engine nacelles suspended from the wings, as is done in the XB-47. The plane has tricycle landing gear and because of the thin wing the gear retracts into the fuselage. There is reason to believe the Ilyushin may have some sort of tandem gear arrangement as used in the XB-47 and XB-48 to solve the retraction difficulties presented by the thin wing.
The four-jet Russian bomber has an unbroken contour from nose to tail, with pilot and copilot housed in the nose section. An interesting feature shown is provision for a tail gunner.
Twin-Jet.—Another Russian jet bomber, a twin-engine plane designed by Andrei Tupelov, is disclosed for the first time in the drawings. This is based on a reciprocating-engine attack bomber, the TU-2, but is larger.
A remarkable feature of the Tupelov jet bomber is the enormous size of the engine nacelles. This probably is due to the engines, which are believed to be modified Junkers Jumo OO4H 11- or 13-stage axial-flow units with afterburning.
Jet Fighter.—There is good reason to feel that the jet fighter shown may be one of the Russians' most recent turbojet planes. It is reported to be the work of Artem L. Mikoyan, and a later version of the MIG twin-jet fighter reported in Aviation Week, April 19.*
The new MIG has a single turbojet slung under the fuselage. Tail surfaces and pilot's cockpit apparently are the same as in the twin-jet plane, but the wing has been moved back and to the top of the fuselage. An interesting, although still unexplained feature, is the bulge under the empennage.
(Editor's Note: Quite interesting. Note that this information was not broadcast in the Russian Press.)
MERCHANT MARINE
Tankers for Argentina
London Times, May 8.—A contract was signed yesterday at Buenos Aires by a director of Cammell Laird and Co. for the construction of four oil tankers, of 18,400 tons each, for the Argentine State Merchant Fleet. He was lately accompanied during the completion of negotiations by two technical managers of the company, who are now on their way home. Discussions have been in progress for some months. Cammell Laird is already building two cargo liners, the Rio Belgrano and Rio Belen, for the Argentine State Fleet.
Automobile Accidents on Ferryboats
Proceedings, Merchant Marine Council, May 1948.—Within recent years there have been numerous instances of death to occupants of passenger automobiles embarking and debarking from ferry vessels. The fact that these misfortunes continue, even though sporadic in location and time, imposes upon the seasoned mariner the responsibility of protecting the public from its oblivion of self-safety.
Ferryboating for the landsman is an opportunity to enjoy the environs of transportation by water. The pleasantry of his experience ought not to be blotted by the memory of disaster over the brink.
In Norfolk harbor one day a man and his wife were proceeding to board a ferry by car. The husband was driving and as they passed the ticket collector at the slip of the ferry the driver was having difficulty in maneuvering his car from the pier. As he drove onto the ferry a deckhand motioned him to take the automobile lane to the left. When about half way down the lane the car began to increase speed. Another deckhand, chocking cars at the off-shore end, flagged the oncoming car and waved it to stop. Yet, it continued.
The deckhand jumped to one side. As the car grazed him, it went through a chain barrier and an iron gate and plunged off the ferry into the river.
The wife escaped through the right front window of the car, and was rescued by deckhands and passengers using life rings, ladder and a pole. But her husband was pinned under the wheel of the car—and drowned.
When the car was retrieved some several hours later, it was found to have a hydromatic clutch (automatic transmission without clutch pedal). It was learned from the wife that the car had been borrowed for the trip, and that the husband had been accustomed to the conventional clutch and gear shift. Under such circumstances, it is quite likely that in a moment of confusion human reflexes would be conditioned to convention and thereby compound the confusion. Whether this was the case here, or it was a matter of mechanical difficulties, no one will ever know.
In New York, a Staten Island ferry had unloaded its passengers and motor vehicles and had commenced reloading. The ferry was put at slow ahead during these operations so as to keep its loading end snug up against the ferry-slip bridge. When about 18 automobiles had driven on board, the master noticed the vessel drawing slowly away from the bridge. Just at this instant, a car driven by a man and accompanied by his wife, was about to pass on to the end of the ferry.
The port mooring line parted and the starboard line pulled off the winch drum, after which the ferry continued to move away until about ten feet off. The master put the pilothouse control lever at half ahead, and sounded three blasts on the whistle to attract attention of his deck hands. The deck hand taking tickets rushed towards the endangered car in a frantic and futile effort to warn the occupants to stop the vehicle. But as he did so, the car was in the process of toppling into the water between the ferry and the bridge.
Three hours later the car was raised from the water and both occupants therein were dead.
Although the investigation did not determine the parent cause for the ferry drawing from its slip, the master was considered inattentive to duty for failure to take prompt and effective action before the mooring lines failed.
In the Great Lakes area a ferry was crossing a river with automobiles and passengers. When about 500 to 600 feet from the Canadian shore, the driver of one car got out and went to the pilothouse to tell the master that he was going to start his car, as the self-starter was inoperative and it was necessary to use a hand crank. The master told the driver not to start the car until the vessel had docked. But the driver proceeded contrary to orders.
Four occupants were in the car at the time, none of whom was behind the wheel. As the engine started, the car backed up, knocked clown the loading apron, and backed off into the water. The driver dropped the hand crank and attempted vainly to stop the car by grabbing on to the front fender. Despite these efforts, three occupants, all women, drowned.
Six months later, the car had not been found, although the bodies were recovered within 3 weeks.
Testimony by the one surviving occupant revealed that while the driver was cranking, his wife, sitting next to the driver's seat, must have accidentally knocked the gear shift into reverse. The engine was turned over several times before moving the car. "I went to the bottom of the river," stated the survivor, "but in some way reached the surface and was rescued. There was no blocking placed at the wheels of the car on the ferry, and the aprons at each end were elevated and held up by rope which broke on impact."
On an inland river of Kentucky, a State-owned ferry took aboard an automobile and two passengers, both of whom were apparently drunk. When about half way across the river toward the north shore, the driver started up his car, put it in gear and drove off the end of the ferry.
The car broke through the guard cable and went off the apron into the river nose down. It immediately sank from sight.
Although the driver escaped from the automobile and came to the surface, he later drowned before assistance could reach him. The second occupant was found in the car when it was recovered from the river 6 hours later.
It was the opinion of the ferryboat men that the driver probably thought the vessel had reached the other shore as the passage was very narrow at the ferry crossing.
In Tennessee, four persons (father and three sons) were drowned when their truck rolled off a cable ferry barge. This incident is so recent, that investigatory details are not yet available.
In the Portland, Ore., area, on an electrically operated cable ferry, the second car to come aboard made a normal approach. It came down the decline of the slip in low gear at about 3 miles per hour, and was directed by the deck hand to take position on the starboard side close up to the safety cable. At about midway on the ferry, the attention of all persons was attracted by the sudden racing of the engine in the approaching car.
Still in low gear, the car sped along the deck, crashed through the safety cable and plunged into the river where it sank in 15 feet of water. In the car was a woman driver and her two daughters, one age 4 and the other 17.
It was concluded that this unfortunate incident resulted from either a mechanical failure of the car, or by the slipping of the driver's foot from the brake pedal onto the accelerator.
In Seattle, Wash., blocks were placed under the rear wheels of the last automobile to board the ferry. The owner of the car, contrary to posted warning signs, did not set the brakes. As the ferry started forward, the car came back on the blocks, knocked them aside and rolled off the end. No one was in the car at the time.
It will do no good to rely solely on posted signs, chain cables, blocks, etc., and then take an attitude that one has done his best, and if something happens it's the automobile driver's fault. Modern attendants at sightseeing skyscrapers and other public places are trained, and have trained themselves, to scan visitors in such a way as to pick out likely unsafe persons—those who would commit suicide or other acts of disorder—and then keep a watchful eye on them until they have left their premises. Ferryboat personnel could, and should do likewise in connection with passenger-driven automobiles.
To many, even those who commute by ferry day after day, a ferryboat passage is a sightseeing experience. It can be a pleasant or unpleasant experience depending on the protective eye of ferryboat personnel.
MISCELLANEOUS
Mass Hysteria Need Not Follow Atomic Bomb Explosion
Military Surgeon, June 1948.—If an atom bomb should fall on an American city, the population would be faced with the greatest emergency in its history. But, it is by no means true that the entire population would be wiped out, nor is it true that nothing could be done to help the survivors, according to Army Medical Corps officers who are conducting continuous study of the problem.
There is no presently known method of protecting those in the immediate neighborhood of an atomic bomb when it explodes. Nevertheless, since the Los Alamos experiment opened the Atomic Age, a great deal has been learned about mitigating the secondary effects of ionizing radiation and about protecting survivors who have received less than a lethal dose.
Many lives may be saved by widespread knowledge of therapeutic measures among physicians, and many more by a general understanding of preventive measures which can be taken by the general population.
In a talk made at the Pennsylvania University Hospital, Philadelphia, Col. James P. Cooney of the Army Medical Corps stressed the question of civilian morale. "Mr. and Mrs. America have been so frightened by the information they have received to date, that if a bomb were dropped on one of our cities tomorrow, mass hysteria would probably cause the unnecessary loss of many lives," Colonel Cooney said. "Mr. and Mrs. America have always been ready and willing to do what must be done in an emergency, and will, if properly instructed beforehand, do the right thing under this new kind of stress."
The real difference between ordinary high explosives and atom bombs is the enormous amount of radiant energy produced by the latter—energy covering the whole range of wave lengths from heat waves to million-volt gamma waves.
The radiant energy may be divided into two types: ionizing and non-ionizing. The most important type of injury noted in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was, of course, that due to the ionizing component of the radiant energy from the bomb. Four known kinds of penetrating radiation can be expected within the immediate area of the blast. They are:
First, gamma radiation, which is essentially the same as x-ray. In an atom bomb explosion, however, these are 200,000,000 volt x-rays. They are lethal to anyone within roughly a mile of the blast, do serious damage to those as close as a mile-and-a-half but their range is limited to approximately two miles. They move with the speed of light and most of them are produced at the instant of explosion.
Second, neutron beams, streams of heavy atomic particles shot out in all directions within a millionth of a second of the explosion. They have slightly less range than gamma rays. Both gamma rays and neutron beams passing through matter such as blood, bone or flesh, produce extensive ionization of the atoms which make up body cells, which results in the breakdown of chemical bonds, causing profound alterations in cellular function. The fact that some kinds of cells, such as certain types of cancer cells, are affected more easily than others is the basis of radiation therapy. Whatever damage is done in this way is instantaneous, although observable symptoms may not appear for some time.
Neutron beams, however, have another effect, new in medical science. Neutrons are captured in elements contained in human cells, producing new elements which are themselves radioactive, and may remain so for a long time.
Third, are beta rays, streams of electrons which rarely penetrate the skin and whose effects will be found chiefly on the surface; and,
Fourth, are alpha particles, the nuclei of helium atoms, which do not get through the cornified, or horny tissue, layer of the skin. Because of their low penetrating power, it is not likely that either the beta rays or the alpha particles resulting directly from the explosion will cause fatal injury.
It must be admitted, Army doctors say, that there is not much even a medical man can do about the immediate radiation from an atom bomb explosion. But in such an eventuality the immediate requirement will be for rescue work on a large scale and treatment for fractures, contusions, lacerations and burns. Here physicians and laymen will be on familiar ground. These kinds of injuries are the same whether produced by an atom bomb or a block buster; they involve no new principles.
Also, some aid may be given to victims of many sorts of secondary radiation dust spread by the explosion, radioactivity caused by neutron captured by atoms, or radioactive spray if the bomb is dropped in water. Against this secondary radiation, various safeguards can be provided, and it is essential that physicians be trained in safety measures. Army, Navy and Atomic Energy Commission scientists, as well as civilians interested in radiation therapy, are hard at work on the problem and substantial progress is being made. One important line of research is in the efficacy of blood transfusions, since it has been established that one of the most serious effects of radiation is damage to the blood-forming elements such as the bone marrow. A person tided over until normal function is resumed may be saved.
A major function of the physician after such a disaster would be to act as public health officer. Most food in the affected area would not be unfit for consumption, but it would all have to be surveyed before it could safely be eaten. All the water in the region would probably contain radio-active isotopes, slow poison to anyone drinking it, but research is in progress on methods of removing radioactive substances. Obviously the usual boiling or chlorination would be useless. There is some indication that filtration and other methods can be developed.
Physicians would have a heavy responsibility in supervising the decontamination of not only food and water but of refugees, by means of complete change of clothing, bathing, etc. This requires familiarity with the use of detecting instruments such as the Geiger counter, and a knowledge of the kinds of persistent radiation to be expected. (People escaping from the area where a bomb has exploded may find their wearing apparel sufficiently radio-active to constitute a menace to others.) This problem has already come up in hospitals where patients are being treated with large amounts of radio-active material.
Armed Forces medical officers face an even greater responsibility than do civilian physicians, since it may be necessary to send troops into a bombed area either for rescue work or on tactical operations. A series of intensive courses on the medical aspects of atomic explosion was instituted last May at the Army Medical Center, Washington, D. C. Nearly 700 doctors and scientists have been trained there in the fundamentals of radiation hazards, diagnosis and treatment. More than 50 medical schools throughout the country have sent representatives, many of whom are now setting up similar courses in their respective institutions.
Following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, much was learned of what symptoms to expect, overt and latent, immediate and delayed. All the results will not be in for years, of course. Great publicity has been given to the possibility of gene mutations which might produce a high percentage of abnormal offspring in generations to come. However, Dr. Shields Warren, Assistant Professor of Pathology at the Harvard Medical School, recently told Army doctors attending the current basic science course at the Army Medical Center, Washington, D. C., that aberrations in the genes and ova of mammals produced by irradiation are usually lethal to the developing embryo, and consequently the result of such irradiation would probably be a higher rate of abortion and miscarriage rather than production of a race of monsters pictured in sensational prophecies.
Besides flash burns from enveloping hot gases, such as result from any powerful explosion, blisters similar to skin burns and sunburn are likely to appear on the skin of atom bomb victims. In Japan, burns and blisters appear to follow a definite pattern, showing up within five minutes on those close to the explosion. At nearly a mile away, they did not show for several hours, and at greater distances, up to about two miles, the appearance of burns and blisters was even longer delayed.
Of the superficial effects perhaps the most alarming is the falling out of the hair. While bound to cause a bad psychological effect, it is due to superficial radiation and is not serious in itself. The hair will return if the patient has not received a lethal dose of radiation.
Immediately after a bomb blast those in the vicinity who escape immediate death from shock, burns or falling debris may appear to have suffered no ill effects at first. But within a few hours, victims seriously affected will feel nauseated and start to vomit. This may pass in a day or so. But at the beginning of about the second week when the hair starts to fall out, the feeling of general malaise, experienced in the first few hours, may return accompanied by fever. There is likely to be bloody diarrhea. Examination will show that the white blood count has fallen to a very low level. Death may come very quickly, or there may be anemia and general debility over a long period with eventual recovery.
Physicians must be prepared to expect such a syndrome and to take nothing for granted about the condition of the patient during the first few days.
There is a parallel in our experience with heavy bombing of cities from the air in World War II. This type of warfare was an innovation, and at first physicians had virtually no information concerning the effect of shock waves of that magnitude on the human body. Scores of people in the neighborhood of bursting bombs died, although they had apparently suffered no injuries. The knowledge of what could be done to save those people was acquired the hard way because medical science had not foreseen such a problem.
The threat of the atom bomb is at least now recognized and we have already a growing body of knowledge which can be mastered while an emergency is still remote.
Senate Resolution Supports Military Aid For Other Nations
N. Y. Times June 12.—The Senate proclaimed tonight by a vote of 64 to 4 a high and solemn policy committing the United States to the principle of military aid to defensive alliances formed among the world's free nations.
Such help would be given only with the approval in each case of Congress and under severely objective tests, of which the first and greatest would be the military security of the United States. The others would be the degree of self-help and mutual aid guaranteed by the applicants.
This profound evolution in the foreign position of the United States, for all its qualifications, would extend to the non-Communist world a prospect of military comradeship without precedent in peace-time history.
It was brought about by the passage of a simple resolution by Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, Republican, of Michigan, which simply advised the President of the Senate's views. It requires no action by the House.
Points in Resolution
These were the points of the resolution:
1. A reaffirmation of the determination of the United States to go forward with others in the United Nations and under an unaltered Charter.
2. A recommendation that the removal of the veto in the Security Council on all pacific settlements and admission of members be sought by "voluntary agreement."
3. The strongest encouragement to the development, under the Charter, of regional "and other" collective arrangements for self-defense.
4. The aid and association of the United States "by constitutional process" with such blocs as were "based on continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid" where the security of the United States would be promoted.
5. A reaffirmation of the determination of the United States to resist, alone or in concert with others, any armed attack, anywhere, affecting its national security.
6. A recommendation for "maximum efforts" to obtain agreements to provide the United Nations with armed force, and to regulate and reduce armaments.
7. Finally, a review of the Charter "if necessary" and "at an appropriate time" for means to strengthen it.
(Editor's Note: No money appropriated yet!)
Radioactive Tracers
Marine Engineering, June 1948.—A new phase in use of radioactive tracers for industrial research is indicated by the recent completion of what is said to be the largest tracer experiment ever conducted, and probably the first using full-scale industrial equipment. Sponsored by the Republic Steel Corporation, the experiment was conducted in their Cleveland, Ohio, plant by Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, Mass. The use of tracers in industry is reported to have increased greatly in the year and a half since the Atomic Energy Commission has made many new kinds available at lower prices.
The recent study was one step in a program for keeping undesirable sulphur out of steel, and is typical of the instances where tracers are especially useful. Sulphur enters steel in many ways—with the coke derived from coal, or with ore, limestone, scrap, or fuel oil. Some of it leaves the system in slag or flue gases, but some reaches the finished steel. In the finished steel, one cannot tell which raw material supplied the sulphur, except by tedious and inconclusive statistical correlation of sulphur content of the raw materials with that of the steel. This method showed coal to be the chief cause, but steelmakers still were not certain which of the chemical forms of sulphur in the coal got through to the coke and then entered the blast furnace.
There are two important forms of sulphur in coal, pyritic and organic. Since the forms change in the coke oven, there is no chemical method for learning whether the surviving sulphur in the coke came from the original pyritic or organic sulphur, or whether low-pyritic coal or low-organic coal is the better raw material. If one of the forms is tagged with radioactive atoms, however, its travels can be followed very precisely with radioactivity counters. In the present work, a small amount of artificial pyrites was made from radioactive sulphur and thoroughly mixed with 12 tons of coal, the normal charge to a coke oven. The proportion of the coke's sulphur which had come from the pyrites was then found by measuring the radioactivity of the sulphur. This proportion was about the same as in the original coal, indicating that both forms are carried over to the coke equally, and that there is no advantage in buying coal with a low pyritic-sulphur content. More tests are planned to trace sulphur in other materials and chemical combinations through the steelmaking process.
Radioactive tracers have also been used in determining the concentration of toxic fumes in industrial plants, measuring the lubricant applied to textile fibers in amounts so small that ordinary measurements fail, determining the minute amount of metal transferred when a shaft rotates in a bearing, and studying the mechanism by which plants produce food from carbon dioxide, water, and other nutrients by photosynthesis.
Use of tracers to control industrial processes is being considered. As an example, radioactive phosphorus added to a Bessemer steel furnace would show when the last impurity, usually phosphorus, had been removed from the steel. Automatic controls could also be connected electrically to radioactivity-measuring instruments to turn down and shut off the Bessemer at the right time.
Research with tracers is exactly characterized by directness and simplicity. Often, as in the coke-oven work, the experiment can be run in full-scale equipment. This is important, for there is sometimes serious doubt whether a conclusion reached in the laboratory will hold in the plant itself. Radioactive materials from the atomic pile are not expensive. The sulphur for this study cost about $50, compared with thousands of dollars prewar, when radioactive materials were made in the cyclotron. Better measuring instruments are available now, and more technologists are familiar with radioactivity.
On the other hand, not all elements have radioactive forms suitable for tracer uses. For example, radioactive oxygen loses about half its radioactivity every two minutes. Many important radioactive elements are not available from the atomic pile, and must still be synthesized in a cyclotron at much greater cost. The AEC restricts purchase and use of radioactive elements to protect the experimenter and the general public against misuse. The Commission considers the applicant's professional qualifications, the instruments available for safeguarding health, and the intended use. The requirements of the AEC reflect the danger possible with radioactive materials. A properly planned experiment should involve precautions such as the use of a minimum amount of active material, appropriate shielding, avoidance of inhalation and ingestion of the material, and safe disposal of all waste containing active materials.