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Edited by Commander John V. Noel, Jr., U. S. Navy Through September 20, 1952
1953 Shipbuilding Program Outlined—First Fast Cargo Ship Completes Trials—Tankers Extend Range of Carrier Jets
U.S.S.R............................................................................................................ 1269
Russians Mass-Produce Jet Planes—Soviet Air Striking Force Spurs Defense—Communist Purge in Soviet Implied—Soviets Have Harvest Problems—Data on Soviet Heavy Bomber Revealed
Other Countries.............................................................................................................................. 1274
England—Denmark—Jugoslavia—Sweden—France—Holland
International.............................................................................................................................. 1276
Operation Mainbrace Commences—NATO Navies Agree on Terminology—Scandinavia, Russians and NATO—Icebreaker Operates Near Pole
UNITED STATES
1953 Shipbuilding Program Outlined
Bureau of Ships Journal, August 1952.— Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball has announced the composition of the 1953 naval shipbuilding program, which calls for the construction of 40 new ships and 350 landing craft, and the conversion of four vessels.
An aircraft carrier (CVB60) of the Forres- lal-c\ass and a second nuclear powered submarine are included in the new construction. One attack submarine will be in the program and will be constructed at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
Second CVB Scheduled
The construction of the second large aircraft carrier (CVB60) of Forresldl class has been assigned to the New York Naval Shipyard, Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball announced.
CVB60 will have the same hull as Forresldl and will also have the flush deck and retractable bridge characteristic of this class. Changes will be made in the ship’s machinery however, to conform with design improvements made to produce somewhat higher speeds than the Forresldl.
CVB60 is expected to be completed in approximately three and one-half years. Construction time could be speeded up if necessary.
The total cost of the new carrier is estimated at $209,700,000. This is $8,300,000 less than the estimated total cost of Forresldl, since most of the design work and experience that has gone into Forreslal can be used on CVB60.
Both of the major conversions in the 1953 program have also been assigned. They are two .Essex-class aircraft carriers (CF’s), one of which will be converted at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and the other at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard. The other conversions slated for 1953 are two heavy cruisers (CA) which will be converted to accommodate 3-inch, 50-caliber, dual-purpose guns. These conversions will be done at naval shipyards during the period when they would ordinarily be in the shipyards for overhaul work.
The remainder of the 1953 shipbuilding program will be accomplished by contract awards negotiated on a competitive basis. In addition to the vessels already mentioned, the program included three destroyers, two ocean escorts (DE), 10 165-foot minesweepers (AM), 20 138-foot auxiliary motor minesweepers (AMS), two store ships (AF), and 359 landing craft (LCVP).
First Fast Cargo Ship Completes Trials
New York Times, August 31.—The Maritime Administration expressed satisfaction yesterday over last week’s sea trials of the Keystone Mariner, the first of a fleet of thirty-five fast new cargo vessels now building in this country.
The 12,900 deadweight-ton freighter attained a speed in excess of twenty knots in trials off Cape May, N. J., in “very lightly’ loaded condition. This performance, said Vice Admiral E. L. Cochrane, head of the Maritime Administration, meant that Manner-class ships would be the fastest freighters afloat as well as the largest.
The record was made at the normal power output of the ship’s engines of 17,500 shaft horsepower. The ship also displayed remarkable fuel economy, Admiral Cochran added.
The 563-foot vessel was constructed at the Chester, Pa., yards of the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, to which she returned after the trials.
Under present plans, the ship is to enter service in about two weeks. She will ke operated by the Waterman Steamship Corporation and will carry military suppl>eS under an arrangement between the Maritime Administration and the Navy’s Military Sea Transportation Service. -
Seven sisterships, building in yards across the nation, have been launched. Upon completion of the building program the nation will have a fleet of fast, modern dry cargo ships designed for quick conversion to wartime use. Construction was made possible by a Congressional appropriation of $350,000,000.
Tankers Extend Range of Carrier Jets
Avialion Week, September 1.—The range of Navy carrier-based jet aircraft has been given a major extension by the successful adoption of aerial refueling techniques to carrier operation, the Navy revealed last week.
Successful experimental operations in which Grumman Panther and McDonnell Banshee jet fighters were refueled from a North American AJ-1 Savage converted to a dying tanker have spurred the Navy into ordering all Savages now in production modified for use as either flying tankers or bombers. The Savage is being built by North American in a Navy-owned plant at Columbus, Ohio. The Navy also is equipping all of its new jet fighters with aerial refueling equipment to operate with the carrier-based Savage tankers.
New Tactical Advantage
Transplanting the aerial refueling techniques pioneered by British Flight Refuelling Ltd. and widely used by the Air Force in extending the range of its long-range atomic bombers and land-based jet fighters' will mean many changes in Navy carrier operating techniques.
Among tactical advantages of the system are:
Jet Fighter Aircraft can escort carrier- based bombers all the way in and out of the target area.
Combat Air Patrols can be maintained above carrier task forces for long periods without the complicated operations required by frequent retrieving and launching when jet fighters have to be refueled on the carrier decks.
Armament loads of both fighters and bombers can be increased considerably. Aircraft can take off from carriers with heavy armament loads and only a minimum fuel load included in their gross weight. Additional fuel required for the mission can be added by aerial refueling en route to the target.
Equipment Changed
Early experiments at Patuxent River, Md. in refueling the Panther and Banshee Used the XAJ-1 as a tanker with refueling equipment carried in the tail area using space where the jet engine was removed. Normally the AJ-1 is powered by two P&WA R2800 Piston engines and an Allison J33 jet in the tail. In production versions of the AJ tankers the refueling equipment and extra gas will be carried in the bomb bay and the jet engine will be retained. The Savage will be equipped for interchangeable use as either a bomber or a tanker.
All modifications required to shift the aircraft from one function to another can be made at sea with equipment available aboard aircraft carriers. The Savage was the first Navy carrier-based bomber specifically designed to carry atomic bombs and is likely to be the standard long-range carrier-based bomber until the completion of the 60,000- ton super-carriers and the introduction of the Douglas sweptwing A3D into service, about three years away.
How It Works
The Navy’s aerial refueling technique uses the British “probe and drogue” method now being built by Flight Refuelling Inc. of Danbury, Conn. The funnel-shaped drogue is trailed from the tanker at the end of a hose. Fighter aircraft are equipped with a probe which the pilot maneuvers to engage the drogue. Connection is made automatically. The fighter disengages by slowing down and allowing the tanker to pull the drogue off the probe.
Most Navy fighters will carry the probe in the nose but some models such as the sweptwing FJ-2 with a nose air inlet will probably mount the probe on wing tanks.
U.S.S.R.
Russians Mass-Produce Jet Planes
Washington Post, September 8.—Soviet Russia’s warplane production is so good she is able to assign to her Chinese satellite about one out of every 10 MIG-13 jet fighters coming out of busy factories.
A reliable source yesterday estimated Soviet fighter strength as at least 9000 MIGs in operation.
While Russia has been modernizing her interception force with these MIGs, she also has turned over to the Communist air force fighting for Red China about 1300.
For more than two years, Air Force officials say, the over-all size of the Soviet active air fleet—bombers, fighters, transports and other types—apparently has remained unchanged at about 20,000 planes.
But in that time, the appearance and efficiency of units of the Red air force has changed greatly.
The planes of World War II vintage have been relegated in growing numbers to the reserve fleet, which numbers about the same as the active fleet. In two more years the Russians are expected to have 20,000 jets in their fleet.
Against this, the United States Air Force, by the end of last June had only about half of its combat wings outfitted with modern equipment that it had estimated should have been modernized by that date.
The present strength of the United States Air Force is about 95 wings, consisting of from 30 to 75 planes each, depending upon their type. Production this year is expected to be perhaps 9500 planes of all types.
The relative speeds with which the two nations are building up their jet fighter strength has immediate bearing on strategic attack bombing. The larger the Soviet jet interceptor force grows, the harder it would be for United States bombers to get through to Russian targets for retaliatory attacks if Russia started war. Thus the deterrent effect on American atomic supremacy diminished accordingly.
However, some American strategists cite reports that Russia is lagging in radar, both for aircraft warning systems and for equipment of the jet interceptors.
The immense perimeter to be covered along the borders of the Soviet Union make the aircraft warning system a gigantic problem. And jet fighters without adequate radar to locate and aim at bombers in any kind of weather, day or night, are badly handicapped.
Virtually all of the radar stations spotted along the northern edge of the North American continent are in at least some degree of operation. Full operation is expected within the next few months.
Soviet Air Striking Force Spurs Defense
New York Times, July 20.—Colorado Springs, Colo.—Current intelligence reports, which reflect an increasing Russian capability for air attack upon the United States, provide the sombre background for the first United States-Canadian air defense exercise, which started yesterday and will last for one week.
The headquarters of the Air Force’s Air Defense Command here, under Gen. Benjamin W. Chidlaw, is working intensively to integrate into our air defense structure the increasing output of all-weather fighters and fast interceptors. But the improving defensive capability of the command must, of course, be compared constantly with the improving Soviet Offensive capability.
Four principal developments indicate the potential power of the Soviet striking force. These are:
The increasing Soviet stockpile of atomic bombs.
The Soviet hydrogen bomb potential.
The increasing number of Soviet long- range bombers reported in our order-of- battle estimates.
Evidences of Russian air reconnaissance around the northern perimeter and some evidence, not completely satisfactory, that Soviet air power in the Chukchi Peninsula, across the Bering Sea from Alaska, has been increased.
Estimates of the Soviet stockpile of atomic bombs vary widely, but our most experienced observers believe that the stockpile cannot now number less than fifty “nominal” (or 20,000 ton bombs), and may number more than 150, with a stockpile of perhaps 400 to 500 indicated in 1954 or 1955.
Lack of Explosions a Puzzle
There is some puzzlement about the fact that no additional Soviet atomic explosions have been detected. There is no generally accepted explanation for this. Additional test explosions had been expected last summer and fall and again this year, but if they have taken place they have not been detected.
One explanation may be that the Russians were satisfied with the results achieved in the three test explosions known to have occurred and that they decided to standardize a plu' tonium bomb and to produce as many as possible without further tests, while production facilities for manufacturing U-235 were being built up.
Still another explanation offered is that additional Soviet bomb tests may have taken place under ground, or under water, and hence could not be detected by our observation stations, which take air samples for evidence of unusual radioactivity.
A third school of thought holds that a normal time, as judged by our own experience, between Soviet tests has now elapsed and that Soviet atomic tests may be expected this summer or fall.
There is, however, no disposition on the Part of anyone to regard the absence of proof of additional Soviet tests as evidence of lack of Russian atomic progress. There is pretty general agreement that the Russian atomic stockpile is growing steadily.
The Soviet hydrogen bomb potential gives cause for concern. It is now regarded as virtually certain that the Russians will, within the forseeable future, develop hydrogen bombs of power so immense that their destructive capabilities must be measured in millions of tons rather than thousands of tons.
The reason for this certainty is our own experience. A test of a thermo-nuclear, or hydrogen device, scheduled for Eniwetok Atoll, our mid-Pacific proving ground, this fall, is expected to prove hydrogen bombs feasible. And if the United States can develop such a bomb, it is argued that Russia, with the help already given her by spies and defectors, can emulate this achievement.
Concern Over Soviet Bombers
The estimates of an increasing number of Russian long-range bombers caused concern m air defense circles. No one knows exactly bow many long-range bombers the Soviet Union has, but figures now range from some 400 TU-4’s (roughly similar to our B-29’s) and other types to as many as 1,000.
One estimate, which seems to be generally accepted by the Air Force but which other observers believe is too high, is that the Russians now have some 750 medium bombers.
They are not credited, as yet, with any except prototype models of the great heavy bombers equivalent to our B-36 and the new R'52 all-jet bomber. However, an improved ^U-4, believed to have characteristics superior to our Boeing B-50 (which is an improved version of the B-29) has been identified, and the Russians are believed to be starting quantity production of this plane.
Its range and speed are thought to be considerably superior to the B-50, a plane which at the moment is still the “workhorse” of the United States Strategic Air Command. Russian light and medium jet bombers are also coming off the production lines in increasing quantities.
Some concern is felt over the evidences of Russian air reconnaissance in the north and the indications that Soviet air power in the Chukchi Peninsula may have been augmented.
Both of these developments could be purely defensive reaction. Our own air strength in Alaska, for instance, has been increased since the Korean war started, and for quite a few years now our aircraft have been reconnoitering visually and by radar well off the Russian coasts.
The bases in the extreme Siberian Northeast are, however, in range not only of Alaskan bases and Canadian objectives, but TU-4 type aircraft, particularly the new improved Russian B-50 type, flying from this area could, with careful fuel consumption, reach the atomic energy plant at Hanford, Wash., with a bomb load and return to base.
For all these reasons and because of the tense state of the world, the Air Defense Command, which got off to a slow start and was once the stepson of the air force’s major commands, is now in the midst of rapid development.
It has been hampered, as have all other major commands, by the diversion of planes, particularly of North American F-86 interceptors to Korea.
Plane Production Increasing
However, the production picture is now much brighter than it was, and if the steel strike does not cause major setbacks, the Air Defense Command will get an increasing number of modern jets from now on. F-86 production of all types should work up to about 100 a month by the end of the year, and the swept-wing Republic F-84-F should be coming off the production line in gradually increasing quantities in late fall.
The “workhorses” of the Air Defense
Command’s interceptors must be, however, all-weather fighters, capable of work at night, or, theoretically, in any kind of weather. These depend for their effectiveness primarily upon a terrific rate of climb and upon airborne radar, which tracks the enemy bomber, “locks” onto it and brings the fighter into firing position. There are, so far, two types of these all-weather fighters—the so-called “double presentation” or two-seaters, and “single presentation” or single seat.
Newest of the all-weather fighters and just coming off the production lines is the Lockheed Starfire F-94-C, which has no guns and is armed only with twenty-four 2.75-inch air- to-air rockets, housed in a ring of firing tubes around the nose.
Earlier Craft in Service
The earlier F-94-A and B are also in service in the Air Defense Command. The F-89 Northrup night fighter, which is equipped with “decelerons” or air brakes to slow up the plane suddenly in flight, is in service, and so are some of the F-86-D single-seater allweather fighters, equipped with radar and automatic ground control approach landing system, which enables the pilot to land the plane in bad weather merely by matching instruments controlled from the ground.
These and other types of all-weather interceptors, now under development, are believed to be superior at the moment to Soviet all-weather planes, and our radar system, though incomplete, and communications network are thought to be better.
Russian night fighter work in Korea has not yet been impressive, but is improving. One of our B-29’s recently shot down at night over northern Korea was destroyed by MIG-15 day interceptors, which were not equipped with radar, but made their attacks with the aid of searchlights on the ground.
Communist Purge in Soviet Implied
New York Times, August 27.—Both the content and the tone of Nikita S. Khrushchev’s statement in yesterday’s Pravda confirm last week’s indications that a tightening up of Communist party discipline is a major objective of the newly announced changes in party rules. The possibility exists that his charges are the prelude to a new purge of the middle and higher ranks of the party leadership, up to but probably not including the Politburo itself.
The Pravda description of evil conditions in the party that must be extirpated is far more sweeping than anything hitherto published in the Soviet press. There has been extensive criticism in recent years of favoritism and nepotism in the selection of officials, as well as of efforts to repress criticism, but the stress now placed on the divulging of party secrets and the belief that there is one law for members and one for leaders is comparatively new.
The latter charge is similar in tone to the accusations made against Ana Pauker in the Rumanian Communist press several months ago when she and two other major Rumanian Communist leaders were purged. Mr. Khrushchev’s charge that there are many cases of party leaders blocking members from bringing criticism to the central committee is in effect a declaration that open season has been declared against all middle rank party leaders in the country and that all persons having criticisms to make will be protected if they come forward.
The evidence that a new party shake-up is getting under way also is strengthened by the announcement last week that republican party congresses will soon be held in Estonia and Kazakhstan. In both these areas congresses were held less than a year ago, and conditions in both regions are known to be unsatisfactory to the Kremlin. The holding of new congresses at this time would give the opportunity for removing top leaders and installing new ones.
Mr. Khrushchev’s appearance on the Soviet scene as the top party figure in the field of party membership and discipline is a new and important development. Until late 1949 he was the party boss in the Ukraine and then was moved to Moscow as provincial secretary of the party.
Shortly thereafter he appeared to be the Politburo member in charge of agriculture and supervised the amalgamation of collective farms carried out during 1950. Last year it became evident that some of his suggestions for altering collective farm life had been repudiated, apparently as the result of peasant resistance.
The admission in yesterday’s Pravda that the newly created Presidium in effect would Merely take over duties hitherto actually performed by the Politburo is the first recent Soviet admission of the key role of the latter body. The party statutes adopted in 1939 had merely charged the Politburo with responsibility for “political work,” a designation far less explicit than the role assigned the Presidium in the new statutes.
Soviets Have Harvest Problems
New York Times, September 7.—Recent reports in the Soviet press indicate that good crops have been grown this year in many Parts of the country, but along with such °ptimism there is much evidence of serious concern over deficiencies in the way the harvest work is being done.
Reports of good crops in the field have come from such diverse regions as Moscow Province, the Kuban area in the Caucasus and some parts of Siberia, but no precise sta- t'stical data have yet been published. Nor have there been any indications yet as to whether this year’s grain crop, source of ttrost of the country’s food, will exceed last year’s disappointing harvest, which was officially announced to have been below that bailable in 1950.
Particular importance attaches to this gear’s grain harvest because it will provide 'important evidence on whether it will be possible for the Soviet Union to raise grain production by 1955 to 45 per cent more than in as called for by the recently announced Pifth Five-Year Plan.
Report on Seeding Cited
An official report issued last spring said that increased acreages had been sown this year for wheat, cotton, sugar beets and other crops providing industrial raw materials. The absence of any claim that over-all grain acreage had been increased may indicate that Pc total area sown to grain may have been ^educed in favor of non-grain crops and Srasses needed to provide additional live- st°ck feed.
ome observers said yesterday that glow- crop reports during the harvest season , been usual during the last seven years, had not always given an accurate picture of the over-all situation. They recalled that such optimistic reports predominated during the summer of 1946, only to be replaced later by the assertion that theworst drought in fifty years had brought crop failure to major areas.
The chief Soviet concern manifested in recent weeks has dealt with the need to avoid the large losses common during the harvest period.
A dismal picture of the farm machinery situation is painted in many of the recent articles describing harvest progress. Large numbers of grain combines were out of order when the harvest began in many parfs of Siberia, the Ukraine and European Russia, while others were found to have been so poorly prepared that they broke down soon after they had been put to use.
Primitive Instruments Used
As a result apparently a significant part of the grain harvest work has had to be done by hand with primitive instruments in some areas. The Soviet plan for 1952 had called for 72 per cent of this year’s grain harvest to be gathered by combine harvesters, but the tone of Soviet press comment suggests this goal has not been attained.
In the important Kuban grain growing area around Rostov, productivity of combine harvesters this year has been below that of last year, in part because high winds and rains during the harvest period beat down the crops while the abundant moisture encouraged heavy growth of weeds. Serious weed infestation of fields also has been reported from Poltava Province in the Ukraine.
Disquiet about the cotton-growing situation has been expressed recently in Uzbekistan, source of most Soviet cotton production. At a recent meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Uzbekistan sharp criticism was voiced of the low standard of cotton cultivation this year, as well as of the negligence with which much of the cotton work was done.
In Byelorussia much of the poor work of farm machinery this year, in the flax as well as the grain harvest, was attributed to the fact that many farm mechanics available this year are young and inexperienced, and therefore incapable of keeping harvesting machinery in proper condition.
Data on Soviet Heavy Bomber Revealed
Populaire, March 15.—The Swiss aeronautical review Inveravia gives some interesting data on the Soviets’ heavy bomber Tu- 75. The Tu-75 is propelled by six turbine engines driving counter-rotating propellers giving it a speed of 500 miles per hour. The Tu-75 has a range of about 10,000 miles. Its takeoff is assisted by a thrust of 30 auxiliary rockets. The swept-back wings are secured to a tubular fuselage. The stabilizer is located in the upper part of the rudder. The plane carries crew of 22 men, and is 150 feet long and 200 feet across the wings.
OTHER COUNTRIES
British Tribute to New American Liner
London Times, August 18.—It is sixty years now since an American ship (the City of New York on the east-bound passage, and the City of Paris II on the westbound passage) won the so-called Blue Riband. Since then the title of fastest across the Atlantic has been held by such famous ships as Germany’s Bremen and Europa, Italy’s Rex, France’s Normandie, and the long aristocratic line of Cunarders, including the Campania, Lusitania, Mauretania and Queen Mary. The United States, sped on by all the innovations of a dozen years’ progress in marine engineering, now takes her place in this company. She will be welcomed to it not only in her own right, for a great maiden voyage, but also because too long has passed since an American ship last held the most glamorous title of the Atlantic ferry. A hundred years ago, when the regular steamship services across the Atlantic were barely established, American ships were second only to the British in showing what skilled engineering and good seamanship could achieve. In 1852 the holders of the Blue Riband—the Baltic on the westbound passage and the Arctic on the eastbound passage—were both owned by the famous American line, Collins. The British people will perhaps be forgiven if they recall that only four years later the title was regained by one of the earliest Cunarders, the Persia.
To-day, however, the honour belongs to the United States, to Commodore Manning, and to the people of America whose skills have made her achievement possible. The British people have the sea in their blood, and though an air-liner may cross the Atlantic in only a few hours, their imagination and affection will be stirred far more by the ship which still needs three-and-a-half days- To-day they will be reassuring themselves that speed is not all that counts—and if speed is the need there is the British Comet to conquer the air passage—that comfort and a safe and regular trip are more important, and that, anyhow, the Queen Elizabeth is still the largest liner afloat and the Queen Mary the second largest. In their hearts, however, they will be harbouring a secret envy as well as an open and spontaneous delight at the formidable performance of the brand-new United States. Since the days of the international tea races—it is a hundred years ago this month since the Challenge and Challenger started on one of the most famous of them all—the contest for the Blue Riband has been the oceanic event which has excited the most popular interest. Those whose duty it is to conduct the Atlantic service may frown sternly, and without doubt rightly, °n such frivolity—“competitive racing across the Atlantic is not to be encouraged”—but a race it will obstinately remain to the popular imagination, and one which the British people will look forward to winning again.
Denmark Builds Novel Arctic Cargo Ship
New York Tunes, August 25.—J. Laurit- zen of Copenhagen, Denmark, shipowners and operators, much of whose tonnage lS run by the West Coast Line between easteru United States ports and South America s west coast, has announced delivery of the Kista, a vessel designed specifically for navigation in Arctic and Antarctic waters. _
The trim craft is only 185 feet long, w*1 her deadweight tonnage at 1,200. Primarily a cargo vessel, she has accommodations twenty-four passengers. Fully loaded, s“ can sail at twelve knots.
When she was launched at the Aalb°r^ shipyard last Jan. 16, she was named with large lump of ice transported from Gree11 land.
The ship’s principal feature is her resistance to ice. Stem and shell-plating are about 100 per cent stronger than that normally used in a craft of this size. Her bow is designed for ice-breaking. Forward of the propeller, on either side of the hull, three broad fins project outward horizontally to protect the screws from ice damage.
An ice-cutter above the rudder protects the rudder and rudder-stock when the ship moves astern. On the foremast is a crow’s nest where two men can navigate the craft in comfort. Four derricks capable of lifting five to fifteen tons are posted on deck.
Another feature is a variable-pitch propeller that can be operated from the wheel- house as well as from the crow’s nest. This mechanism can increase the ship’s ice-break- mg ability 30 per cent. The vessel has two holds, both forward of the wheelhouse, which can receive 57,000 cubic feet of grain.
The Kisla has been chartered to the Greenland Trading Company, an agency of the colonial administration, for three round- trips this summer between Denmark and Greenland. After these voyages she will again be offered for charter.
Details of the vessel were made public yesterday by Eigil Hansen, New York representative of J. Lauritzen, at 90 Broad Street.
Tito Sees Navy Poiver at First Hand
Christian Science Monitor, September 16.
' Split, Yugoslavia.—America’s 45,000-ton battle carrier Coral Sea has shown off its teeth here in a high-powered demonstration °[ uaval airpower witnessed from aboard the grant ship itself by Marshal Tito and his topranking naval commanders.
Escorted by two of the four destroyers Visiting here with the Coral Sea and the heavy cruiser Salem, the carrier put to sea on a four-hour cruise to stage and exercise about 2Q miles off the Yugoslav shore.
Tito, visiting an aircraft carrier for the lrst time, saw jet planes catapulted and Prston aircraft taking off from the flight deck a rate of more than six a minute.
Earlier at a luncheon given by Tito for dmiral J. H. Cassady, Commander of the uited States Sixth Fleet, the admiral told llTi the purpose of the scheduled exercise “not to boast, but to show our firm determination, our will, and our ability to meet aggression if it comes.” The point was well underlined by the demonstration at sea.
Catapult-launched jet Banshee fighters, fighterbomber Skyraiders and Corsairs using live ammunition and 1,000-pound bombs strafed a target towed 2,000 feet astern. Jets “attacked” the carrier, and finally about 25 aircraft roared overhead in formation spelling out the Yugoslav leader’s name.
Tito’s lively appreciation—and enjoyment—of the display were evident. Equally, there appears no doubt of the complete success of this American naval visit.
Belgrade’s readiness to discuss joint defensive measures with the West has never been more evident. From collaboration with Greece and Turkey to consideration of more cooperation with the powers most responsible for defense and security in the whole Mediterranean area is not such a big step for the Yugoslavs to take.
Swedish Navy Tries New Radio Device
New York Times, September 10.—The Swedes will try out a new secret device of their own invention in an effort to neutralize Russian radio jamming during the Swedish Navy’s big autumn maneuvers in the Baltic beginning Thursday.
Using a transmitter evidently situated in or around Riga for jamming, the Russians have in recent years seriously hampered communications between Swedish naval units and aircraft in and over the Baltic.
In conjunction with the Swedish Army and Air Force, the Swedish Navy will stage a series of war games in the Baltic for two and a half weeks, but none of the exercises will take place as far south as Bornholm, the area where part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s maneuver “Mainbrace” is simultaneously being held with Danish, Norwegian and British naval units participating.
The over-all aim of the Swedish maneuvers is to practice a war of attrition in the Baltic, principally in the waters between the Stockholm archipelago and the Isle of Gotland. Later the games will move northward to the part of the Baltic named the Gulf of Bothnia, where the Swedish Army will simulate an invasion attempt for the navy to repulse.
France: Construction of the The chief of staff is an American, Rear Ad-
Submarine Narval miral Cato D. Glover Jr., a naval aviator.
Science El Vie, July 1952.—The Narval is the first unit of the new French submarine fleet. Strongly influenced by the lessons of the German submarines, the Narval is revolutionary compared with the latest constructions in that it is a true submarine and not a submersible, and its displacement is 1200 tons,, a relatively important figure. Surface qualities have been deliberately sacrificed for submerged qualities. Its only armament will consist of fixed torpedo tubes.
Holland: New Type Submarine Laid Down
Populaire, July 5.—Holland has laid down four submarines of an entirely new type. Instead of the usual single cigar-shaped hull, the submersible has three: one large, and two fixed underneath. The large one contains the crew, control station, and armament; the two small ones house the batteries for submerged cruising and Diesel motors for surface cruising.
INTERNATIONAL Operation Mainbrace Commences
New York Times, August 27-September 17.—The largest international naval command in history, extending across the Atlantic Ocean and from the North Pole to the Tropic of Cancer, prepared today to launch its first great naval maneuver.
A United States task force built around five aircraft carriers will sail from Hampton Roads tomorrow to take part in September with the ships of seven other North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations in exercise Mainbrace to be held in the North Sea area.
The maneuver will mark the coming of age of NATO’s Atlantic Naval Command under Admiral Lynde D. McCormick, U.S.N. commander in chief of the United States Atlantic Fleet, who also is “Saclant” or Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic. His command is co-equal with and independent from “Sa- ceur,” or Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, who is General Matthew B. Ridg- way.
Admiral McCormick has as his deputy British Vice Admiral Sir William Andrews.
International Staff
The international staff that has been assembled here to prepare international plans and to direct—in time of war—assigned naval forces of the NATO nations now number about 130 officers from the United States, Britain, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and some 156 enlisted men, all of the United States Navy. When the staff is completed in September, there will be about 155 officers—about 100 of them from the United States. Three civilians, in addition to a State Department representative, will be assigned to aid the international staff.
The C-l (the letter C stands for “combined”) or head of the personnel and administration section of the staff is a Canadian officer; C-2 or intelligence, is a British officer; C-3, plans policy and operations, is a United States officer, and C-4, or logistics, is a United States officer. There is also an international finance and budget section and a communications section. All of these sections are staffed by officers of different nations.
This new international naval command even has its own couriers to carry top-secret mail back and forth across the Atlantic.
One of the most difficult tasks, that of allocating sub-commands and delineating geographical responsibilities, has been largely completed, though one major, and several more minor problems remain.
“Iberian” Command Unsettled
No agreement has yet been reached about the establishment of an “Iberian” command, subordinate to “Saclant.” As originally envisaged, the NATO Atlantic Command was to be divided into three principal subordinate area commands: eastern Atlantic area, under a British admiral; the western Atlantic area under a United States admiral, and the Ibero-Atlantic area under a United States admiral.
The Ibero-Atlantic area, extending far off Spain and Portugal, including the approaches to the Mediterranean and reaching to the Moroccan coast, has not yet been ac-
tivated. The delay in establishing this command seems to be connected with the problems of establishing a satisfactory NATO naval command in the Mediterranean, and with British and French reservations.
All other subordinate sea commands have been at least roughly defined and their commanders named. The organizational chart looks somewhat cumbersome and confusing. The British and Canadians divided the responsibility and authority for the seas areas in their sectors between Navy and coastal or maritime commands of their air forces, so instead of one commander in the British areas of the Atlantic, there are two.
The exact dividing line between the eastern and western Atlantic area has not been finally decided. As of today, the line runs roughly from the southern tip on Greenland southeast and then south to the east of the Azores down to the Tropic of Cancer. The eastern Atlantic area, east of this line, known as “Eastlant,” has two British commanders, Admiral George Creasy and Air Marshal Sir Alick Stevens.
Split into Sub-Areas
Under this “Eastlant” command are two sub-areas “Norlant,” or Northern Sub Area, commanded by two other Britishers, Rear Admiral J. H. F. Crombie and Vice Marshal H. T. Lydford, and “Cendant,” or Central Sub Area, commanded by Vice Admiral Sir Maurice J. Mansergh, and Air Vice Marshal T. C. Traill, both from Britain.
Two other subordinate commands also are answerable to “Eastlant.” These are the Bay of Biscay Sub Area, commanded by 1'rench Vice Admiral A. R. M. Robert, and Maritime Forces, Morocco, commanded by Vice Admiral A. Sol of the French Navy. Just how these sub-areas would be coordinated with the projected Ibero-Atlantic area *s not yet clear.
The West Atlantic area, or “Westlant,” which is commanded by Admiral McCormick himself, has two sub areas: the Vnited States, commanded by Vice Admiral N. S. Delany, with headquarters in New Vork, and the Canadian, commanded by Admiral R. E. S. Bidwell of the Canadian Aavy and Air Commander A. D. Ross of the Bnyal Canadian Air Force.
All of this complex establishment must, of course, be coordinated with the NATO land command of General Ridgway in Paris, with the British Channel and home waters naval commands and with the coastal commands of each of the participating countries.
The forthcoming maneuvers will offer a working test, not only of the NATO naval command itself but also of the effectiveness of its links with the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.
Aboard the U.S.S. Midway, at Sea, Aug. 29.—-More than eighty men-of-war of the United States Fleet maneuvered in midAtlantic today en route to Scotland and Exercise Mainbrace, the Atlantic Alliance naval maneuver to be held in the North Sea in September.
The fleet, which sailed from Atlantic Coast ports Tuesday, has been gradually “working up” as it steams eastward. Training, first as national units, then in an international command, will be a major objective of Mainbrace.
But the forthcoming maneuver obviously has important strategic implications and will afford a test of the complicated command relationships of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Mainbrace assumes a war between Blue forces, representing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Orange forces, who are especially strong in submarines and air power. Orange is supposed to have invaded Norway from the north and Denmark from the south.
The local defense forces, under the over-all command of General Matthew B. Ridgway, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, request assistance from Admiral Lynde D. McCormick, Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic, who sends the United States task force now steaming toward Scotland to join more than 100 other Allied ships from eight other nations in the North Sea.
Exercises to Last 12 Days
Mainbrace will continue from Sept. 13 to 23. It will coincide with other major European military, naval and air maneuvers, which are held each fall.
The mimic battles of Mainbrace will be staked ashore in northern Norway in the
vicinity of Bodoe and in Denmark, where an amphibious landing will be made by a battalion of United States Marines, now at sea accompanying this fleet.
The naval forces will range across the North Sea and off the coast of Norway from the Arctic circle to the Firth of Forth in Scotland, and small light Norwegian, Danish and British forces will maneuver in the Baltic in defense of the eastern approaches to the Jutland Peninsula.
About the same time as Mainbrace is being held, neutral Sweden’s Navy and Air Force will be conducting in the eastern Baltic the largest maneuvers Sweden has held since World War II. These maneuvers are completely unrelated to Mainbrace.
In Germany both the Atlantic pact and Russian forces are scheduled to hold land and air maneuvers in September. United States and French forces in the Western zone will fight a mimic war from Sept. 1 to 7, while the British, the Belgian and Dutch troops will maneuver from Sept. 15 to 22. The 350,000 to 400,000 Russian troops in the East zone of Germany are expected to conduct their annual maneuvers in September and October.
Mainbrace, therefore, is being held against a background of realism. And the concept that governs the maneuver is an index of the significance to the defense of Western Europe of navies, naval air forces and amphibious forces, which only a few years ago were being described as obsolete factors in the art of war.
Mainbrace, in fact, is open recognition of a major strategic contention that the defense of the European flanks, Scandinavia in the north and the Mediterranean in the south, is primarily a maritime task. Sea power and air power, the latter based principally on carrier decks, and amphibious power, transported by ships and protected by ships and ship- based planes, are the only ready means by which powerful aid can be mobilized quickly in defense of exposed Norway and Denmark.
Navy Air Force Recognized
The ability of carrier-based planes to carry atomic weapons and to provide close support for ground armies is implicitly recognized by Mainbrace, a maneuver in which by far the greater number of the planes involved will be
ship-based. The small Norwegian and Danish land forces participating in the war games will be supported by their own aircraft, but in far greater measure by United States and British planes flown from the United Nations aircraft carriers scheduled to participate.
In addition to this tacit strategic recognition of the renewed importance of navies and naval air power in the atomic age, Mainbrace will test the command relationships between General Ridgway’s European Command and Admiral McCormick’s Atlantic Command and also will provide a test of the command structure within each of these principal Atlantic pact organizations.
Admiral Sir Patrick Brind, Royal Navy, who is General Ridgway’s commander in chief, North, is the senior officer directing Mainbrace. The assumptions of the problem envisage a request from Admiral Brind to General Ridgway for support. General Ridg- way, presumably hard pressed in Germany and in the south, has no reinforcements available, and therefore requests Admiral McCormick, the Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic, to support Admiral Brind.
Admiral McCormick in turn directs his two subordinate commanders of the Eastern Atlantic area, Admiral Sir George Creasey of the British Navy and Air Marshal Sir Alick Stevens of the Royal Air Force, to support Admiral Brind in his defense of Scandinavia and makes available for the purpose a powerful carrier task force and amphibious forces under Vice Admiral Felix B. Stump of the United States Navy.
During the exercise Admiral Stump, whose flag flies from the battleship Wisconsin, one of the men-of-war in this fleet, will be under the direct command of Admiral Creasy and under the over-all command of Admiral Brind.
The maneuver will afford a test of the complex and interlocking relationships of the Atlantic pact command structure, and will particularly test the British system of dual naval and air command, which contrasts strongly with the United States system of a single commander in chief for each area. The relationship of the Atlantic pact structure to the British home commands around the British Isles and to the various national commands also will be tested.
Aboard U.S.S. Wisconsin, At Sea, Sept. 8—The largest United States fleet to visit British waters since World War II will steam Wednesday and Thursday into the Firth of Clyde and Firth of Forth for a three-day rest prior to the start of the North American Treaty Organization’s maneuver Exercise Mainbrace.
More than eighty American men-of-war of the Atlantic fleet will moor or anchor off the historic ports of Glasgow and Edinburgh, Where they will join scores of British fighting ships. The combined fleets, plus ships, planes and men from eight other nations will begin on Saturday what will probably be the largest Allied naval exercise ever held. It will extend from Narvik, Norway, to the Kiel Canal and from Iceland to Scotland. Vice Admiral Felix B. Stump of the United States Navy, whose three-starred flag flies from this ship, will be the senior officer afloat during the exercise.
The arrival will complete a preliminary training cruise that started from United States east coast ports Aug. 26. This cruise, which the Navy would probably describe as “routine” was, from the point of view of training, rigorous and the vital statistics indicate that it was not uneventful.
Two Fliers Killed
There were two deaths during the cruise, both from aircraft accidents, and the normal quota of injuries incident to life and the work afloat in fair weather and foul.
Hundreds of carrier landings and takeoffs by all types of aircraft from speedy jets to helicopters were made during the cruise. The favorite psalm of the naval flier—“I take my wings early in the morning and dwell in the uppermost parts of the sea”—was given literal application during the last two weeks.
Attack Practiced
The Wisconsin, the only battleship in this fleet, and the cruisers and destroyers maneuvered with the carriers and practiced day and night attacks. The Wisconsin fired her 16-inch guns and most of the ships had an opportunity to test their “sky” batteries. The fine art of “replenishment” at sea, perfected during World War II, was practiced several times and the fleet refueled from the accompanying oilers underway, and transferred food, stores, patients, movies, ammunition and supplies from ship to ship without stopping.
September 17.—Wild seas and a roaring wind lashed the Allied fleet today as one phase of Exercise Mainbrace ended and two other phases began.
This striking fleet, a major part of the naval forces from nine nations engaged in a 12-day North Atlantic Treaty Organization training maneuver, was about 190 miles off the Norwegian coastline due west of Alderen Island at 8 o’clock this morning. It crossed the Arctic Circle later in the morning, steaming north and making heavy weather of it in 35-to-40-knot westerly winds.
The Wisconsin, flagship of Vice Admiral Felix B. Stump, commanding this striking fleet, played the principal role last night in the dramatic end of one episode of Mainbrace. The 16-inch guns of the Wisconsin, aided by the 8-inch guns of the heavy cruiser Columbus were credited with the “sinking” at about 10:40 o’clock Monday night of the Orange enemy surface raider simulated by the Canadian cruiser Quebec.
The Quebec, which left Narvik Sunday, had been shadowed by land-based patrol planes and flying boats and yesterday afternoon, despite the low clouds and leaping seas, carrier-based aircraft found her. One Douglas attack plane made a masthead attack with simulated bombs and rockets but was adjudged “shot down” by the Quebec’s guns.
The cruisers U.S.S. Des Moines and Quincy were sent out ahead to the main formation to run a retiring search curve in case the raider tried to break out into the open Atlantic to harry merchant shipping. The British cruiser Swiftsure, the United States cruiser Columbus and four destroyers were also sent ahead of the main body.
After dark a plot of the Quebec’s course showed the Quebec approaching the main striking fleet. The Wisconsin was ordered to leave the fleet and to destroy the raider. Capt. H. C. Bruton, commanding this ship, lost no time. The night was black with low lying clouds. Captain Bruton worked the ship up to better than 26 knots. The Wisconsin quickly picked up “skunk” [in the jar-
gon of the Navy an unidentified surface ship] on her radar and when the challenge was not answered, the Wisconsin’s 16-inchers opened simulated fire at 30,000 yards. The Columbus also fired. The Quebec, pretended to be the British cruiser Swijtsure, which is on the Blue or friendly side, and it was not until early this morning that her deception was finally exposed.
While the raider was being sunk, two other phases of Mainbrace started.
In one of the phases—a convoy problem between the Firth of Forth and Bergen, Norway—a Grumman 6F6 fighter plane and pilot flown from the U.S.S. Mindoro was lost early this morning. An air-sea rescue search in the North Sea was started immediately, a phase of Mainbrace which extends from Narvik, Norway, to the Kiel Canal and from Scotland to the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic.
In another phase, some small Danish land forces and planes of the Danish Air Force, Danish, Norwegian and British vessels are participating in the defense of Denmark’s eastern approaches that are supposedly under attack by an enemy amphibious force. No United States forces are participating in the Baltic phase of Mainbrace.
NATO Navies Agree on Terminology
New York Times, September 8.—The quartermaster will no longer report “two- blocked” to the officer of the deck, for naval language is being internationalized and standardized, at least by the Western Allies.
“This new nautical phraseology will receive its first big international test in the large-scale North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercise Mainbrace that starts Saturday.
The phrase “two-blocked” is the most prominent victim of the new naval order. It has long been used in the United States navy to indicate that a flag, a pennant, or a signal was hoisted all the way up to the signal yardarm or to the gaff or top of the mast or staff. The expression derived from the days of sail when two blocks through which the halyards or lines ran were hauled block to block or “two-blocked.” The new expression, of British origin, is “close up.”
Another British expression, “to wheel,” a maneuver involving a change of direction by a fleet in columns similar to the action of a swinging gate, is new to Americans, but it expresses more vividly than any of our old commands the order for a change of front by the fleet. The British, moreover who usually spell “harbor” with a “U,” bow to the American spelling.
Scandinavia, Russians, and NATO
Foreign Policy Bulletin, September 1.—It was natural that nations situated like the Scandinavians felt threatened by the westward trend of Soviet expansion after World War II. The fact that the Soviet Union offered first a friendship and mutual assistance pact to vanquished Finland and later a nonaggression pact to Norway did not relieve anxiety because Denmark and Finland had had tragic experiences during World War II with the only two nonaggression pacts Scandinavian countries had ever signed. The disappearance of Czechoslovakia behind the Iron Curtain finally and completely convinced the Scandinavians of the Soviet danger. In contrast to Poland, Hungary and the Balkan countries, Czechoslovakia was not looked upon by them as an Eastern European country that found its natural place within the Soviet orhit, but as much a Western and as thoroughly a democratic country as the Scandinavian nations themselves. If the Czechoslovaks could lose their independence overnight, all smaller nations were in the same danger.
For a year the Scandinavians debated what to do. Should they enforce their traditional neutrality by pooling their limited defense forces into a neutral Nordic bloc? Or was neutrality outdated when the nearest line of attack between the two super-powers cut right across Scandinavia, as the bomber flies? Would the only realistic policy be to seek protection from the Western powers with whom Scandinavia had so much in common? For a decidedly Atlantic power like Norway, whose tremendous merchant marine was busy in foreign waters carrying freight for Western customers and which had been so recently invaded, the latter course seemed the only logical one. The Swedes could not so easily forget their traditional neutrality, which at least seemed to them to have an essential connection with their free-
dom from invasion for almost 135 years. They had kept their powder dry during World War II and could look more confidently at their own defense establishment as a deterrent to attack than their Danish or Norwegian cousins. Also, they cocked a watchful eye across the Baltic and worried about what might happen to their daughter- nation, Finland, if Sweden signed up with the Western powers. Completely flat and without natural defenses, Denmark seemed to be Europe’s most exposed country and saw the greatest risk in being left by itself. The Danes preferred a compromise that would allow a Nordic bloc to be tied somewhat loosely to a Western setup, but they preferred any solution to nothing.
By January 1949, a Danish-Norwegian- Swedish military committee indicated that a joint defense could be established but that aid in arms and supplies from abroad were necessary to give a Scandinavian alliance a fighting chance. Sweden suggested the formation of such an alliance, but when the United States declared that strictly limited American military supplies would go in the first place to signatories of the North Atlantic treaty, Norway preferred to sign up with the Atlantic powers, and so did Denmark.
The die was cast, and a split Scandinavia was a fact. This was a solution which did not satisfy anybody. Whatever their prejudices, a. considerable number of Scandinavians agreed that any solution which left the three countries united would be preferable to a split. The debate over Scandinavian alliance vs. North Atlantic alliance had been very heated and had followed neither national nor party lines. There were adherents of both solutions in each country. Now, not only the Parliaments but also public opinion has acquiesced in the decisions of their respective governments, and these have not been strongly questioned since. However, indications are that supporters of the Atlantic pact have been somewhat strengthened in Sweden and it is likely that the whole orientation of that country will be thoroughly reviewed if there is any fundamental change in the international status of Finland. In Norway a small group of left-wing Laborites protested Vociferously that their party was being railroaded into approving adherence to the Atlantic pact, but this scant opposition has quieted down. There is in Norway today a pretty general feeling that the right course was followed and that membership in the Atlantic pact offered the best protection possible under the circumstances. In Denmark the high taxation necessary for streamlining national defense in accordance with the NATO program has caused some discontent among taxpayers who question the wisdom of undermining the country’s high standards of social welfare in order to create a defense establishment that may be overrun anyhow. But this feeling has not gone so far as to arouse serious opposition to participation in NATO.
Decline or Communism
The main feature of domestic politics in all three countries since the war has been a strong trend back to normalcy. Normalcy in Scandinavia is a slow-moving but constant tendency toward social and other reforms with avoidance of major strikes and other intense conflicts. A special illustration of this trend back to normalcy is the decline of Communist influence in Denmark and Norway since the war. In Norway the Communists’ vote was halved in 1949, and their representation in parliament was cut from 11 to 0. In Denmark their representation in the lower house was reduced from 18 in 1945 to 7 in 1950.
The driving force behind normalcy is usually the Social Democratic, or Labor, party, by far the largest political party in each of the countries, even when, as in Denmark at present, it has no direct responsibility for the existing government.
Icebreaker Operates Near Pole
San Francisco Chronicle, August 24.—The Coast Guard icebreaker Eastwind probably went farther north this month than any other ship has gone under its own power, the Navy announced today.
The Eastwind, part of a task force resupplying Canadian-United States weather stations, reached Latitude 82 degrees, 38 minutes, 20 seconds. That is within 442 nautical miles, or 508 statute miles, of the North Pole.