UNITED STATES
Fighting Equipment of Army Divisions
Army Ordnance, September-October. —
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Bermuda Base
Chicago Tribune, September 4. —With a rapidity which makes the easygoing natives hereabouts rub their eyes in amazement, the United States is fashioning these pleasure islands out in the Atlantic into a mighty Gibraltar. At the eastern end of this British colony, which figured in the swapping of destroyers for hemisphere defense bases, the United States Army is building a huge airfield from which bombers and patrol planes may operate far out to sea. In Great Sound to the west the American Navy has opened a fleet operating base and seaplane facilities. Without revealing any military secrets, the strategic value of Bermuda in the defense of the United States and the Panama Canal may readily be shown. Stretch a string along a map and it will be found that Bermuda is approximately 700 miles from eastern seaboard points all the way down the coast from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Charleston, South Carolina.
Both Army and Navy officers in charge of the project are loath to talk about such specific matters as gun emplacements and ammunition depots, but there is no official objection interposed to sketching the plan as it is shaping up in its broadest outlines. Army engineers under the command of Major Donald White, an efficient and laconic New Englander, are building the airfield on Long Bird Island, an elongated strip of land in the northern waters of Castle Harbor, which is rapidly approaching a rectangle in shape. Private contractors on the job are the Arthur A. Johnson Corp., the Necaro Co., and the Vermillya Brown Co., all of New York. Seventeen hundred workmen, most of them skilled operators of derricks, dredges, bulldozers, and jackhammers, were transported from the United States and are working on the job alongside 200 Bermudian laborers.
One macadam runway is completed, another is rough graded, and the work has started on a third. The coral rock has been blasted and the terrain leveled off. Land is being filled in on the shores from dredges gouging out the tough coral tops in near-by shoal waters. The fill is averaging about 80,000 cubic yards a day. Barracks are being erected on St. David’s Island for the permanent garrison, which now is housed across the harbor in the palatial Castle Harbour Hotel. Pleasure-loving American tourists once paid at the rate of S20 a day for a room in this hostelry. Col. A. G. Strong of the Coast Artillery Corps commands these troops as head of the Bermuda base command.
The Army engineers and contractors have taken over in its entirety the once popular resort hotel of St. George’s on the heights overlooking what the signboards call “Ye olde towne of St. George,” founded in 1609 and colonized in 1612 by the Virginia company. Inside the hotel the ancient lobby has been fenced off into little office cubicles. A wooden floor was built over the swimming pool and the clerical help is at work there. Draftsmen occupy the grill and barrooms. Looking down from the hotel the visitor can see the Stars and Stripes waving over several of the white coral-roofed buildings of St. George’s. Half a dozen old warehouses, which stored booze during the rumrunning days of prohibition, have been leased by the Army. The flag also floats from Ordnance Island just offshore, where the Navy has additional docking facilities.
Across St. George’s Harbor and tied up at St. David’s is the decrepit old Hudson River night line steamer. Six hundred of the American workmen live in the ship’s rotting hulk.
One of the Army’s activities is the operation of a small evaporating plant which removes the salt from sea water. Ten thousand gallons of salt-free water are produced daily now, but three 40,000-gallon units are to be installed in the future. Fresh water is a problem in Bermuda because the rains from the skies are the only natural source.
The Navy also has been busy in the waters of Great Sound. Morgan’s and Tucker’s Islands have been joined by fill and connected with the mainland. One thousand workmen are busy on the naval base.
It was on Tucker’s Island in the summer of 1775 that a daring plot was hatched by sympathetic Bermudians on behalf of George Washington and his Revolutionary forces. On the night of August 16 the little band broke into the public powder magazine at St. George’s and stole 100 barrels of powder to ship to America. Bermudian historians say this enabled Washington’s army to gain its first important victory, the removal of the British forces from Boston.
The United States naval operating base was commissioned April 7 at Tucker’s and Morgan’s Islands by Captain Jules James, commandant of the base. The next day six United States warships steamed into Murray’s anchorage and dropped anchor. The Riddell’s Bay Country club subsequently was leased by the Navy for recreational facilities. The naval air station was commissioned July 1 on Tucker’s Island. Work has begun on a naval mobile hospital unit. Captain James said the naval base is ready to provide the fleet with fuel oil, ammunition, and other supplies.
Coast and Geodetic Survey
Engineering, August 8. —The Coast and Geodetic Survey service of the United States Government carries out duties which correspond roughly to those of the Hydrographic Department of the British Admiralty, combined with others which, in this country, are separately organized under the Ordnance Survey Office and that of the Meteorological Office of the Air Ministry. These duties include the surveying and charting of all United States coastal waters, the production of charts for air navigation, and the collection of tidal, magnetic, geodetic and other data required for navigation by sea and air and for a variety of engineering and scientific purposes. The steadily increasing development of the armament and training program is making record demands on the Survey staff, as is indicated by the fact that, during 1940, the Survey provided 407,186 nautical charts and 463,917 aeronautical charts, a total 21.6 per cent in excess of that for 1939, and by far the greatest distribution since the Bureau was founded.
One of the most important tasks on which the Coast and Geodetic Survey has been engaged in recent years is that of surveying the peninsula of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. This group of islands extends over 1,000 miles westward from Alaska and approaches to within 250 miles of the islands off the coast of Siberia, and has now been in process of survey since 1934. The report of the Bureau for 1940 mentions that two new vessels have been added to the fleet engaged on this work. Of these, the Explorer, a steamer 220 ft. long, fitted with turbine machinery of 2,000 hp. and having a cruising radius of 8,000 miles, has been designed to undertake long voyages in isolated areas. The other, the E. Lester Jones, is a wooden tender, 88 ft. long, and is intended for work in more sheltered waters. Both of these vessels, as well as a number of others employed on this duty, are fitted with the Dorsey fathometer in conjunction with an automatic depth recorder.
A considerable amount of work, of very varied character, was undertaken by the staff of the Bureau in collaboration with other departments. As instances may be mentioned the determination of aircraft speed-trial courses, in co-operation with the Army Air Corps; air photographic surveys to check aeronautical charts, in association with the Air Corps and the United States Coast Guard; the alignment of the track at the new David W. Taylor Model Basin at Carderock, Maryland, in collaboration with the Navy Department; and the plotting of levels in the valley of the Mississippi, undertaken for the Mississippi River Commission. The aircraft speed courses measured were from Wright Field, Ohio, to Scott Field, Illinois, and from the same starting point to Eaton, Ohio; from Denver, Colorado, to Castle Rock, Colorado, and to Tucumcari, New Mexico, and 3-km. courses at Denver and at Fairfield, Ohio.
Eighty-five tide stations were maintained in operation during the year, 41 being on the Atlantic coast, 38 on the Pacific coast, and 6 in the Gulf of Mexico. Thirty-eight of the stations were conducted jointly with other bodies, including the United States Engineers, the Navy Department, the city authorities of New York, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, and the University of Washington. Some improvement was effected in the design of the standard type of tide gauge, to reduce the weight and the cost of manufacture; and excellent results were reported with an experimental model of a new type of portable tide gauge. No current surveys were conducted during the year, but a number of current observations were secured by hydrographic parties and in co-operation with other organizations.
Continuous magnetic information was obtained at five observatories, either to improve the magnetic survey or to record the changes in the earth’s magnetism. The data so obtained are of value not only in navigation, but also to the land surveyor, the explorer of oil and mineral resources, and especially, in radio communication. The need of a nonmagnetic ship, with which to make similar observations at sea, is stated to be becoming acute; they cannot be obtained from steel ships, and, since the destruction of the yacht Carnegie in 1929, none have been made. It follows that the values of the magnetic declination, as stated on charts, are becoming progressively less reliable. The seismological branch of the Bureau’s work includes the operation of seismographs at four observatories, and co-operation in maintaining seismographs at a number of colleges. Sixty strong-motion seismographs, for recording strong local shocks, were maintained at 52 stations. A number of vibration tests were also made on buildings, and the recording of fault noises in two deep wells was carried on intermittently. Importance is attached to the seismological data collected by the Bureau, in connection with national defense works, as it is recalled that buildings at Mare Island Navy Yard were severely damaged by an earthquake during the Spanish-American War.
New A.A.F.
Washington Post, September 11. —The British would doubtless be the first to tell us that if American armed forces ever have to attack or defend objectives in the Atlantic area, the essential elements of success will be perfect timing and co-ordination of sufficient sea, land, and air forces. For had the British been able to observe these cardinal principles in the Norway offensive and in the defensive action in Crete, the course of the war might have been quite different.
In the light of their experience it is reassuring, therefore, to learn that we now have a new joint military command designated as the Atlantic Amphibious Force. Consisting of the First Marine Division, the First Marine aircraft wing, the First base depot at Charleston, S. C., and assigned Army troops, its job will be to take and hold objectives anywhere in the Atlantic. The establishment of an expeditionary force grew out of joint Army- Navy-Marine maneuvers held last month on the North Carolina coast. And the men have been rigorously trained in the dangerous tactics of landing on hostile shores.
To the marines, particularly, landing force operations are an old story. But in past campaigns there was never anything like the co-ordination of forces now accepted as a military essential. Air support existed only in the minds of so-called visionaries; the marines simply landed and took over. Yet the visionaries have long since been vindicated, and if and when action is called for, the A.A.F. will move with enormous striking power, perfectly co-ordinated. If the Axis has plans of its own for the Atlantic area—and few will dispute this—it will have to deal first with a new American unit, a supertask force which includes some of the best-trained and toughest-fighting men in the world.
Various Notes
A new weapon, presented as an answer to dive bombers, was glimpsed among the Navy armament projects ashore when newspaper men inspected today the $20,000,000 United States naval ordnance plant which the Hudson Motor Car Co. is completing. Production already is under way on a new anti-aircraft weapon, a 20-mm. machine gun of such power that experts believe it will greatly reduce the menace of dive bombers that attack ships. The new plant, which is in Center- line, Mich., just outside Detroit, occupies 135 acres and includes fourteen large buildings. It covers more than a million square feet of floor space and will employ more than 7,000 defense workers. Ground for the project was broken in mid-March of this year. Today construction is more than 65 per cent completed and the 5 buildings housing the manufacturing heart of the plant are 85 per cent completed, with installation of machine tools already under way. —New York Herald Tribune, September 10.
The Navy announced yesterday that a control post had been established at Cape Henry, Va. to challenge all ships entering or leaving the Chesapeake Bay. A “notice to mariners” disclosed the establishment of the ship sentinel and declared that “all vessels entering or leaving the entrance to Chesapeake Bay are required to answer signals from this station.” Officials said that such a guard has not been in force at the Capes since the World War. —Washington Post, September 10.
GREAT BRITAIN
Royal Marines in Crete
Marine Corps Gazette, September, by Brigadier General J. C. Smith, U. S. Marine Corps.—Before dealing with the evacuation of Crete it might be of interest to recall some of the events in the war in which the Royal Marines have participated. Apart from their most important function, that of forming part of the complement of H. M. ships, Royal Marines have had experience of a varied nature on shore. Iceland and the Faroes were first occupied by marines in April and May, 1940. During the campaign in Norway forces were landed at various points on the coast, notably at Andalsnes and Namsos. A company of marines was landed at the Hook of Holland in May, 1940, to cover the withdrawal of other troops and R. N. demolition parties with whom they reembarked. Small forces were sent to Boulogne and Calais with a similar object in view. Only at Calais, where all 3 officers and 62 of the total of 82 all ranks sent failed to return, were losses heavy in proportion to the numbers dispatched.
In Crete, however, it is a matter for regret that nearly 1,100 out of the 2,000 all ranks landed, have failed to return. The sacrifice, however, was not altogether in vain, since it appears, from accounts received, that had it not been for the resolute fighting of the Australian and Royal Marine rearguard, the total losses of the garrison would have been heavier. The Royal Marine Forces in Crete consisted of heavy and light anti-aircraft batteries, a searchlight battery and coast defense batteries for the defense of the naval base at Suda Bay and the aerodromes at Maleme and Heraklion. A signal company 200 strong also landed. Although specialist units, each man had his rifle, since it is customary in the Corps that the basic training should be that of infantry, and this includes training in the use of the rifle and bayonet. They were not, however, in the first instance organized infantry battalions. After the main attack broke on May 20 the Searchlight Battery in the Suda Bay area was organized as an infantry battalion and put into the line south of Canea. The areas in which these troops were holding positions were in olive groves with small fields of fire, and the shortage of wire and digging tools had not enabled proper position to be prepared. It is difficult to portray the situation at this period, when there was a complete absence of our own air support and formations of German bombers and fighters kept up a continuous circuit and “blitztag” of the front and back areas, flying very low.
By day, no movement of any sort was possible. Motor transport and dispatch riders were immediately shot up and any area which showed any activity was immediatedly “strafed.” Communications were difficult to maintain and all supplies had to be delivered to units by night. Two platoons of Royal Marines improvised from signallers and searchlight crews gallantly led by Captain A. L. Laxton, Royal Marines, distinguished themselves on this day by driving a large force of parachute troops out of a 3.7-in. gun position south of Canea which had been captured by the enemy. Captain Laxton was himself badly wounded in this attack. Some of these small local actions required great courage and leadership as in all cases the Germans were armed with Tommy guns, hand grenades, and mortars and when once having taken up a defensive position were very difficult to dislodge especially by troops armed only with a rifle. The A.A. batteries, like those of the Army, were heavily strafed by low-flying aircraft during the whole attack and suffered corresponding casualties. The guns were in action in improvised sites up to the moment of withdrawal. At Maleme, where air-borne troops landed close to the A.A. batteries and drove the gun’s crews from the guns, these crews remained to fight as infantry soldiers for the rest of the day and until they retired, when the position was evacuated. At Heraklion, where there were some light and heavy A.A. batteries, in the preliminary stages these guns had great success in shooting down German fighters and troop carriers. Later when parachutists in large numbers were dropped near and in the gun positions, the detachments had to man their rifles and succeeded in killing large numbers while still in the air. One Royal Marine manning a Lewis gun himself brought down two aircraft and killed many parachutists even before they reached the ground. The closeness of the fighting can be judged by the fact that the Royal Marine officer commanding this battery shot two Germans with his revolver. In this area it is estimated that at least 2,000 parachute troops were definitely killed on the first day of the attack. In the later stages German reinforcements were dropped outside the main defenses and in one case surrounded an Australian patrol, who nevertheless fought their way back with bayonets and brought in a large number of prisoners. All these A.A. positions at Heraklion were successfully held until May 28 when all the troops totalling 4,000 were evacuated by sea. During this period the enemy repeatedly attacked our positions both by air and from the ground and on several occasions the Royal Marine A.A. guns were used in a direct fire role against ground troops.
When the line broke in the Canea sector on May 26, the Royal Marine searchlight battalion near Mournies was the last battalion to remain in the line and marched out in good order. Thereafter for the time being the credit for the rear-guard action belongs to the New Zealand and Australian units who fought throughout with the greatest determination and success.
The outstanding incident in the Suda area at this time was a counterattack at 1130 hours on May 27 ending in a bayonet charge by Australian and Maori battalions which drove the Germans back 1,000 yards and enabled other troops of the rear guard to disengage. It was not until Thursday, May 29, that reinforcements were required for the rear guard and a Royal Marine Battalion was organized from the remaining units and brought in the line. The enemy made a determined attack on the rear guard south of Imvros on May 30. Their advanced parties were brought under fire from several forward positions well in advance of the main rearguard position and this still further delayed the enemy. A company of Royal Marines, under Lieutenant T. W. Retter, was detached from the main rear guard to prevent the Germans working round the right flank of the main position. The quick deployment of this company frustrated the threat from this flank and caused many casualties. Contact with the main rearguard position was again made by the enemy later in the day, when a further attack was not pressed. From then onwards the Royal Marine Battalion was in contact with the enemy and, with the Australian Infantry Battalion, who had been in action throughout the rear-guard operations, were the last to retire from the hills overlooking the beaches. When the final order to withdraw to the beaches was given the Royal Marine Battalion was still under heavy machine gun fire. Only 20 minutes’ notice was given to withdraw. In order to distract the enemy’s attention to enable the main party to disengage from the action a diversion was created by throwing grenades down a ravine in which it was known a force of the enemy had infiltrated. These grenades were set so that the full length of the fuse was used and the grenades exploded amongst the enemy force down in the ravine. Long-range fire was also used to keep the enemy at a distance. This enabled the whole of the Battalion to disengage and carry out the withdrawal according to plan.
The terrain over which this rear guard fought was alpine in the extreme and ill-suited for evacuation. There was only one road which dropped from the top of the mountains about 2,000 feet high to a narrow plain below in a series of acute hairpins, the lower half of the road being unfinished and covered with loose road metal, coming to an abrupt end on the hillside about 500 feet above sea level. The plain below was of the roughest scrub and limestone crossed only by a few ill-defined tracks. The supplying of rations and water to the rear guard was of the utmost difficulty and during the last two and half days the force was on reduced rations and water.
It was unfortunate that the Royal Marines and Australians who held the rearguard positions to the end were unable to be re-embarked on the final night of the evacuation, but by their actions they enabled large numbers of British and Imperial troops to be successfully evacuated. This composite Royal Marine Battalion under the command of Major R. Garrett, consisted of the A.A. Searchlight Battery, parts of a heavy and light A.A. battery, two coast batteries and a number of signalmen. All these men had been trained in the use of a rifle and light machine gun and gave a good account of themselves as an improvised infantry battalion. A senior officer present remarked that “they were a tribute to the versatility of the Corps.” Thus ended the rear-guard action in Crete, but not the adventures of all the officers and men who took part in it.
Major R. Garrett, Royal Marine, who had commanded the Battalion throughout, collected 140 men consisting of Royal Naval, Royal Marine, Australian, and New Zealand personnel and put to sea in a broken-down self-propelled landing craft. The craft in question was flat-bottomed with a capacity of 100 men for short distances and capable of slow speed. This was reduced by the fact that one propeller was fouled by a wire. The vessel put to sea and after stopping at Podvopula, a small island some 20 miles to the south of Crete to clear the wire and fill any receptacle with water, Major Garrett and his ship’s company proceeded. After covering a further 80 miles petrol gave out. An attempt was made to run the engines on fuel supplied for cooking but this was unsuccessful. A jury mast was rigged and they made sail with blankets tied together with spun yarn. Under sail, the unwieldy craft proved difficult to steer and her head was only kept on her course by sending men over the side in relays to swim and push her in the required direction. Since it was now apparent that the journey would be a long one Major Garrett cut down supplies to one third of a pint of water, half a biscuit and a cube of bully beef a day. The fuel that had failed in the engine now proved its use and enabled a distilling plant to be improvised. This consisted of two petrol tins connected with a rubber tube. On the eighth day two men died from drinking salt water. Finally after ten days at sea during which they had covered nearly 250 miles, landfall was made a few miles west of Sidi Barrani. Two Maoris on board found water and the party, thus refreshed, marched into the British lines. The work of the Royal Marines in Crete was summed up by the Rt. Hon. A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty in a speech on June 27, as follows:
I shall not readily forget the thrill which I felt when the signal came from Crete and I knew that the Royal Marines had again been chosen for a part of great danger. Once again they had maintained the great traditions of the Corps. They displayed remarkable courage which enabled us to evacuate from Crete more troops than otherwise could have been done.
“Triumph’s” Return
New York Herald Tribune, September 15. —The British Admiralty finally told today the story of the submarine Triumph, 21 months after the ship limped through mine-infested waters back to England with her bow blown partly off and a gaping hole in her hull. On the night of December 26, 1939, the Triumph was patrolling the Skaggerak south of Norway. She was on the surface, recharging her batteries and running on her motors. A first lieutenant on watch spotted a large German mine, but it was too late to pull the submarine off her course. Proceeding very slowly, she struck the mine. The explosion blew 18 feet off the Triumph’s bow and caused a 12-foot split in her hull. The explosion was unusual, the Admiralty said, in that it did not set off any of the torpedoes in the submarine, which were ready for action. A splinter from the mine struck the Triumph’s bridge but did not damage it. Inside, the crew of 53, who were eating, hardly felt the blast, which only spilled some of the soup from their plates. A seaman sleeping in a hammock 30 feet from the explosion was not awakened.
Lieutenant Commander John W. McCoy found his ship in a dangerous position. She was helpless in waters choked with mines, and because her bow was torn away she could not dive. The ship was making water fast in the forward bulkhead, which, if it filled, would sink her. McCoy started the submarine back toward England—a 300-mile trip. At first the ship proceeded at 5 or 6 knots, but bad weather reduced the speed to 2\ knots. Once a German reconnaissance plane spotted her. The weather improved and she increased speed to avoid an aerial attack. Meanwhile she communicated with the Admiralty, which said: “Aircraft escort being sent—destroyers coming full speed.” Just as a German Dornier flying boat arrived to attack, British planes came to the rescue and drove the enemy off. Two nights and a day after she was hit, the Triumph limped into the Firth of Forth, where it was discovered that the damage and danger had been much worse than believed. All the way across the North Sea, it was discovered, one of the torpedo war-heads, with the detonator minus its safety pin, had been washing about in a broken torpedo tube. Hundreds of rivets on the ship were shaken out, and it was considered a miracle that the submarine was able to be steered. The Triumph has been reconditioned since and has sunk five enemy warships, including a submarine and five supply vessels, the Admiralty said. McCoy received the Distinguished Service Cross.
Various Notes
The Malay coastal defense area bordering on the China Sea was extended today to a point more than 200 miles north of Singapore. The 120- mile eastern seaboard of Pahang, largest Malay native state, was placed under military control. The 80-mile coast line of Johore, immediately north of Singapore, previously had been designated as a defense area and mine fields already were laid there. Today’s extension puts under military control the mouths of the principal Malay rivers emptying into the China Sea, up which any sea-borne invasion threat is considered most likely to advance. —New York Herald. Tribune, September 10.
FRANCE
New West African Base
New York Herald Tribune, September 13. —Work is being rushed to transform Abidjean, on Africa’s Ivory Coast, into “one of the most secure natural harbors in the world,” it was announced here tonight. With the base at Dakar, Senegal, this harbor will bracket the strategic British port of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Work on the Abidjean Harbor has been going on at great speed since June, it was said. When completed it will permit the biggest ships to base in the sheltered lagoon, to which a broad channel is being cut.
Elaborate plans for the defense of West Africa have been worked out in talks among officials of France, Germany, and Spain, in the face of the possibility that Great Britain and the United States may try to seize bases in French, Spanish, and Portuguese possessions, the Associated Press learned in New York Thursday. A permanent staff set up by the three powers was reported to be at Melilla, Morocco, to handle the flow of German arms.
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The announcement on Abidjean Harbor by an official news agency followed allotment of 128,000,000 francs (about $3,000,000), largely for the improvement of the Dakar base, to which Foreign Legion reinforcements were recently sent. French sources said the work on the new harbor ought to be finished in “two years at the outside.”
Dakar is already much larger than Freetown, a port of call for British shipping on the Cape of Good Hope route, now used for supplies and reinforcements to the Orient. That route would be the only passage from England to the East should the Suez Canal be lost. Freetown is also the terminus for American supply planes on the short South Atlantic hop from Natal. Abidjean is next door to Liberia and close to the communication lines of the Free French outlet at Pointenoire. More than half a billion cubic feet have been excavated from the sand bar, a mile and a half wide, and a channel has been dug past the halfway mark. The channel will be 375 yards wide and more than 15 feet deep at low tide. Ships passing through the new channel will find themselves in a sheltered body of water parallel to the sea, 75 miles long, 2 to 4 miles wide and 16 to 25 yards deep. They will anchor before the Abidjean station of a railroad tapping a rich hinterland producing cattle, sheep, oil, coffee, cocoa, woods, minerals and ores. Quays and piers are being rushed to completion.
Abidjean is now connected with the sea by a rail line running to a pier at the small Port of Boue.
Subs from Dakar
The Baltimore Sun, September 28. — Dakar is proving to be one of the sharpest thorns in the side of the Royal Navy and Allied shipping: failure to press home the attempt to take it is admitted to be one of the most serious British errors of the war.
I talked to some of the British naval officers who were on the ill-fated expedition. Vichy had not then shown its true colors and the reason General Charles de Gaulle gave for giving the order to withdraw was that he could not bear to see Frenchmen shooting Frenchmen. Probably the only good permanent result was the fact that “a good load of bricks” (broadside salvos) were put through the disabled French warship Richelieu by British cruisers just to make sure she would stay put for the rest of the war.
Senegal, of which Dakar is the capital, long has been the reservoir of French colonial Negro soldiery, whence the best French African troops have been recruited for service in all parts of the empire. It is said that Dakar now is garrisoned with 70,000 Senegalese, partly officered and trained by Germans. Dakar, being the nearest point to South America, only 1,715 miles, is the key to Western Hemisphere defense. In hostile Nazi hands and with the surreptitious collaboration of Vichy, it is a constant threat to United States defense. The next good port below Dakar is British Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, almost exactly halfway between Cape Town, South Africa, and England, being some 3,000 miles distant from both. The whole important west coast of Africa has fewer than a half dozen good harbors. With the closing of the Mediterranean life line, British shipping to the Middle East, India, and Australia has had to revert to the ancient route around Cape Town, which booming city has again become “the crossroads of the oceans.”
How long the Suez Canal can be held open is problematic. German and Italian planes constantly are mining it and bombing ships to block it. The canal recently was closed for eight days by a new type of mine which sank the first three of four ships to be sent through as a test. Furthermore, the occupation of Crete by the Nazis automatically has eliminated much of its usefulness by making the water route through the canal to Alexandria too dangerous, and goods are being unloaded and taken across by railroad to Alexandria and the western desert. All these factors have enforced the use of the long life line from Great Britain to supply her possessions in India, Asia, and Malasia, as well as to provision and reinforce her armies in Egypt, the western desert, the Middle East, and now on the new Indo-Asian front in Iran. Freetown was an assembling point for the merchant navy and the final hopping-off place for convoys made up there for the last perilous stretch to Britain. The basing of German submarines on Dakar, however, has forced the closing of Freetown to merchant shipping since early July. Great Britain thereby has lost one of her most valuable bases in Africa, and so lost one of the most important battles of the Atlantic without firing a gun. German submarines based at Dakar with the connivance of Vichy have taken terrific toll of British shipping converging on Freetown from all parts of South America, Cape Town, the Middle East, Far East, and other places. For a while they were sinking one merchant ship a day and got five ships out of one convoy alone! They became so bold that they were sinking ships only 200 miles off Freetown and in one case as close as 60 miles out of the port. A German submarine went right into the harbor of Lagos, capital of Nigeria, and sank a ship, with the result that British commanders told me they would not risk their vessels there any more.
The practice of submarines was to do their hunting south of Freetown where the unprotected, unconvoyed ships were coming in. After sufficient numbers had assembled in Freetown, a convoy usually was made up and taken on the last lap up to Great Britain. These were so heavily protected that submarines hardly dared touch them. British naval officers were thoroughly disgusted and bitter about Vichy’s obvious connivance with the German U- boats. Convoys used to leave for the British Isles on stated days, Tuesdays and Saturdays. On the morning of those days, without fail, Vichy French observation planes, usually American-made Martins, would come over Freetown Harbor, take a look, turn around and go back to Dakar.
Why was France so interested in what shipping lay in Freetown Harbor or was leaving it, or the composition of British convoys from there?
JAPAN
Strength in the Air
The Aeroplane, August 29. —Japan’s adherence to the Axis and her strategic position in the Western Pacific make her a prospective menace to the peoples of a wide area around. The map shows the strategic position of Japan and the operational radii of the United States air bases at Manila and Guam, and of the British base at Singapore. The composition and approximate strength of the Japanese Army and Navy Air Arms are illustrated. The sources of Japanese supply are shown in diagrammatic form. Now that Japan is cut off from any imports from the English- speaking world her chief sources of supply are severely curtailed, and there seems little likelihood of Japan’s being able to maintain a long and exhausting war. Access to some valuable minerals in Indo- China will help Japan now that she is in occupation of Vichy’s colony, but oil and the raw material of other munitions must be sought elsewhere before Japan can feel sure of her power to maintain herself against heavy opposition.
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U.S.S.R.
Russian Air Power
The Aeroplane, July 18. —Problems of air strategy and tactics have a great appeal to the speculative Russian mind. Russian military and aeronautical journals have discussed this branch of military science in more detail than publications in any other country. German periodicals such as the Militär-Wochenblatt and the Luftwehr have devoted much space to translations of or abstracts from Russian articles dealing with air warfare. The basis of these discussions has been the so-called Preliminary Regulation for the employment of the air force in the field, published in the spring of 1935 by the Russian Stationery Office. During 1937 and 1938, long extracts from this Regulation were published by German military and aeronautical journals together with the comments of Russian experts. The curriculum of the German Air Warfare Academy contains a number of lectures on the Regulation, which was described as the first of its kind to lay down the principles for the use of the air weapon. A dissertation of this sort which appeared more than six years ago would be expected to be obsolete today, yet this is not so. Despite the rigid manner of its presentation— a manner to be found in all publications of its kind—it leaves enough room for changes in detail. Most of the Russian theories of aerial warfare are commonly supposed to be adaptations of foreign thought. However, there is much original thought in the Regulation. Military science, as every science, is international. For instance, the British have adopted a number of principles of Douhet’s teaching, as have the French, Germans, and Russians. Amiragov’s famous rule that a modern war must be launched with tanks and aircraft unfortunately found its most obedient pupils only in the German High Command. A survey of the German air operations of the present war suggests that most of them have been modelled on the Russian Regulation, whether they were independent air force operations or collaboration with the ground forces. This is not surprising if one keeps in mind that most of the prominent Luftwaffe Generals, such as Keller and Student, learned their first lessons in aerial warfare in Russia before 1933, when the German and Russian High Commands worked closely together on building up their armed forces. The Russian Regulation deals with both independent air force operations and with the collaboration of flying units with ground troops. The first part is modelled on Douhet’s teachings. The heavy bomber force as described in II Dominio dell'Aria stands in the fore ground, but the Russians take into account the changes in air warfare arising from technical development. The light bomber plays a vital part in these independent operations.
[MAP-THE RUSSIAN COMMANDS]
[MAP-RUSSIAN AERODROMES]
The second part of the Regulation is the more interesting. The great battles of this war launched by the Germans seem to have been modelled on it; and examples of its operation are the break-through at Sedan and the German thrust towards the Channel ports. Had the Regulation been as thoroughly studied by the Allies as it was by the Germans, they might have learned mainly an Air Force operation to which the Army has to give support, the Air Force commander is responsible for the execution of the orders. The Germans seem to have accepted this principle without reservation. During the battles of France and the Balkans, the Army commanders directed the operations of the ground troops and of the Luftwaffe, while in the Crete campaign Army and naval units were under the command of Goring. Even the mountain troop division which was brought to Crete received its orders from a Luftwaffe officer, General Student, Commander of the Parachutist Division. This system worked very well, and the discussion whether an Air Force is an independent branch of the armed forces or only an assistant to the ground forces seems, - therefore, to be of only academic interest. Russian military literature between 1932 and 1937 is full of studies of this problem. When the resistance of the enemy cannot be broken by the fire of the infantry, artillery, or other ground troops, air force support must be called in. This can be done not only by the Commander in Chief of the sector, but also by lower commanders—even by officers commanding small tank units. The strength of the Air Force units to be sent to support these operations depends on the importance of the single operation. The cooperating air force formation has to be used in mass attacks on enemy objectives; dispersal of machines must be avoided as only superior numbers and surprise can overcome a stubborn opponent.
[TABLE]
The task of the co-operating air units is twofold: to protect their own ground forces and to attack important targets in and behind the enemy’s lines. Typical targets are marching units, troop concentrations, railways, and other communications, aerodromes in the battle and tactical zones. A “rolling” attack on all these objectives can be achieved only if the flying units are highly mobile, and this mobility can only be attained by preparing sufficient aerodromes and supply bases built by the Army. Dummy airplanes and camouflage have their places in the scheme, too. Dive-bombers, airplanes for ground attack, light bombers, and fighters have to operate in the battle and tactical zones. The first two groups have to intercept the enemy’s ground troops and to attack his positions, his supply organization and his aerodromes. They have also to destroy his command positions to interrupt communication between the commander and his troops. During the Yugoslav campaign German dive bombers concentrated attacks on the headquarters of the enemy Commander in Chief, with the result that he lost all contact with his Army. The light bombers’ work is similar to that of the dive bombers, but they have also to make tactical reconnaissance flights.
[TABLE]
Fighter sweeps on a large scale to destroy enemy airplanes on the ground and anti-aircraft batteries where strong enemy fighter resistance is expected were specified in the Regulation. Fighters have to protect their own advancing troops, gun emplacements and anti-aircraft artillery positions and other objectives against enemy air attack. No dive-bomber mission must be undertaken without fighter protection when enemy air opposition might be met. Air reconnaissance and artillery spotting must be protected by fighters. “One photographic plate is often more valuable than two fighters,” remarked a Russian commentator. To overcome a stubborn enemy the attack must be directed against the entire depth of his positions. If high explosive or splinter bombs are ineffective, gas bombs have to be used additionally. Such an operation, however, is very difficult and has only to be entrusted to well-trained, experienced units. The Regulation as it stood when the war broke out dealt with both offensive and defensive collaboration between tanks and airplanes. Tank or armored unit attack must be preceded by an artillery bombardment of the first defense lines and a bomb attack on the enemy’s reserves. At zero hour, dive bombers and ground attack airplanes have to lay a “fire curtain” around the advancing tanks, while fighters have to protect both against surprise attacks. Reconnaissance machines have to inform the commander and the tanks of the progress of the attack and the presence of enemy armored units. These are all difficult operations, the Regulation points out. The commander of the smallest ground troop or Air Force unit has to understand the ideas underlying such operations and to be able to use his own initiative.
Of equal importance is the work of the co-operating Air Force units if the enemy succeeds in breaking through or, by an outflanking movement, appears unexpectedly in the rear. In the event of a break-through, says the Regulation, a counter attack, if possible supported by aircraft, must be made at once to close the gap and to stop more troops from pouring in. Then, tanks, armored cars or motorized units and artillery, as well as dive bombers, have to be entrusted with the task of destroying the forces which have broken through. Simultaneously, concentrated air attacks have to be made against the enemy’s reserves. The Regulation deals also with a number of special occasions for collaboration of ground troops and air units. In mountain warfare, for instance, airplanes are of great use for reconnaissance, transportation, and communications. Dive bombing of mountain positions is considered largely ineffective. In forest battles, which are raging at present, strong support from the air is necessary. The Regulation suggests the firing of the woods by means of incendiaries in order to rid them of well- screened enemy artillery. In village or town fighting ground forces must never attack before dive bombers have destroyed all possible strongholds of the enemy.
One reference only need be made to the tactics of the anti-aircraft artillery. Should a single enemy airplane, obviously on reconnaissance, approach anti-aircraft positions, there is no need to fire at it if the batteries are well camouflaged and fighter protection is available. If the anti-aircraft artillery commander is not convinced of the efficiency of the camouflage, or fighters are not available, he may order half a battery to open fire against the enemy machine. As soon as firing has ceased, the entire battery must change its position at once and dummy guns, if they are at hand, may be installed to mislead the enemy. How far the teaching of the Regulation has been absorbed by the Russian armed forces only the actual operations can prove. Germany, at any rate, has shown its complete understanding of the principles laid down by the Russian military theoreticians.
BRAZIL
Defense Takes Shape
Charleston News and Courier, September 7. —Brazil, the nation that sits on the strategic bulge of South America, is laboring to arm for defense. Like the United States, Brazil started her defense effort almost from scratch. But the job is even bigger here, for Brazil is a nation with a greater land area than the United States, and only about one-third the population. Although bristling guns make the important harbors of Rio and Santos impregnable to sea attack, according to American military experts, the nation has a long sea- coast to defend. A strengthened air arm is only part of Brazil’s answer to this problem. Brazil is not a nation of highly developed industries equal to those of the United States, but already she is manufacturing armaments of her own. An American military mission of ten officers and three enlisted men is advising Brazilian officers both in the production of arms and in the training of troops.
Although North America, busy aiding Great Britain and supplying an expanded United States Army, has not been able to meet all Brazilian needs for mechanized units, heavier field artillery and airplanes, the outlook for future delivery is considered somewhat more hopeful. Meanwhile, Brazil’s own skilled workmen are doing what they can toward outfitting their own army. Nestling at the foot of famed Sugar Loaf, overlooking the entrance to Rio Harbor, is Fort Sao Joao. Curving beaches, tennis, and basketball courts, waving palm trees and modern buildings give the place a summer-resort appearance, but its modern machine shops are turning out precision instruments for field equipment. Brazil also manufactures her own ammunition, from field artillery down to shells for rifles and small arms. Major George Bradsley, ordnance expert of the United States Army, and Major Frederick Kane and Lieutenant Colonel L. A. Elliott, advisers on chemical warfare and light field arms, instruct Brazilian soldiers and also advise officers planning the ever expanding defense program. In concrete-covered Fort Copacabana, whose 12-inch guns sweep the sea approaches to Rio Harbor, Major Lester D. Flory advises Brazilian officers dealing with coastal defense. Slender, genial, Illinois-born Lieutenant Colonel Thomas D. White represents the United States military mission in the field of air defense. Working with him are three other officers and three enlisted men. Always in a hurry these days, Colonel White often is seen taking off from the famous Santos Dumont airport in the heart of Rio, flying one of the two United States army planes at his disposal. “There’s a lot to do,” he explains, “and an awful big country to be covered.” White and his men fly daily to the air training school at Campo dos Affonsos, arriving at 8.00 a.m. for a full morning’s work. They fly back for a quick lunch on the Santos Dumont terrace before undertaking the afternoon’s conferences with Brazilian officers in the ministry of aviation. The protection of warplanes is of special importance to Brazil because of the great distance which she must protect, her long, irregular coastline, limited communications and comparatively small navy.
Brazil has well-trained pilots, in limited numbers, and an increasing force of competent mechanics and aviation maintenance men. Colonel White hopes for a rapid increase in Brazil’s aviation personnel. “These men are fine fliers,” he commented. “But I am anxious that Brazil have available enough men to staff a sudden increase in her air forces, in case planes should be placed suddenly at her disposal to meet a crisis.” The Brazilians are working with the new swift North American advanced trainers (capable of conversion into effective fighters), fast Vultee attack bombers and light Lockheed transport planes. Preliminary training is done in Waco-type trainers manufactured in Brazil, and Brazil now is negotiating with North America for home manufacture of her advanced trainers as well. This is just another example of Brazil’s effort during the past decade to establish her productive independence, in military as well as in purely commercial fields.
AVIATION
Contra-Rotation Propeller
The Engineer, September 5. —The many ingenious inventors who for years have advocated the use of jet propulsion for aircraft hardly seem to realize that this is really a type of propulsion which in a somewhat different form is already in almost universal service. The ordinary airscrew is really a jet-producing mechanism. The inventors of whom we are thinking have usually proposed the alternative of ejecting burnt gases from an internal-combustion turbine of some kind. Their method, if and when it comes, will no doubt have at least the merit of producing a jet free from rotation, whereas the slip stream from the ordinary airscrew contains a marked element of rotation, not only useless in itself, but a serious nuisance, because it produces a rolling moment in single engine aircraft by its unsymmetrical impact on the tail surfaces. This latter effect is further complicated by the fact that the torque reaction from the airscrew drive also produces a rolling moment of its own. Both these effects can be balanced out by arranging for suitable aerodynamic couples to be obtained from the lifting surfaces, but it is obvious that any such nice balance is upset when conditions change, as, for instance, when engine speed is altered. Since even a small angle of roll tends to produce a proportionate amount of yaw, it will be seen that really accurate flying must be influenced adversely, and during fighting maneuvers, especially at the moment of opening fire, this may be troublesome. It is a fact, too, that any angular motion about one of the principal axes of the aircraft is, by reason of the gyroscopic property of the rotating airscrew, at once translated into motion about one of the other axes. It is here that the new contra-propeller—or “contra-rotation airscrew,” as the makers call it—comes in so usefully. Its slip stream has no rotation whatever and although it would seem that in any such mechanism the engine torque must still remain to be balanced, there is certainly achieved a marked and welcome simplification of the whole problem.
The use of twin airscrews rotating on the same axis, but in opposite directions, is not in itself new. It was used many years ago in the Italian racing seaplanes, though in that case each airscrew was driven directly by a separate engine, so giving, in principle at any rate, a balance of torque reaction as well as freedom from rotation of of the slip stream. In our own Schneider Trophy seaplanes we did not adopt this expedient and owing to the then unusual power of the engines for so small a machine much trouble was caused in practice by the tendency of one of the floats to submerge when taking off from the sea, a tendency successfully met in the end by the ingenious plan of using part of the fuel as a means of making one float heavier than the other. The information now liberated shows that the Rotol Airscrew firm has built and successfully tested on the bench a pair of oppositely rotating constant-speed 3-bladed airscrews capable of being driven by a single engine and weighing, it is stated, only some 10 per cent more than a single airscrew capable of taking the same power. Two other firms, Fairey and de Havilland, are also making contra-running airscrews. Such a pair would naturally have a smaller overall diameter than a single one, and this is a further advantage, since it assists the designer as regards ground clearance and the placing of the guns in the wings. We do not doubt that the contra-rotating propeller will prove as successful in flight as it is reported to have been on its bench tests. The parent firms have a repute which ensures that the highest skill in design and construction will have been used in the mechanism. No doubt a pointer to a possible lay-out was given by the often ventilated, and now commonly used, scheme of having a fixed cannon fitted inside the airscrew hub and firing through it. Such an anchorage would suit the differential mechanism which one can picture as having to be employed to give the opposite and equal rates of rotation that are required. The value of the new scheme relates chiefly to single-engined aircraft, since when either two or four engines are used one can, if one wishes, provide for opposite directions of rotation, though at the price of the noninterchangeability of the right- and left- handed engines and consequent increase in the store of spare parts that need to be maintained.
In this new airscrew combination there is more gained than we have so far mentioned by having six working blades instead of three. Not merely does it have the advantage cited of reducing the disc diameter, but there is less tendency for designers to yield to the temptation of raising the tip speed to a level so close to the velocity of sound as to lower the efficiency of the airscrew. On balance the slight extra weight involved by the use of the contra-rotating propeller may well prove to be a price worth paying. In this connection it is worth recalling the experiments of General Rota on contra-rotating ship propellers and particularly his discovery that there was a marked improvement in propeller efficiency when the propellers were of different diameters. Since it would be unsafe to conclude that what was true in water would be true in air, it would be of great interest to know if this line of research has been pursued.
The Bristol Beaufighter
The Aeroplane, August 22. —Bristol designs have always been noted for their structural efficiency as well as for their aerodynamic qualities and fighting performance. The Beaufighter excels in all these directions. Much has been said already about its speed, range, and controllability and its tremendous weight of fire. From the engineering point of view it is equally interesting and in the forefront of progress. Some idea of the efficiency of the structure is given by the fact that, although designed to such high load factors and loaded to 46 lb. per sq. ft. of wing area, the total disposable load of the Beaufighter is 52 per cent of its tare weight. This has been achieved despite the very high power of the two Bristol Hercules motors—the power loading is 7.45 lb. per b.hp. As an engineering project and as a production job the Beaufighter is essentially straightforward. It is designed to be simple to build and quick to produce. The wing is a conventional two-spar structure with single-sheet webs and extruded flanges. There is no need for machining. The structure gives plenty of room for stowing the fuel tanks between the spars. The fuselage is equally straightforward. It has a metal skin with longitudinal L-section stringers and angle formers. The whole of the structure has been planned on the sub-assembly system. Experience in the production of the Beaufort has greatly helped to this end for the outer wings, ailerons, flaps, tanks, undercarriage, the stern section of the fuselage and the tail unit are identical on both the Beaufort and the Beaufighter. The details such as controls, seats, and hydraulic units are also the same so that again production time is saved. The saving in jigging and tool design is immense.
The wing is divided into a center-section of nearly rectangular plan form without dihedral and two outer main planes, tapered in plan form and thickness and set at 5 degrees dihedral. Split flaps extend from the sides of the fuselage to the ailerons and are made in two sections. They are operated by hydraulic jacks working at a pressure of 1,200 lb. per sq. in.
The fuselage is made in three sections, each complete in itself. The Bristol Aeroplane Co. have expended as much research on stressed-skin construction as any concern in the world and, as a result, the technique has reached a high pitch of efficiency both structurally and from a production viewpoint. The monocoque fuselage has extruded light-alloy stringers of L-section and Z-section frames. The whole is covered with a smooth metal skin, joggled, flush riveted throughout and well finished. The rear section which carries the cantilever tail unit is attached to the center portion, which, in its turn, is bolted to the center section of the wing. The separate nose portion is attached in front.
The tailplane and fin are built up as separate units, flush riveted and metal covered except for the tips of the tailplane, which are of wood. The elevators and rudders have a metal frame and are fabric covered. Trimming tabs, controllable by the pilot, are set in the trailing-edges of the rudder and elevator.
Two Bristol Hercules III 18-cylinder 2-row sleeve-valve radial motors are carried at the ends of the center section on welded-steel tubular mountings bolted to the spar. They are enclosed in Bristol long-chord cowlings with controllable gills and leading-edge exhaust-collector rings. The Hercules III has two speed superchargers. It develops 1,400 hp. for take off, 1,425 hp. at 1,500 ft. in low gear, and 1,270 hp. at 15,000 ft. in high gear. The diameter of each motor is 52 in. and the swept volume 38.7 litres (2,360 cu. in.). Each motor drives a de Havilland Hydromatic full-feathering constant-speed airscrew. A total of 550 gallons of fuel is carried in four tanks—two of 188 gallons each, in each side of the center-section plane, and two of 87 gallons each, one in each outer main-plane. The tanks are of the self-sealing variety. Two oil tanks of 18 gallons each are mounted, one in each side of the center- section plane. The oil coolers outboard of the motors are housed in ducts projecting beyond the leading edge of the wing. The total weight of fuel and oil carried is practically two tons. The fuel supply from the four main tanks is maintained by engine- driven pumps. For normal range flights the four fuel tanks should be filled and the outer tanks should be used first, the inner tanks being turned off by the fuel cock controls mounted on the port side of the pilot’s cockpit. When the outer tanks are empty, the inner tanks should be turned on. This automatically turns the outer tanks off. The constant speed airscrew controls are mounted alongside the throttle and mixture control levers. The two-speed supercharger controls are mounted in another quadrant aft of the throttle and mixture controls on the engine control panel. The air intake shutter levers are situated next to them. The adjustable cowling gills are operated by electric motors controlled by switches on the engine control panel. Red warning lights indicate when the motors are in operation. Carburetor cut-out controls are in a control box with a spring-loaded cover fitted to the top of the front spar on the port side. Control levers have red knobs for the port engine and green for the starboard. The priming pumps and starting magneto switches for each engine are mounted on the nacelle structure above the undercarriage pivot and are accessible from the ground when the undercarriage wheels are down. In the event of the failure of one vacuum pump, the other can be selected by means of a change over control on the port side of the instrument panel.
The main wheels and the tail wheel all retract and are hydraulically operated. The main landing gear is in two independent units under each motor nacelle. The wheels are held between two oleo pneumatic shock absorbers and have Dunlop pneumatically operated brakes. They retract backwards behind doors closed by elastic ropes. Electrical indicators and a buzzer in the pilot’s cockpit indicate the position of all three wheels. The undercarriage and the flaps are worked hydraulically at 1,200 lb. per sq. in. The pressure is supplied to the actuating jacks by two pumps driven by each motor. Emergency hand operation is provided. Vacuum pumps for the blindflying instruments, pneumatically operated, are run from each motor. The brakes are operated from the same system. The electrical system for lighting, landing lamps, engine starting, radio, gun firing, undercarriage position indicators, fire extinguishers, cannon, etc., is run from a 500-watt generator driven from the starboard motor and working at a pressure of 24 volts. The radio apparatus is in the fuselage between the spars of the center- section plane. Both transmitting and receiving is operated by the pilot. There are intercommunication telephones between the crew. Signals for “abandon ship” are flashed by warning lights on the instrument panel and in the observer’s position.
The Beaufighter has a greater weight and power of armament than any other fighter at present in existence. Its four cannon and six machine guns literally blast any enemy airplane out of the sky. The cannon are grouped under the nose, two on each side of the box girder which runs the length of the fuselage. They are readily accessible by the observer who can load and clear such infrequent stoppages as may occur. The Beaufighter cannon are developed from the Oërlikon type, originally designed in Switzerland and adopted by both Germany and France. They are in fact a development of the French version which came to us by way of the Hispano- Suiza concern—hence the fact that they are sometimes termed Hispano-cannon. The rate of fire and muzzle velocity has been greatly improved since the Hispano version was built. In fact their hitting power is as great as anything flying. The rate of fire is in the region of 550 rounds per minute. The six Browning machine guns, which fire at the rate of 1,200 rounds per minute, are mounted in the wings outboard of the oil cooler ducts.
Various Notes
The Army reported today that the Air Corps was testing new 2-place training gliders which permit an instructor to fly with a student aviator. The XTG-2, which has a wing span of about 52 feet and weighs about 860 pounds, is under test at Wright Field, Ohio. It is manufactured by the Schweizer Aircraft Corp., Elmira, N. Y. The other model, designated XTG-1, is undergoing preliminary tests at the plant of the Frankford Sailplane Co., Joliet, 111. It has a wing span of 46 feet and weighs about 790 pounds. —The Baltimore Sun, September 28.
A huge 70-ton “flying warship”—the Navy’s flying boat XPB2M-1—was moved into a big new home at the Glenn L. Martin plant yesterday for final work before test flights sometime this fall. The ship, described by Martin officials as the largest flying boat ever built, was towed from the building where construction was started a year ago into the big new navy bay at the airplane factory. Navy officials relaxed some of their strict censorship over the flying boat, announcing that it would carry a crew of 11 men, and be the first plane ever to carry a motor boat. They said the hull contains 16,665 square feet, and though it is a tactical weapon, that if the plane were used as a troop transport, it could carry 150 fully equipped men. —The Baltimore Sun, September 28.
Volume production in airplane parts was announced by W. P. Brown, president of Briggs Manufacturing Co. in a building here whose site was used as a circus lot less than a year ago. Among the output of the organization are Vought- Sikorsky Airplane wings and tail sections, Boeing bomb doors, 70 different duct sections and other essentials, including wing flaps and gas-tank doors. The plant covers more than 675,000 square feet.
“By using automobile production mechanical dies for the fabrication of airplane parts and perfecting the welding of aluminum alloys instead of riveting, and having these accepted by the Army and Navy, we feel we have made a great advance in construction methods,” said Mr. Brown.
“We have developed our own welding apparatus to weld at the rate of 30 to 50 a minute, depending on the stock used. I don’t know how long it would take to complete 30 rivets, including boring holes and cleaning them out and putting in the rivets, but I am told it would be more than two hours. The saving of welding over riveting on that basis would be more than 100 minutes per 30 welds.
“On some of the duct work we are doing, we have been able to reduce the number of rivets necessary from 8,000 to 6,000 and by substituting welding we have saved many hours of labor and much cost. Next month we expect to install some more machinery which we have developed which will reduce the number of rivets necessary in our Boeing duct work even further. Tests made of the strength of our welding versus the strength of rivets on similar pieces has shown some of our welded pieces as much as twice as strong and every one of them stronger than riveted pieces.” —The New York Herald Tribune, September 10.
Designed to keep the pilot comfortable through a temperature range of 130 deg., from 70 above zero to 60 below, a newly perfected, electrically heated flying suit has been developed by General Electric Co., Bridgeport, Conn. Said to be many pounds lighter than the sheepskin-lined garments they replace, the new suits will also give pilots far more facility in manipulating controls and armaments. Working for months with Army technicians, the final design developed by General Electric consists of an outer shell of all wool cut on the bias for elasticity. The wires were sewed on the inside of this outer shell, and the lining made of 100 per cent cotton cloth which permits radiation of heat to the body. The electrified boot is worn inside standard light aviation boots. —Aviation, September, 1941.
MERCHANT MARINE
New Type Cargo Ships Completed
Navy Department Release, September. 18.—A cargo ship of revolutionary design that can be produced by hundreds has been perfected and shortly will complete its final tests, according to a statement issued by the Navy Department today. Conceived by daring minds and carried to completion with the active, insistent help of President Roosevelt, the new ship embodies a novel arrangement of propulsion never before similarly used in ocean-going freighters. Light in weight, simple in construction, relatively cheap both in original cost and upkeep, this craft, it is confidently believed, will challenge the submarine and provide a new bridge from this country to the free nations of the world. The first requirement of the designers was a craft of shallow draft, and small cost, which could be produced in large numbers and which would reduce the losses, both in material and man power, in time of war. The Sea Otter, as the freighter is called, will carry a net 1,500 tons of cargo. The real revolution in design, however, was wrought in the application of power. A means has been discovered of driving a 6-foot propeller, not on the stern of the ship, but sunk into the water amidships. No less than 16 gasoline engines, such as are used in propelling motor boats, drive the vertical shaft much after the manner of the outboard motor. The engines are of 110 hp., 6 cylinders, developing a total of 1,700 b.hp. The whole propeller assembly can be hoisted up and replaced while under way. A valuable feature of the Sea Otter will be found in its relatively small size. It is only 270 feet long over-all and when loaded displaces 1,900 tons. Therefore it can be built at inland yards and taken to sea by way of rivers or canals. The first proposal to build such a ship was made early this year. Many objections were raised and overcome, due to the intense interest of the President and Secretary of the Navy Knox in the baffling problem of meeting the submarine menace. If our goods were to go to Britain in ever increasing quantity, some means had to be found of replacing lost tonnage quickly and cheaply. Engineers now believe a Sea Otter can be turned out, after the plans are standardized, in two months. Using many yards, there is no reason why the tonnage produced could not offset the tonnage lost at sea. There is also the problem of disposal of such emergency ships after peace has been declared. After the last war, American harbors became graveyards for useless tonnage built for the war traffic but without sufficient peace-time cargoes to employ more than a fraction. The Sea Otter will have a small value as scrap, but many will have a usefulness in our peace-time mercantile marine. Small size, simple construction, and the ease of operating the motors allows the Sea Otter to be manned by a small crew thereby also reducing the risk of greater loss of life. Some of the larger carriers in service carry as many as 150 officers and men. The total full capacity for long range at about 12 knots per hour gives this amazing craft a range of nearly 7,000 nautical miles and at normal capacity it is capable of a radius of 5,000 miles. They will mount a suitable antiaircraft battery.
The first of the Sea Otters is now ready for its deep sea tests, but so much experimental work has been completed, first with a model in the testing basin, and then with a small scale craft, that its success is virtually a foregone conclusion. Work on the standardized parts can then proceed with every expectation that a large and mobile fleet of Sea Otters will be afloat within a year.
Ship Repairs
New York Herald Tribune, September 7. —The national ship-repair situation is “well in hand,” according to John E. Otterson, head of the new Office of Coordinator of Ship Repair and Conversion, who disclosed yesterday that in July and August 783 American and foreign vessels entered private shipyards in the United States for repair or conversion. This does not include the many ships that were already in the yards undergoing reconditioning. Mr. Otterson said that 202 of the 783 vessels assigned to the various yards by his office were oil tankers and that of the total number 343 vessels were repaired in less than a week, while 443 required a week or more to be made ready for sea. The Office of Co-ordinator of Ship Repair and Conversion, which was established two months ago at 11 Broadway under the joint auspices of the United States Maritime Commission and the Navy Department, to eliminate bottlenecks in the ship repair industry, now is working at top speed to make sure that vessels in need of repair are assigned to the proper yards as rapidly as possible.
Mr. Otterson said that he and his staff of 20 are receiving splendid co-operation from ship operators and repair yards. He explained that his office has nothing to do with the navy yards but must handle the numerous merchant vessels which have been damaged. The office also is called upon to assign American and foreign naval vessels to private yards in the event they cannot be accommodated in navy yards. Of the 2,000 repair yards in the United States, 250 have a direct relationship to the present emergency, and of these approximately 80 per cent are of “first importance” in the current volume of big repair tasks, Mr. Otterson said. The office sees to it that ships needing repairs are sent to the yards best fitted to handle the job quickly and efficiently, to spread the work evenly and to expedite work and to remove interferences. These vessels may be privately owned, Maritime Commission ships, naval ships to be repaired in private yards, or allied naval ships or their merchant marine vessels. When a ship in need of repairs enters an American harbor its owner or operator fills out an application for the use of repair facilities. Mr. Otter- son’s staff, which knows the conditions in every yard, then allocates the vessel to a yard and notifies the yard manager, the shipowner and the interested government agencies in Washington.
Mr. Otterson said: “We have a survey made, and must know just what the job entails, what materials will be required and how long it will take. We must determine whether other jobs are more urgent and make our assignments accordingly.
“We must decide whether to occupy a repair berth in a yard with a big job, one taking thirty days, or if the purposes of the defense and aid effort will be best served if we use that space for the repair of ten other ships, each requiring three days of work. We are primarily interested in the twin questions of facilities available and the time element.
“The normal job takes a day, cleaning the ship’s bottom, examining and adjusting her sea valves, and painting. Next is the minor damage group, taking eight or ten days. Then come the major jobs, with extensive damage, or complete conversion of a ship.
“Our whole philosophy is to interfere with the normal operations as little as possible. We are not interested in throwing our weight around but to help things go smoothly, without disturbance, unnecessary movements or interruption of service. We are not only interested in repair, but in getting the ship back into service. An idle ship is a crime against the public interest.”
Mr. Otterson is experienced in ship construction and his staff is composed of men who are experts in their fields. He was a naval constructor in the Navy before the World War and formerly was president of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and Electrical Research Products, Inc., an affiliate of the Western Electric Company.
Cargo Vessels on Weather Patrol
New York Herald Tribune, September 14. —A plan to substitute five merchant ships for six cutters in the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Weather Patrol is set forth in the latest issue of The Coast Guard Bulletin. The Coast Guard is working in collaboration with the Navy Department on the details of the plan, which release the armed cutters for more important duties. Under the proposed plan, the Navy would take over five merchant ships, four now operating on the Great Lakes and one on the Atlantic coast. These ships would be reconditioned and turned over to the Coast Guard for operation on the weather patrol. The six cutters, which now must devote much of their time to maintaining the two mid- Atlantic weather stations, would then be permitted to work at other jobs for which their speed, armament, and other equipment as fighting ships make them suitable. The Coast Guard cutters now engaged in regular weather patrols are the Tampa, Mojave, Bibb, Spencer, Hamilton and Duane. The vessels the Navy proposes to take over are the Aetna, John Gehm, J. Floyd Massey jr., Lake Chelan, and the Saginaw. These ships are in the same general class, being of approximately 2,000 gross tons, 250 feet long, with beams of 43 feet and drafts of 20 feet. All are freighters which were built in 1918 or 1919 and develop about 1,200 hp. The Aetna is owned by the Mid-West Transportation Co. and her home port is Detroit. The John Gehm is owned by the Bison Steamship Corp. and her home port is Buffalo. The J. Floyd Massey jr., which is owned by the Steel Products Transportation Co., is registered at Duluth. Buffalo is the home port of the Lake Chelan, owned by the Lake Chelan Steamship Corp. The Saginaw operates out of Wilmington, Del., and is owned by the Saginaw Dock and Terminal Co.
The Coast Guard maintains ocean-going cutters on stations between the United States and Europe in the general vicinity of Bermuda and the Azores. The cutters supply data on mid-ocean weather to the United States Weather Bureau. Ships assigned to this duty carry trained weather observers and specialized equipment for the work. The equipment includes balloons and other gear used in radio-sonde observations in the upper air. Meterological work also is an important part of the activities of the cutters which annually maintain the International Ice Patrol, for the presence of icebergs in the North Atlantic coincides with a period of almost continuous fog. Information regarding the extent of these fog banks helps ships keep in clearer areas and thus avoid delays.
MISCELLANEOUS
Inspection of Naval Material
Mechanical Engineering, September, by Captain F. L. Oliver, U. S. Navy (Retired). —The Navy inspection system came into being nearly 150 years ago when the attacks on our commerce by French cruisers prompted Congress, in 1794, to authorize the construction of six frigates, two of which, the Constitution and the Constellation, are still in existence. Naval officers were assigned to the ships in the early stages of their construction ultimately to man them when completed and commissioned, but initially to inspect both workmanship and materials, including the assembly of the equipage, ordnance, naval stores, and accessories. This system has been carried down to the present day, although numerous developments and amplifications have been made to suit advances in complexity of design and materials involved in the transition from wooden ships, through iron and medium steel, to the ships of today, embodying the latest developments of the metallurgical and mechanical sciences.
Naval inspectors and their assistants occupy positions of great trust and responsibility, representing the Navy Department in all transactions with the contractor after the contract is awarded.
In the inspection and test of naval materials, the Navy Department expects the Naval Inspection Service to safeguard the interests of the Navy at all times in enforcing impartially and strictly the contract specification requirements. No matter how expertly and carefully they may be prepared, specifications lose their value and effectiveness unless the material shipped conforms to their requirements. This necessitates careful inspection before shipment. Thorough, efficient, prompt, and dependable inspections of naval materials are essential to the national defense. Inspection at the place and time of manufacture is fundamental and necessary in order to detect and correct errors in workmanship and to insure that no unauthorized or inferior materials have been substituted for the specified materials. Frequently the detection of such errors after assembly or after shipment is very difficult, and in many cases impossible, later to become evident only through failure of the material while in service. Such failures usually involve the loss of valuable time and funds, perhaps the service of the vessel, and in some cases endanger the operating personnel. It has been the Navy’s experience that in practically all cases the contracting manufacturers have been most co-operative, and their desire to furnish material which will satisfactorily serve the purpose is most commendable.
A large part of the Navy’s success in obtaining suitable material is due to the careful manner in which its specifications for material have been evolved, and it may be of interest to know that when the United States entered the World War in 1917, the Navy was the only department of the government with a completely compiled set of specifications; these specifications were adopted almost in toto by other government agencies.
When it is decided that specifications for a new type of material are necessary, the specification section of the pertinent bureau sets forth what requirements are desired, having in mind the particular use for the material. These requirements usually set forth the physical strengths, the chemical composition, and the processing methods necessary to produce the required finish and homogeneity. These data are then forwarded to various manufacturers for comment, upon receipt of which a tentative specification is written which is usually a compromise based on all suggestions and the Department’s requirements. This tentative or interim specification is then placed in service, and, as the material is manufactured, further criticisms from manufacturers and inspectors are considered. Subject to these comments, the interim specification is revised and when all points at issue have been settled and the material is found satisfactory in service use, the specification is printed in the form of a leaflet for general distribution.
Complaint is sometimes made by manufacturers that Navy specifications are too rigorous and hard to meet, and are not in keeping with somewhat similar material for commercial uses. These manufacturers fail to realize that salt water is a stern critic, and that material for naval use is in many cases required to withstand much more severe usage than similar commercial material, and that failure of material on shipboard might, if occurring in battle, be catastrophic or, if occurring in normal times, would in many cases be extremely dangerous. Aboard ships serving abroad, replacement might be difficult and expensive, and in some instances impossible. There have been numerous cases where, because of the rigid requirements of Navy specifications, manufacturers have, in order to meet them, found new and improved methods of production which have been beneficial to both parties.
The Navy Department has divided the United States into 15 inspection districts. Of these the Pittsburgh district is one of the most important, and extends from Buffalo and Rochester in the north, to Altoona in the east, Charleston and Parkersburg, W. Va., on the south, and in general to the Pennsylvania-Ohio line on the west. Within this territory, approximately 20 per cent of all the business placed by the Navy Department is manufactured and inspected. For example, in one recent month, a total of 196,000 tons of material was inspected for the Navy throughout the United States. Of that amount, 38,000 tons, or 19.6 per cent, was inspected by the Pittsburgh district. That same month, the total value of materials and machinery inspected was $63,000,000, of which $12,500,000, or 19.7 per cent, was inspected by us.
The inspectors in this district are prepared to undertake almost any type of inspection. We run the gamut from a china dish to a massive armor plate—wire, bolts, complicated electric machinery, lumber, gears, Diesel engines, furniture, ordnance material, machine tools, and all manner and shapes of steel. In fact all the varieties of materials that this busy industrial center is capable of producing, and going further afield, we are now inspecting buildings being erected as additional facilities with government-supplied funds. There are now 10 naval officers and some 230 civilian inspectors employed in the Pittsburgh district. The salaries of the civilian inspectors range from $1,620 to $3,800 per annum. The greater bulk of them are in the $2,000-odd dollars bracket, and very few receive the higher rates of pay.
All inspectors are, when possible, drawn from registers supplied by the Civil Service Commission. Should there temporarily be no available names on the register of eligibles, we are permitted to make temporary appointments subject to later approval by the Civil Service Commission; consequently we are in such cases at pains to make only selections which we deem can quality with the Commission which has final authority in the matter, and if satisfied, tenders a probational appointment. However, during the present emergency we are permitted to retain the temporary appointees regardless of their ratings by the Commission, if their services are satisfactory.
The maximum age limit for appointees during normal times is 53 years, but for the present emergency this restriction has been advanced to 65 years. The Civil Service requirements for the minimum rating at $1,620 per annum are a common-school education and at least 2 years’ practical experience in inspection work, but an engineering degree may be substituted for the 2 years’ practical experience. We prefer the college man as our experience has been that he makes the better inspector. Nor do we care to take on men well along in years as a great deal of our inspection work requires physical stamina. Occasionally an initial appointment is made in a higher grade when an exceptionally well-qualified applicant presents himself, or the services of a specialist are required.
The Pittsburgh district operates a well- equipped chemical laboratory at Munhall. This laboratory can also perform physical tests, but these are usually done at the contractor’s works in the presence of an inspector.
The Act of June 28, 1940, authorized the President to apply priorities. This authority was delegated to the Office of Production Management, which acts through its Director of Priorities, and with the advice of the Priorities Board, its committees and agencies. Although legal means have been provided to enforce priorities of delivery of Army and Navy orders over those for foreign and private accounts, the present system is based upon voluntary co-operation of government and industry. Priorities have the function of giving preferential treatment to implement the purchasing and production of munitions and accomplish this function by increasing productive capacity by preferential completion of facilities, and by attaining a balanced production of military components, thus insuring the supply of more urgent and important munitions at the expense of those of a lesser degree of urgency or importance. These results are attained by interchanging delivery dates of orders before articles are completed, diverting the delivery of completed items from one order to another, and accelerating manufacturing process of certain items at expense of others with competing delivery dates, or by allocating output among customers in accordance with their relative importance.
The Army and Navy Munitions Board, a committee of the Priorities Board, in conjunction with the Navy Department, has classified and subclassified the various projects under its cognizance into groups of projects, which groups have been assigned definite priorities. By such procedure, if the material being furnished the Navy for one of these projects is difficult to obtain, it is placed on the critical list. Priorities may be automatically assigned by the inspector having cognizance of the contract for such materials. This method is the system of preference ratings through which extension or re-extension of certificates is issued by officers in the field to assure such degree of preferential treatment in the fulfilling of the contract as is necessary to meet required delivery dates. Thus the supervisors of shipbuilding, inspectors of machinery, and inspectors of naval material during the present emergency act with the full authority of the Navy Department, taking final local action to the greatest possible extent both in prosecuting the construction of naval vessels and in expediting their completion with the utmost vigor. The nation is now engaged in a great National Defense program—a vast project which as late as only two years ago would not have been considered possible to undertake. The tonnages and costs of the materials involved under the Lend-Lease Bill, that needed for a greatly expanded and fully equipped Army, and for a two-ocean Navy with the necessary bases for its operation, are so stupendous that without a smoothly functioning and adequate priorities system, nothing but chaos would result.
In the Navy Department’s offices in Washington, and in the navy yards and naval inspection districts, throughout the country, the thousands of civilian employees all have Civil Service status. Their jobs are protected by law, their promotions and salary increases follow a very definite plan.
With respect to labor employed by manufacturers having contracts for Navy material, we insist upon compliance with the governing laws, some of which are of quite recent origin. The Walsh-Healy Act requires that in any contract between a government bureau or agency, and a corporation, where the materials manufactured or furnished amount to over $10,000, there shall be incorporated several very definite specifications affecting labor. One requires the payment of not less than the minimum wages as determined by the Secretary of Labor to be prevailing in that industry. Another requires that no person employed by the contractor shall be permitted to work in excess of 8 hours in any one day or in excess of 40 hours in any one week without receiving overtime pay. Other provisions of that law prohibit the employment of boys under 16, and girls under 18, and convict labor, and require working conditions to be both safe and sanitary. Suitable penalities are provided for the breach or violation of any of the stipulations in these contracts, and the naval inspector insures that the law is obeyed. However, when differences arise between management and labor and a plant is shut down or picketed, the Naval Inspection Service adopts a neutral attitude, and does not enter into the matter other than to report existing conditions to the Navy Department. The Department of Labor, not the Navy Department, then steps in with the Conciliation Service to mediate the differences and start the wheels rolling smoothly once more.
A Federal statute adopted in June, 1940, prohibits the employment of aliens on what we term “classified” Navy contracts, that is, work that is of a secret, confidential, or restricted nature, unless specific approval is secured from the Navy Department in each particular case. The Inspector of Naval Material is responsible for the application of this rule, which seems a very wise provision under the existing emergency situation. An earlier law of 1917, passed during World War I, relating to espionage, has recently been revived and strengthened, and while the paramount responsibility belongs to the F.B.I. the Navy’s inspection force keeps its eyes open as well. It should be understood that the Navy looks upon labor as a whole as a loyal, patriotic group of citizens. At present our organization is devoting a great deal of time to progressing the work being done by various contractors to insure that prompt deliveries of material are made, and in some cases to advance the delivery dates of badly needed items. In connection with this work we try to render every assistance to a contractor who requires materials or additional machine tools for the prosecution of his work.
Our job is to do our part in providing our country with a two-ocean, fully integrated Navy that will be able to afford our country protection in time of need. Only then will our first line of defense become a reality.