This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected. Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies. Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue. The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.
To March 16, 1946United States....................................................................................... 592
Sub-Arctic Carrier Test—Clearing Coral Heads for Atom Test— Civilian Board to Assess Tests of Atomic Bomb—Million Man Reserve Planned—Retention Program for Shipyards Outlined—New Bazooka-Type Line Thrower-—Running Lights on Naval and Coast Guard Vessels—Degaussing Techniques—Missouri to Take Envoy’s Body to Turkey
Great Britain.......................................................................................... 596
Indian Naval Mutiny—1945 Record Year for Shipbuilding—Plans for 4 Battleships Dropped—Joint Anti-Submarine School—Various Notes
Warships Bombard Coast of Indo-China—Ex-German Ships at Cherbourg
Germany.................................................................................................. 599
Final Score 996 Subs—U-Boat Losses—Hitler’s Attitude on Naval Defeats—Infrared Searchlights
U.S.S.R..................................................................................................... 601
Imminent Tasks of Hydrography
China—Greece—Sweden
Results of Bermuda Conference—New Army Jet XP-84—Army Air Force Institute of Technology—West Point Drops Pilot Training— International Radar Aids to Flying—Target Gliders—Largest Amphibian Plane Test-flown
M erchant Marine................................................................................. 613
WSA Outlines New Route for Atlantic Winter Crossings—SS. America in Service by August—Gripsholm First Liner to Get Loran— Germany to Retain One-Seventh of Merchant Fleet—Reserve Fleet Vessels Taken Over by Maritime Commission
Miscellaneous........................................................................................ 614
Greatest Smoke Screens in History—Swimming Tanks in the Pacific —Weapons Development Predicted by Mathematical Curve—Future Warfare and the Atomic Bomb
UNITED STATES Sub-Arctic Carrier Test
Chicago Daily Tribune, February 22.— The Navy announced today that a task group, led by the aircraft carrier Midway, will go into the sub-arctic near Greenland next month to test the ship and its planes. Navy officials said the test is designed to subject the ship, aircraft, and special equipment to the “most severe and coldest weather we can find.” The Midway will be accompanied by three destroyers and a tanker. The test will be a prelude to a much larger experiment next winter when a group consisting of all types of naval craft will go into the arctic.
Rear Admiral John S. Cassady of Spencer, Indiana, commander of the Greenland expedition, and Captain II. S. Duckworth, of Coronado, California, skipper of the Midway, explained the project at a news conference.
The Midway, manned by about 2,500 officers and men, will carry about 58 planes, a little less than half her normal complement. For purposes of special tests, new jet propelled planes will be flown from the deck. A helicopter will be aboard, primarily for use in air-sea rescue in the event pilots are forced down in the frigid waters. The destroyers will carry cranes that can reach out and fish a pilot from the water. Baskets will be attached to the cranes. Each aviator will be equipped with newly developed “exposure suits” designed to keep them warm and afloat in icy water.
The Navy is interested in learning whether planes can be kept in constant operation from carrier decks which are iced by spray. The Midway will carry snow plows to clear the flight deck. The expedition will operate in an area about 500 miles in diameter between Greenland, Labrador, and Hudson strait. Cassady said the North Atlantic was selected because the Midway is stationed in the Atlantic.
No foreign representatives will accompany the group, Cassady said. The destroyers accompanying the carrier will be the Vogelge- sang, Ware, and Storm.
Clearing Coral Heads for Atom Test
Chicago Daily Tribune, February 26.— Divers, sometimes menaced by sharks, are blasting out coral heads in the turquoise waters of Bikini lagoon to provide an anchorage for the fleet which will be atom bombed this spring. Undersea explosions shatter the peace of this remote island and send geysers spouting toward the blue sky. Curious natives watch from the shore or race in their outrigger canoes for fish stunned by the explosions. The central target area on the east side of the lagoon will be 9 miles square. It is being cleared to a depth of 45 feet. A mile wide border, around this area will be cleared to a depth of 40 feet and the remainder of the lagoon to 30 feet.
Here the “guinea pig” fleet will ride at anchor when the bomb explodes. April 5 is the deadline for having the target area cleared of coral heads. Officers and men of the hydrographic survey ship Sumner are making a preliminary survey of the lagoon which the Japanese mined. Why the Japs wasted valuable mines in this remote, militarily useless spot is one of the mysteries of Bikini, but sweeping will be necessary.
The Navy’s work has been aided by the discovery of Japanese charts which proved to be very accurate. The Japs did a good job of surveying. However, wire drags have found 5 or 6 shoals in addition to 13 charted by the Japanese.
Civilian Board to Assess Tests of Atomic Bomb
New York Herald Tribune, February 20, by Jack Steele.—An all-civilian board of five or six members will be appointed by the President to evaluate the results of the atomic- bomb tests on the fleet and render an impartial verdict on the effectiveness of the new weapon against sea power, the White House revealed today.
Actual control of “Operation Crossroads,” in which atomic bombs will be dropped upon ships for the first time, will remain in military hands, however, Charles G. Ross, White House press secretary, reported.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, under whose directions the plans for tests beginning May 15 off Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands are being made, will retain full authority over the operation, it is understood, with Vice Admiral William H. P. Blandy directing the experiment as commander of Joint Task
Force 1. When the tests have been completed and military experts and scientists have compiled their technical data on the results, final authority for determining the effectiveness of the bombs against warships will rest with the new civilian evaluation board, described by Mr. Ross as a sort of “supreme court” for judging the experiment.
A second purely military evaluation board, plans for which have already been completed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is also expected to study the results of the tests, but in a subservient capacity to the newly projected civilian group. The relationship between the two boards had not been fully determined.
Mr. Truman’s decision to appoint the civilian evaluation board marks a victory for Senator Brien McMahon, Democrat, of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate committee on atomic energy, who recently urged the President to take such a step to guarantee an “honest count” of the test results.
Among those reported to have been considered by the President for membership on the board are Dr. Karl T. Compton, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of the atomic-bomb installation at Los Alamos, New Mexico; Bradley Dewey, Boston chemist and former Federal rubber director; Owen J. Roberts, former associate justice of the Supreme Court, and Stephen T. Early, former White House press secretary.
Million-Man Reserve Planned
New York Herald Tribune, March 3, by Carl Levin.—The Navy disclosed today that it will soon ask Congress to authorize the establishment of a peace time Naval Reserve of 1,000,000 men consisting mostly of World War II veterans who could be readied for war within ten days in case of an emergency. The reserve would augment the regular naval strength which is now 232,000 but which Congress has been asked to raise to half a million. Outlining the new reserve plan today, the director of Naval Reserve said that the Navy will propose an organized reserve of 25,000 officers and 177,000 men and a volunteer reserve of 800,000 officers and men, as well as a WAVES reserve.
The organized reserve alone, which will include surface, submarine and air components, with intelligence, fire fighting, civil engineer, ordnance and harbor defense specialists units, would make it possible for the Navy to put the entire active and reserve fleets into action on ten day’s notice, he said. The volunteer reserve meanwhile would be activated to man the Navy’s shore bases and other vital units.
In true naval tradition, recruiting posters and officers will be able to say, “Join the Naval Reserves—and see the world on Uncle Sam.” For the plan envisages training cruises with all expenses paid, to the far corners of the world. The units will be maintained at peak effectiveness at all times through year- round training, which will include two weeks afloat or ashore, depending upon the specialty of the individual “citizen sailors.” There will also be one evening’s instruction each week through the year. According to the Navy announcement:
Use of present naval armories, renting of other facilities, and the eventual construction of reserve training centers in many cities is planned to provide reservists with a gathering place, not only for instruction, but also for social and recreational activities. The Navy plans to integrate its reserve program with the routine of the individual and the community, but not to disrupt the reservist’s personal life. The units, when ashore, will receive many educational and social benefits; when afloat they will have action and travel, an appeal that most reservists will find a stimulating addition to their civilian life.
Although the main block of officers will be drawn from veterans of the recent war, a continuing supply of new officers is expected from the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, from enlisted men of the Naval Reserve and from civilian sources. Enlisted men will be drawn mostly from World War II sailors already or about to be separated from the Navy. Supplementing these will be regular navy men who will be asked to re-enlist in the reserve when they obtain discharges. In each case reappointment in the reserve will be on the basis of former rank.
An important provision is that time served on inactive status will count as longevity for pay purposes if the veteran is called back to active duty. So far no time limit for reserve enlistments has been set. The Navy’s proposed table of organization would establish 760 organized surface reserve divisions, each composed of about 13 officers and 200 enlisted men, in addition to Marine Corps and aviation units. The 9th Naval District, with headquarters in Chicago, would have the largest number of divisions, 226, on the basis of over-all population, the number of former Navy men living in the district and the training facilities available. Third Naval District, New York, would have 106 divisions.
These additional facts were listed by the Navy in outlining its plan:
Instruction will be provided for personnel of the volunteer reserve, in all classifications, on a voluntary basis. The opportunity to participate, within quotas, in the annual fourteen-day training cruises will be open to all volunteer reservists.
The organized reserve will insure its physical fitness, within age brackets, by drawing from the younger men of the volunteer reserve each year.In addition to younger officers and men qualified for general duties, the volunteer reserve will consist of older officers no longer qualified for arduous duty, certain types of specialists, and officers and men who do not have time for regular instruction or cruises.
A merchant marine unit will be included on a voluntary basis in the Naval Reserve program. Although no weekly drills will be provided, Merchant Marine reservists will be given the opportunity for training at sea and may elect to take training cruises. The Marine Corps volunteer reserve will be open until further notice to all Marines separated since the Japanese surrender. As in the Naval Reserve, membership will permit a man to return to civilian pursuits, yet retain his affiliation with his former service.
The Navy’s air .arm will play a prominent role under the proposal. The organized air reserve will provide for 6,100 Navy and Marine aviators, 2,800 ground officers and 18,800 enlisted Navy and Marine personnel. The program will give organized air reserve flight personnel 100 hours’ flying time each year. The aviators of the volunteer reserve will get SO hours annual flight training. Modern fighters, bombers, scout and torpedo planes will be used. Promotions for reserve officers will be directly related to promotions in the Regular Navy. They will be made on a basis of merit, training, and evidence of interest in the Naval Reserve. Enlisted personnel will advance in rating in accordance with the amount of training taken and upon completion of regular Navy courses. Special consideration will be given to the men of the volunteer reserve who do not have training near their homes but who arc actively interested in advancement in rating.
Retention Program for Shipyards Outlined
Maritime Activity Reports, February 14.— The Surplus Property Administration, in a report submitted to Congress last week, outlined its disposal program for shipyards, and recommended that 13 privately owned yards and 29 additional new units be retained in working order for purposes of national defense. According to the report, the Maritime Commission plans to hold four new yards and facilities in one privately owned shipyard, while the Navy will hold in commission 25 new yards and facilities belonging to the Government in a dozen private yards. The Maritime Commission plan calls for retention of the following yards: Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock, Chester, Pennsylvania, (temporarily); Bethlehem-Alameda Shipyard, Alameda, California; Kaiser-Vancouver, Vancouver, Washington; North Carolina Shipbuilding Co., Wilmington, North Carolina, and Todd-IIouston Shipbuilding Corp., Houston, Texas (temporarily).
The report lists the pre-Pearl Harbor shipyards to be retained in commission by the Navy. After allowing for the yards to be retained, SPA reported there are at present 16 new shipyards each costing $5,000,000 or more which are disposable, as well as facilities costing over that amount in eight privately owned pre-Pearl Harbor yards, or a total of 24. Nine of the 16 new yards are owned outright by the Maritime Commission and two by the Navy, while there are five in which there exists some private interest in the land. There are 54 new yards and facilities in three privately owned yards costing less than $5,000,000 in each case which are disposable.
SPA pointed out that disposal of the yards is complicated by the fact that many Government-owned facilities are located on land owned by the operators or others. Where the facilities are located in private yards, they will so far as possible be sold to the companies. In some cases the transaction will be completed without declaration or surplus in connection with contract termination and in conformity with SPA Regulation 6.
New Bazooka-Type Line Thrower
New York Herald Tribune, February 17.— 4he United States Coast Guard announced yesterday that it has developed an improved gun for throwing a line from one ship to another or from shore to a ship. The new linethrowing device is similar to the Army’s bazooka in many respects, principally in that it ean be fired for long distances without setting the weapon into a stationary mount. The gun was developed by Chief Gunner’s Mate James E. Sieg, of Baltimore, assigned to the Research and Development Division of the Coast Guard, and it bears his name. The line- thrower is of .50 caliber and has a range of 400 yards, using a 4-pound projectile with a 150-pound-test nylon line. It fires a solid- steel projectile and also another type projectile which inflates a small float upon hitting water. Already subjected to rigorous tests, the gun will soon be introduced on merchant ships. The present line-thrower is said to be inaccurate over 200 yards and uses a cotton thread instead of the nylon thread which has been found more durable when subjected to strain.
Running Lights on Naval and Coast Guard Vessels
Proceedings of Merchant Marine Council, V.S.C.G., January, 1945.—An act was passed on December 3, 1945, which exempts Navy and Coast Guard vessels of special construction from the requirements as to the number, position, range, or arc of visibility of lights. The law, Public Law 293, 79th Congress, provides that any requirement as to the number, position, range of visibility, or arc of visibility of lights required to be displayed by vessels by the international rules, inland rules, and Great Lakes rules, shall not apply to any vessel of the Navy or of the Coast Guard, where the Secretary of the Navy, or the Secretary of the Treasury in the case of the Coast Guard vessels operating under the Treasury Department, shall find or certify that, by reason of special construction, it is not possible for such vessel or class of vessels to comply with the above statutory provisions. It is required that any such exempted vessel or class of vessels comply as closely to the requirements of the applicable statutes as the Secretary shall find to be feasible. When any finding or certification as prescribed above is made by either secretary, notice of such finding and the character and position of lights to be displayed on such vessel shall be published in “Notice to Mariners.” The act expires on June 30, 1948.
Degaussing Techniques
New York Herald Tribune, March 10.— Some of the methods used and the costs involved in “degaussing” more than 12,500 American-built vessels during the war to protect them against the German magnetic mine were disclosed yesterday by the Navy. Large fields of the secret mines laid in the English Channel and the Thames Estuary in September, 1939, sank ships wholesale and practically closed many English ports in the Nazi campaign to blockade the British Isles. A ship’s magnetic field, generated by its steel parts and machinery, activated a firing mechanism in the mine as the vessel passed over, in the same manner that a near-by steel object deflects a compass needle.
Degaussing, or neutralizing the magnetic field by introducing a counter magnetic field within each ship, was found to be the answer. With its magnetic “signature” reduced by 80 per cent or more, the ship could pass over all but the most sensitive mines without detonating them. The highly sensitive ones were easily swept by small vessels towing electrically energized cables. Early experiments in degaussing ships after they were launched by placing varying patterns of electric cable in the hulls were expensive and delaying. Late in 1940 the Naval Ordnance Laboratory began developing magnetic scale models to determine standard patterns for degaussing ships during construction. The first model, of the aircraft carrier Wasp, was launched in January, 1941. Thereafter followed a series, usually at a scale of 1 inch to 8 feet, reproducing with increasing exactitude the metallic composition of the ships.
Degaussing techniques developed in miniature were applied to the big ships on the ways and after launching were checked by runs at sea between magnetically sensitive buoys. In all, the laboratory developed more than 500 degaussing designs, one for all Brooklyn-class carriers, for example, and an-
other for all LST’s (tank-landing ships). These were installed in 1,000 combat ships, 5,000 naval auxiliaries, such as troop transports, and 6,000 Army, Merchant Marine, and lend-lease vessels. The costs ran from $7,000 for a small patrol vessel to $100,000 for a battleship. The Navy spent an estimated $150,000,000 on the installations, exclusive of the degaussing of Merchant Marine and Army vessels.
“Missouri” to Take Envoy’s Body to Turkey
Chicago Daily Tribune, March 7.—The State Department said today the body of Mehmet Ertegun, Turkish ambassador, who died here in 1944, will be taken to his homeland aboard the superbattleship Missouri. Because of the war, it was impossible to take the ambassador’s body home at the time of his death. The 45,000-ton Missouri became famous as the ship on which the Japanese surrender documents were signed in Tokyo Bay.
GREAT BRITAIN Indian Naval Mutiny
London Times, Eebruary 22.—A resort to arms both in Bombay and Karachi has given a new turn to what Admiral Godfrey, flag officer commanding, has described as open mutiny in Royal Indian naval establishments in both cities and several other parts of India. After this morning’s developments, Vice Admiral Sir John Godfrey broadcast to R.I.N. men from the All-India Radio Station, Bombay, shortly after 2:00 p.m. All the vast forces at the Government’s disposal, he declared, would be employed to bring the situation to an end, “even if it means the destruction of the Navy of which they have been so proud.”
Referring to the grievances of the men, Admiral Godfrey declared that those put forward by the delegation which met Rear Admiral Rattray, of the Royal Indian Navy, on Tuesday evening would be fully investigated; demobilization would proceed by service groups in spile of the fact that the Navy would lose in consequence many of its key men, particularly in the communications branch, and, as regards pay and accommodation, the military pay committee had already visited three of his Majesty’s Indian ships to make direct investigations. Admiral Godfrey was originally due to broadcast in the evening, but he delivered what amounted to an ultimatum earlier in the day because of the grave deterioration in the situation in the morning.
At 9:00 a.m., when a number of men arrested last night for disobeying an order to return to their ships were being removed in lorries from Castle Barracks under the guard of troops, about 50 ratings rushed out of the barracks after them, shouting slogans, and began a demonstration. A number of shots were fired to prevent the remainder of the men in the establishment also breaking out. Thereupon, the ratings inside broke into the armory, equipped themselves with Bren guns and rifles, and began firing into the air to show that they, too, had obtained arms. It soon emerged that R.I.N. sloops and minesweepers in the harbor were also in the control of the mutineers, and were signaling to each other to load their guns. All the officers, European and Indian, were ordered to go ashore.
Sporadic firing continued throughout the morning, and some people had to be evacuated from the vicinity of Castle Barracks because of danger from the falling of bullets fired into the air. Meanwhile battalions of Mahrattas and Leicestershires were concentrated in the area, which was cordoned off by ordinary and armed police. A report issued this afternoon said that small arms fire was directed at the dockyard. Canteens were broken into in Castle Barracks and in
H. M.I.S. Talwar, but other R.I.N. establishments, to which most of the ratings appeared to have returned, remained quiet. Certain R.I.N. ships this afternoon opened fire with Oerlikon guns on the Burma Shell heavy oil depot on the harbor front, but did no damage.
Yesterday evening the S.S. Rizwani, flagship of the Moghul Line, had to return to anchor because, just as she was proceeding to sea, she collided with an R.I.N. minesweeper, which was apparently “joy riding” in the harbor partly out of control, and swerved into the Rizwani cutting a hole in her plates 3 ft. above the water line.
In Karachi, Indian ratings on board
H. M.I.S. Hindustan retaliated with two naval guns against fire opened by the military police. The Keamari naval area has been cordoned off from the city by British soldiers armed with tommy-guns. The shore establishments of H.M.I.S. Chatnak, Himalayas, and Bahadur have all lost their ratings, 1,500 of whom joined the strike this morning. The Hindustan was due to sail, but her departure had to be postponed owing to 12 ratings, including the wireless operator, going on strike, alleging that the ship’s captain and executive officer had insulted them, and putting forward the same grievances as elsewhere in regard to conditions of service.
1945 Record Year for Shipbuilding
Maritime Activity Reports, February 28.— The first report of ship construction in Great Britain and Ireland since the outbreak of the war revealed today that 1945 was the busiest year for Britain’s shipyards since 1930. The annual summary of mercantile shipbuilding in Great Britain and Ireland reported that a total of 1,612,810 tons were under construction at the end of the year. Tonnage was the greatest since March, 1930, and was 471,105 tons, or 41.3 per cent more than the tonnage being built at the beginning of the year. During the year tonnage commenced was
I, 256,000, or 358,000 more than was launched. Of 325 merchant vessels launched six were for the Dominions, three for Norway, and the rest for Britain and Ireland. The tonnage given in the summary did not include warships or vessels being built for the Admiralty for Navy purposes only, but certain merchant types—tugs, oil tankers—intended for naval service were included. Three of the vessels launched exceeded 10,000 tons, while 83 were between 5,000 and 10,000. Tanker tonnage represented 23.1 per cent of the year’s total output. The average tonnage of steamships and motorships launched during the year was 2,764,
Plans for 4 Battleships Dropped
Chicago Daily Tribune, March 8.—A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, told Commons today Britain had canceled plans since V-E Day for building 727 naval craft, including the battleships Lion, Temcrairc, Conqueror, and Thunderer. Only the battleship Vanguard, 42,500 tons, is under construction, he said, because “all our shipbuilding resources were required for more immediate needs.” New fleet construction, he said, will include new types of vessels such as light carriers.
Joint Anti-Submarine School
London Times, January 30.—Arrangements have now been completed for the establishment of a joint Admiralty and Air Ministry anti-submarine school, it is officially announced. The permanent location has not yet been agreed upon, but the school will be temporarily housed in Ebrington Barracks, Londonderry. Aircraft of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force will operate from the R.A.F. stations at Ballykelly and Castle Archdale, and a number of submarines and a flotilla of anti-submarine escort vessels will be based at Londonderry. The school will be under the general direction of Commander A. V. Lyle, R.N., and Wing Commander
J. B. Grant.
Various Notes
Admiral Sir John Cunningham, Commander in Chief, Mediterranean, flying his flag in H.M.S. Liverpool, escorted by H.M.S. Musketeer and H.M.S. Marne, arrived at Tangier yesterday morning. The British Consul-General and his stall paid official visits. Admiral Cunningham called on the Mcndoub, the American Minister, and the Administrator, and in the afternoon he and his officers gave a reception on board the Liverpool. There were other social events today. This is the first time that British warships have visited Tangier for six years, and H.M.S. Liverpool is the
first warship of this size to have been alongside the quay.—London Times, January 29.
The aircraft-carriers Indefatigable, Implacable, and Glory ended a week’s visit here today. The Indefatigable, flying a 400-ft. pay-off pennant, left for England via South Africa with the destroyer Undaunted; the other carriers went to Jervis Bay for exercises before returning to Sydney. A large crowd bade them farewell. Vice Admiral Sir Philip Vian saw his old flagship, the Indefatigable, off from the gangway of the Implacable. The destroyers Tuscan and Armada joined the Implacable and Glory in the bay. Admiral Vian, in a farewell interview, expressed the hope that the phase of the Royal Navy’s activities in Australian waters now ending would not end the relations established with Australia, and that the future would hold more than mere occasional visits to show the flag. It might be found that in the strategic set-up which would succeed present arrangements, Australia, rather than Hongkong, would be the place on which to base British naval strength in the Pacific. It offered many advantages as a strong rear base.—London Times, February 1.
The first news of the Admiralty’s post-war policy of employment in the Royal Dockyards has been given in a letter from the Admiralty to the Medway Towns’ Full Employment Council in reply to a query sent by the council two months ago. The letter states that, while it is not possible to give more than a short-term appreciation, the present policy of the Admiralty is to concentrate on warship repairs in the royal yards, leaving private yards free to attend to merchant ship repairs and reconversion. This policy should ensure employment at roughly the present level for the next 18 months.
The statement affects Chatham, Portsmouth, Devonport, and Sheerness.—London Times, February 16.
It is officially announced that three cruisers of the Lcandcr class arc to be obtained by the Royal Indian Navy from the British Government, and that they will arrive in eastern waters next year. Indian seamen to man the cruisers are to proceed to the United Kingdom for training by the Royal Navy. At present the Royal Indian Navy’s largest vessels are 1,200-ton sloops. The arrival of the three cruisers will give it a balanced seagoing squadron.—London Times, February 18.
FRANCE
Warships Bombard Coast of Indochina
Washington Evening Star, March 6.—A Central News dispatch said today that five
French warships bombarded Chinese troops at Haiphong, Indo-China, yesterday, and both sides suffered casualties in a hot but brief exchange. The dispatch said the French attempted to land at the northern port, which Chinese forces had been occupying and which the French are supposed to take over under an agreement announced February 28.
A dispatch from the French cruiser Emile Bertin, one of the five warships involved in the engagement, said more than 20,000 French troops were aboard the vessels. They were intended to relieve the Chinese garrison in Northern Indo-China.
Shells from an unidentified shore battery missed the Emile Berlin, flagship of the French force, by more than a mile, the dispatch said. One landing craft also was said to have been fired on, and a French sailor seriously wounded. Major General Jacques Lcclerc was aboard the flagship.
The fighting continued until noon, when the warships withdrew, leaving huge fires roaring from a blasted ammunition dump, the dispatch said. It blamed the fighting on “technical difficulties” connected with the transfer of the port to French control. This account said the difficulties arose at the last minute and it was decided to delay the transfer until today. Meanwhile an investigation was under way. Under the Sino-French agreement China promised to pull her occupation forces out of Haiphong and the rest of Northern French Indo-China by March 31. They entered Indo-China originally to accept the surrender of Japanese troops.
The treaty also provides that Chinese goods will be exempt from French customs at Haiphong, and China and France will operate the railway which links the port with Kunming in Southwestern China. There has been considerable friction between the French and Chinese over the latter’s occupation of Northern Indo-China. The agreement was announced simultaneously with the signing of a new treaty by which France renounced her extraterritorial rights in China.
Ex-German Ships at Cherbourg
London Times, February 4.—Five of the warships that Britain acquired in the share- out of the remains of the German fleet, and later agreed to hand over to France, entered Cherbourg Harbor yesterday under British escort. There were four destroyers and a torpedo-boat, and they were manned by German crews supervised by Britons. The ships will be officially transferred to the French Navy tomorrow.
GERMANY Final Score 996 Subs
Washington Post, March 8.—The final score of Axis submarines sunk during World War II puts the figure at 996, of which 781 were Nazi undersea boats, 130 Japanese, and 85 Italian. The figures were made public simultaneously in Washington and London today by the Navy Department and the British Admiralty. Of the German U-boats sunk, British forces accounted for 524 and the United States, 174. United States forces destroyed 110.5 and British, 9.5 Japanese submarines. (The half credit represents joint operations against a submarine.) British units sent down 68 Italian submarines, American forces, 4. “Other” or “unknown” causes accounted for the remaining 83 German, 10 Japanese, and 13 Italian submersi- bles.
U-Boat Losses
Chicago Daily Tribune, February 27.—Secret files of Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz showed that losses suffered by his “wolf packs” at the height of Nazi submarine warfare in 1942 rose 300 per cent over the monthly average since the start of the war. In 1942 the German U-boat fleet went all out in a campaign that threatened—but failed to achieve—four objectives:
To starve the British Isles, block the North Cape supply route to the Soviet Union, cut off British operations in Africa from American reinforcement or expansion from the west, and paralyze coastal shipping along the United States’ eastern seaboard. British-American naval and air forces struck back. In November, 1942, 15 of a total of 63 U-boats on raiding missions were destroyed, a loss of 23 per cent, Doenitz’s staff notes showed. October losses of 13 were approximately 20 per cent of raiding forces in action.
Doenitz’s statistics gave this authentic picture of U-boat strength. At the end of 1942 the German Navy possessed 210 “front” submarines available for combat operations. In addition there were 53 U-boats for instruction purposes at naval schools. One hundred nineteen U-boats were being built or tested. General Eisenhower’s North African landings in November, 1942, obviously caught Doenitz napping, the records showed. Some 40 U-boats were in the North Atlantic hundreds of miles from possible intervention. Fifteen west of Gibraltar were hastily ordered, however, to seek out allied convoys which thus far had been completely overlooked.
At the end of 1942 Doenitz’s U-boat achievements were substantial enough to persuade Hitler to promote him to the supreme command of the Navy. In January, 1943, Doenitz replaced the “big ship” advocate, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder. But Doenitz faced bleak prospects.
Although U-boat construction had top priority over all other forms of naval construction, even Doenitz, “the great destroyer,” could not get all the materials he needed from the Reich government. The Navy asked for 2,600 tons of lead—essential to complete U-boat batteries—but was allotted only 1,727 tons during the first quarter of 1943. Its request for 2,200 tons of aluminum—vitally required for underwater explosives—was pared down to 1,661 tons.
Hitler’s Attitude on Naval Defeats
Chicago Daily Tribune, March 4.—In the wintry twilight off the northernmost tip of Norway, British naval guns thundered the death knell of the German fleet on the last day of 1942. Secret papers left by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder at naval headquarters, after he lost his supreme command because of the North Cape fiasco, have supplied the inside story of how the defeat broke the German spirit. With tonnage and fire power in their favor, or at any rate no worse than equal, two of Germany’s finest cruisers, the Hip per and the Luetzow, were routed by Royal Navy warships escorting a merchant convoy to Murmansk. When Hitler heard about it he flew into one of his worst tantrums.
This is Raeder’s own memorandum of a l|-hour tongue lashing six days after the defeat, which the Fuehrer’s bulletin had attempted to disguise as a triumph:
The Fuehrer said the Navy had no meaning in the wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870. The role of the German High Seas Fleet in the first World War had no meaning. It lacked men who would commit it to action, even without agreement from the Kaiser. It sapped a great deal of fighting strength while the army had continuously heavy fighting.
The Fuehrer as a land soldier demanded that if the German forces got into action the action should be fought through.
Large ships should not be tied up months-long in the harbor without objectives, strong air forces are thereby tied up for their protection.
The Fuehrer has ordered the crew from the [battleship] Gneisenau to be available for general disposition, because the Gneisenau had not been scheduled to be ready for sea until the end of 1944.
A week after his humiliating treatment Raeder dispatched two letters to the Fuehrer. One was a formal recommendation that either Admiral Rolf Carls or Admiral Karl Doenitz was suited to take over the command which Raeder was resigning. The second letter was a report likely to be regarded as of lasting significance by naval historians. In detail it confessed German mistakes and British superiority in the northern sea battle saying:
A tactical success was doubtless gained by the enemy. He brought through a convoy undamaged and, of the attacking German units, he sank one destroyer, the Fricderich Eckoldl, and a heavy cruiser, the Ilippcr, was damaged. His losses according to an official declaration of the British Admiralty were the destroyer Achates, sunk, the destroyer Onslow, damaged, and the mine sweeper Bramble, sunk.
The report stated that the German cruiser Luetzow also took part in the action, but because of bad weather, uncertainty at what odds might be faced and other considerations, the Luetzow withdrew without inflicting damage.
Having granted that German sailors were outgamed as well as outfought, Raeder cast caution away and verbally defied the Fuehrer’s general charge of cowardice against big ships. Raeder asserted that Hitler himself, after the loss of the battleship Bismarck in 1941, had ordered the fleet to avoid possible further losses—an order that terminated surface operations in the Atlantic. Raeder claimed that the professional naval command was reluctant to comply with the Fuehrer’s wishes, especially when it meant restricting attacks against the British supply line to Russia via Murmansk. He wrote:
These orders brought defeat; these limitations kept commanders from fulfilling their tasks. When we sent surface ships into the North Sea, they were commanded to avoid loss, because it would cause a loss of prestige.
Now the Fuehrer himself has said this kind of committal can never lead to success. Only the spirit of attack . . . should be the basis of decision.
The Fuehrer’s answer was twofold: he gave Raeder’s job to Submarine Specialist Doenitz and confirmed the immobilization of German big ships for the duration of the war.
Infrared Searchlights
Chicago Daily Tribune, March 8.—The Germans developed techniques for detecting enemy men and machines in darkness with invisible infrared rays that have certain advantages over radar at short distances. A report of American experts who unearthed many of the Reich’s wartime secrets disclosed today that the Nazis effectively used these searchlights of invisible light in two ways:
(1) On tanks and other vehicles, American investigators were told by German scientists that the Nazis once used night vision equipment to surprise and destroy 65 Russian tanks before being knocked off themselves. The “invisible light” had a range of about 2 miles.
(2) On rifles of infantrymen, enabling a Nazi sniper to spot and shoot enemy soldiers “in complete darkness up to distances of about 100 yards.”
The infrared searchlights sent out invisible rays. The reflected image of the target was transformed into a visible image on a viewing apparatus. Edwin Webb, Jr., chief of the communications unit of the commerce department’s technical industrial intelligence branch, which made the report, said the infrared technique had certain advantages over radar at short distances. In radar, short pulses of radio energy are sent out and are “echoed” back to give a discernible image. With infrared, a continuous beam of the invisible light is used. But Webb said the radar waves are subject to interference because the waves spread out after leaving the transmitting apparatus. With infrared, he said, the rays can be kept in a narrow beam, free from interference except when an infrared beam from the other direction is directed into exactly the same path.
Moreover, he said, infrared radiation requires smaller equipment than does radar. Webb said the Nazis also had worked out a technique to detect infrared searchlights if the Americans and British used them. The device consisted of a screen which was first exposed to sunlight. Upon exposure to infrared light, the screen would emit a visible red glow. Webb said the Allies made no use of infrared up to the end of the war “because we developed it too late.” The heart of the German device, the Americans reported, is a picture-forming tube, called a “bild- wander.”
When the rays strike a target, an image in infrared is reflected back to the apparatus and focused by a lens connected to the tube. The image—still invisible—is fixed on one side of a translucent screen in the tube. Electronic impulses are then activated, and the original image appears in visible light on the other side of the screen. On a tank, the infrared beam is emitted through a kind of headlight. On an infantryman’s rifle, the apparatus is mounted on the gun barrel. Electrical power is furnished by a battery carried in a gas mask canister on the man’s back. The rifle has two triggers—one to start the infrared, another to fire the gun. Webb said the Germans also had tried, with partial success, to dye Nazi uniforms so that they couldn’t be detected by infrared rays.
U.S.S.R.
Imminent Tasks of Hydrography
Krasni Plot, December 14, 1945, by Rear Admiral la. Lapoushkin.—The development and perfecting of new naval weapons, changed application in tactical and operational use are constantly complicating the problems of hydrographic security. If in World War I such safeguards for the most part amounted to the usual work on hydrographic study, cartography, navigational aids of the coast, World War II placed an added task before the hydrographer, the direct guaranteeing of fighting operations of the fleet.
In this connection, the forms of hydrographic safeguards became very complex. A submarine, for instance, requires the possibility of finding its way without visual observations. Rapid ships need such methods of orientation, such means and conditions under which speed and accuracy of observation may be maintained. The gunnery officer must receive meteorological data affecting the entire flight of a long-range shell. From the moment calculated data for a torpedo attack are laid down, it is necessary to guarantee the exact maneuvering of the ship.
The needs of modern tactical operations made necessary a change in the form of hydrographic security during the course of a battle operation. The hydrographer came to the ship and joined the operational staff of the crew. From an organ of home-front activity, it became one of immediate battleline activity. The effectiveness of these hydrographical units is evidenced by the many decorations and commendations given their members by the high command, The People’s Commissar of the Navy, Admiral of the Fleet N. G. Kouznetsof, cited the great work of hydrographers in carrying out their task.
In addition to these tasks, our hydrographers continued their scientific work. During the war, the basis was laid for a top-flight work of cartography: the Morskoy Atlas, which is now in press.
Nor was work curtailed on the many- tomed Rows Korablevojhdeniya (Course of Piloting and Navigation), the first volumes of which have appeared in print. In spite of the fighting, work on hydrographic study of the Barents Sea, the White Sea, and the Pacific basin continued. On the Pacific coast considerable work was done in the construction of lighthouses.
The war ended. Our hydrographers were faced with new tasks, the greatest of which was the task of guiding post-war minesweeping and the navigation in cleared channels.
The variety of devices used in mine warfare and the complexity of countermeasures, plus their effect on navigational instruments (from the magnetic compass to the fathometer and the gyrocompass), complicated t he hydrographical guidance of minesweeping. Nevertheless, the hydrographer was not caught unawares. During the war itself, the necessary leadership and perfection of new means and methods appeared.
The most complicated of these were the exact co-ordination of position of trawling ships far from shore, and the use of small trawlers in areas fouled with magnetic mines. Here the magnetic compass usually found on small ships could not be used. Therefore, besides the modernization of classic means of co-ordination (use of visual observation of barrage balloons), there were perfected new, more technically feasible means of co-ordination, radio, aerial photography, etc. To counter the influence on the magnetic compass of degaussing devices, new and special compensating apparatus was worked out and applied.
For the improvement of the hydrographic safety of navigators on the seas of the U.S.S.R., the hydrographic department has been reorganized into a main hydrographic department. By order of the People’s Naval Commissar, especially favorable conditions for experimental work have been provided for, and a further strengthening of hydrographic ship personnel and hydrographic ships, etc. For the improvement of present cartographic standards, a special Naval Cartographic Institute has been created. The constant and thorough sweeping operations will be continued, with daily bulletins containing latest reports to emanate from the department. Radio and visual aids will be provided on an increasing scale.
OTHER COUNTRIES
China
An Australian correspondent in Hongkong says that Australian airmen flying Spitfires are helping the naval and port authorities in operations
against Chinese pirates who, with Japanese armament, arc making territorial waters increasingly unsafe for any but reasonably well-armed shipping.
In armored junks, the pirates have even entered Hongkong Harbor. A week ago they held up the ferry from Macao to Hongkong at the point of a machine gun, and stripped and robbed over 100 passengers almost within sight of their homes. Twelve pirates boarded the ferry at Macao, and when she was 90 minutes out, stormed the wheel house, knocked out the captain, seized the ship, and imprisoned the passengers in the holds, and then took the ship to a quiet bay, where an armed junk with 15 more pirates was waiting. The passengers were then stripped and robbed, and the cargo and the ship’s strongroom rifled, and by the time the ferry had limped home, the pirates were far away in their fast craft.
British commandos arc reinforcing the understaffed water police, and the Navy is using submarines, assault and landing craft, Fairmile launches, and even large vessels to fight the scourge. The pirates’ favorite lair is still the notorious Bias Bay area. Their junks arc heavily armed and highly powered, with armor plating beneath their innocent-looking exteriors. This armor they acquired during the occupation of the Japanese, who gave them positive encouragement. Pirate scouts placed in trading posts know what cargoes are worth looting, and their lookouts posted on the ridge- tops of coastal ranges know when the naval escorts leave their charges. With the reinforcements that are expected from Shanghai, it is hoped to stamp out this large-scale piracy, at least in British waters.—London Times, February 6.
Greece
The British destroyer Tanatsidc has been handed over to the Royal Hellenic Navy by the
Vice Admiral, Malta, Sir Frederick Dalrymplc- Hamilton. She was renamed Adrias, after a Greek destroyer that was sunk by a mine while in action on October 22, 1943. On that occasion the British destroyer Hurworth was sunk, with the loss of 134 men, in trying to pick up survivors of the Adrias. —London Times, February 11.
Sweden
Three important contracts with the Swedish Government were announced during the week end by the dc Havilland Aircraft Company. The first is for the supply of a large number of Vampire jet-propelled fighter aircraft; the second for Goblin turbine engines (the power plant of the Vampire); and the third for a license to manufacture the Goblin engine in Sweden. These contracts represent one of the biggest oversea orders ever received by a British aircraft company. The Vampire is the R.A.F.’s fastest single-engined fighter. It has a top speed of 540 m.p.h. when carrying full military load. It is the only jet-propelled aircraft, so far, which has operated from the deck of an aircraft carrier.—London Times, February 11.
AVIATION
Results of Bermuda Conference
The Aeroplane, February 22.—Three documents signed in Bermuda on February 11 represent the work of the Anglo-American Civil Aviation Conference which has been in session there since January 15. They are: (1) the Final Act of the Conference; (2) a Bilateral Agreement between the Governments of the United Kingdom and the United States, and an attached Annex; (3) Heads of Agreement relating to the civil use of leased air bases.
The outcome of these agreements can be broadly covered under five headings: (1) Machinery has been agreed for the fixing of rates, (2) each country is to decide the frequency of its services, (3) there is freedom to carry “fifth freedom” traffic, (4) new routes have been agreed, (5) certain military lease-lend bases in the Western Hemisphere have been thrown open for civil uses. The most important points are summarized hereafter.
(a) Rates to be charged by air carriers operating between points in the United Kingdom and points in the United States are to be subject to governmental review. The Executive Department of the U. S. (including the C.A.B.) has agreed to ask Congress for power to fix fair and economic rates for U. S. air carriers on international services, a power which at present only relates to U. S. internal services.
(b) The C.A.B. has announced its intention to approve the traffic and rate conference machinery of 1 lie International Air Transport Association for a period of one year.
(c) Eacli country has freedom to decide the frequency of the services of its air lines.
(d) Freedom to carry Fifth Freedom traffic is given in accordance with the following defined principles:
That it is the understanding of both Governments that services provided by a designated air carrier under the Agreement and its Annex shall retain as their primary objective the provision of capacity adequate to the traffic demands between the country of which such air carrier is a national and the country of ultimate destination of the traffic. The right to embark or disembark on such services international traffic destined for and coming from third countries at a point or points on the routes specified in the Annex to the Agreement shall be applied in accordance with the general principles of orderly development to which both Governments subscribe and shall be subject to the general principle that capacity should be related to:
(i)to traffic requirements between the country of origin and the countries of destination;
(ii) to the requirements of through air line operation;
(iii) to the traffic requirements of the area through which the air line passes after taking account of local and regional services.
(e) Agreement on an initial schedule of world-wide air routes of mutual interest to the U. K. and the U. S. (Section III of the Annex). This includes a number of new routes to be served by air carriers of the U. K., viz., London to New York—San Francisco — Honolulu — Midway — Wake —Guam — Manila — Hongkong and Singapore; London (via Shannon, Iceland, Azores, Bermuda, Gander or Montreal) to New York, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore or Boston; London to New York and on to (i) New Orleans and Mexico City and (ii) Cuba, Jamaica, Panama, a point in Colombia, a point in Ecuador, Lima, and Santiago. Also a network of routes in the West Indies, including calls at San Juan, Ciudad Trujillo, Cuba, Port au Prince, and Miami; also Nassau and Cat Cay to Miami and Palm Beach.
The American routes set out in the Annex are mostly those already applied for by the American operators in recent years, and recently allocated by the C.A.B. to Pan American, T.W.A., and A.O.A. to operate from the United States, across the Atlantic, through Europe and on to the Middle East, India and the Far East.
(/) The bases agreement, in effect, means that Bermuda, Antigua, St. Lucia, and British Guiana will be opened for full civil use, while other bases in the Western Hemisphere built by the Americans on leased British territory will be available in emergency or as weather alternates.
(g) Finally, a dispute between the two nations relating to the interpretation, or application, of the agreement which cannot be settled through consultation shall be referred for an advisory report to the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (P.I.C.A.O.) or its successor.
Another important principle set out in the Final Act provides for close collaboration between the C.A.B. and the Ministry of Civil Aviation to implement and interpret the understandings reached at Bermuda. A representative of the M.C.A. will work full time in the C.A.B. office, and vice versa; so that problems will be dealt with day by day as they arise, and before they have been allowed to become matters of major dispute.
On any long through route, if it should be more economical to handle the carriage of onward traffic from key points with a different aircraft, the latter may be operated by a company only in connection with its larger aircraft arriving at the point of change of gauge. These aircraft must be used primarily to carry traffic originating from the first point of departure of the long-distance service, and must not cater to local traffic unless there is no other service available.
The British viewpoint has traveled a long way in the direction of the American Fifth Freedom since the days of Chicago. When a conference at Bermuda was announced, a prominent American air transport official said it was difficult to sec how the result could be anything but stalemate, because of the consolidated divergence of views. Well, the miracle has happened, the divergence of views has been reconciled, although on the face of it the respective distances traveled by the British and American points of view, in order to attain this reconciliation, would seem to be in direct proportion to the respective distances traveled by the delegates from London to Bermuda and from Washington to Bermuda in order to attend the conference.
A most important concession seems to have been made by the British on the question of frequencies and capacities. Neutral control of these by an international authority has been one of the chief struts of British international air transport policy.
There arc two further important points provided for in the Agreements. The first is that United Kingdom territory, including all colonies, protectorates, suzerainties, is considered as being within the understanding of the meaning of sabotage traffic. This does not include the Dominions or India, all of whom have negotiated or will negotiate separate bilateral agreements with the United States.
The other important clause in the Agreements is designed to take care of England’s weak air transport position caused by having to give up building transport aircraft for six years in order to fight the war and concentrate entirely on military production. The clause in question reads as follows (Final Act 7):
That in so far as the air carrier, or carriers of one Government may be temporarily prevented through difficulties arising from the war from taking immediate advantage of the opportunity referred to in paragraph 4 (the opening of the services specified in the Annex) the situation shall be reviewed between the Governments with the object of facilitating the necessary development as soon as the air carrier or carriers of the first Government is, or are, in a position to make their proper contribution to the service.
Notice to terminate the agreements must be given to the other party as well as to P.I.C.A.O., and will take effect twelve months after being given. The whole total of agreement is based on general principles. Although disputes can be referred to the
P.I.C.A.O. or its successor, the latter can only give advice and has no powers. In the last resort, therefore, there is no ultimate arbiter.
The worst feature of the agreement, and we suppose it is inevitable, is that the operation of air services is now inextricably bound up with all the other elements of power politics, including oil concessions, loan agreements, spheres of interest, and the other disturbing elements of the peace.
New Army Jet XP-84
Chicago Daily Tribune, March 2. It looks like a cross between a wind tunnel with wings and the conventional P-47 Thunderbolt, but aside from that the Army isn’t saying anything about its new jet fighter plane. The plane, built at Republic Aviation Corporation’s Farmingdale, New York, factory, is being tested under supervision of the Army Air Technical Command. It is known as the XP-84 and is powered by a new axial flow jet unit.
Army Air Force Institute of Technology
U. S. Air Services, February.—First classes of the newly activated Institute of Technology will begin at Wright Field September, 1946, announces Brigadier General L. C. Craigie, deputy commandant Engineering School and chief of engineering division, Air Technical Service Command. The present AAF Engineering School will close upon graduation of its last wartime class in April.
Planning for administration of the new Institute of Technology received the go-ahead signal on December 15, Major L. D. Ely, Engineering School director, tells us. Efforts are under way to find qualified personnel for an augmented teaching staff. Experts are drawing up a broader curriculum, tentative schedules of classes, and making other provisions for additional students. Recent school graduating class had 15 members. First class of the new Institute will number 200 officers, Major Ely estimates. Eventually it is planned to establish the AAI s newest educational center in a $700,000 Institute development adjacent to the Wright Brothers memorial in Wright Field’s hilltop area.
Such plans were submitted in the budget for 1946. Construction will await final Congressional approval of plan revisions.
Using the Wright memorial park as an axis, such construction will raise a group of 2-story brick and concrete buildings facing an open quadrangle. The buildings will be flanked by a 1,000-seat auditorium. Facing the park, the northern elevation will house a complete aeronautical library, which will connect through an east wing with a series of classrooms. The west wing will have a number of completely equipped laboratories to serve as workshops for practical study of advanced research problems.
The broader course of the Institute of Technology will run one year, says Major Ely. There will be two 24-wcek terms, with short vacations for the remaining four weeks of the year.
From refresher courses in basic and advanced aeronautical theory, covered in the wartime engineering school, the Institute will branch out not only to engineering but to such additional subjects as logistics, engineering administration, maintenance, and procurement.
The AAF Engineering School which will close in April was founded in 1919 at McCook Field. It was moved to Wright Field in 1927 and closed temporarily after Pearl Harbor. Reactivated in 1944, the school streamlined its one-year peacetime course. Its first two classes that year studied only three months each. Later courses were boosted to six months. In all, six wartime classes were turned out.
Since its 1919 founding the Engineering School graduated 175 engineering officers. Many of them, such as Generals George C. Kenney and Jimmy Doolittle, are now topflight leaders of the AAF.
The Institute of Technology will take up the work of the Engineering School on a much larger scale. In long range peacetime operation the Institute will offer postgraduate work to selected AAF men who have completed engineering studies in civilian universities.
With field trips to U. S. aircraft plants and laboratories, and with existing full- scale laboratories of Wright Field available for further study, the Institute will offer facilities for well-rounded study of aeronautical science.
West Point Drops Pilot Training
New York Herald Tribune, March 3.— Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson has approved a new post-war curriculum for the Military Academy at West Point, which emphasizes basic college subjects and drops air pilot training, the War Department announced today. The four-year course for future Regular Army officers, which was shortened to three years during the war, will be re-established beginning with the next academic year this summer. Secretary Patterson’s approval of a revised curriculum, recommended by a special board of civilian educators and Army officers, brought to an end a five-year experiment of teaching selected cadets to fly while they were undergraduates. Under the new curriculum the academy will make no effort to produce qualified pilots, the War Department said. Instead, it will give all cadets sufficient aviation training to teach them the fundamentals of aviation and its part in the modern war team and sufficient actual flying to determine their aptitude for flying. The board of consultants which revised the course of study was headed by Dr. Karl Taylor Compton, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
International Radar Aids to Flying
London Times. February 19.—At the invitation of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, representatives of 16 European countries and Iraq and Egypt attended a conference, which opened in London yesterday, on radar and radio aids to civil aviation. In addition, three non-European Countries—Canada, Newfoundland, and the United States—sent observers, and Russia, which had been invited to send a delegate, elected to send an observer. He was not present at the opening session.
Spain declined the invitation; Poland and Portugal declined on the ground that they had no suitable representatives to send. The European countries represented included three ex-enemy nations in Hungary, Finland, and Italy. The other delegates were from Great Britain, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Eire, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. For the neutral and ex-enemy countries it was the first opportunity of learning the secrets of new navigational aids developed originally for war purposes.
Lord Winstcr, Minister of Civil Aviation, welcoming the delegates, said that one of the greatest handicaps to the restoration of the world was the destruction which had been wrought by the war to communications, particularly in Europe. Civil aviation could do much towards a solution of this problem.
During the war many great advances in radio and radar aids to navigation had been made. Until recently many of them had necessarily been veiled in secrecy, but it was at last possible for the nations to draw aside this veil and put to civil use advances which played such a big part in the war in the air.
Sir William Ilildred, Director-General of Civil Aviation, and Sir Robert Watson- Watt also welcomed the delegates. The conference will continue for a week, during which the delegates will inspect British and American navigational aids, such as Gee, Rebecca, Babs, Loran, and the Consol and Decca, will listen to lectures, see films, and will ily in aircraft fitted with scientific aids to navigation. The flying demonstrations will be given tomorrow and Thursday at the R.A.F. Transport Command station at Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire.
Target Gliders
The Aeroplane, February 1, by J. R. Vanderbeek.—Early in the war it became obvious that if Light A.A. gunners were to score any real success, the targets used in their training should be more representative of the performance of a modern aircraft. Experiments were accordingly put in hand by International Model Aircraft, Ltd., with large glider models. About 1,500 of these were later produced and went into service at various D.E.M.S. ranges throughout the country. These gliders, of 6 ft. 3 in. span, named officially the “Free Flying Glider Mk. 1,” were of wooden construction with a balsa monocoque fuselage and fabric-covered wings and tail unit. Launched by a hand winch, they incorporated an autorudder control to hold them straight during the tow-up. Right rudder was applied on release from the towline (usually at about 300 ft.), and the models then circled downwind at about 40 m.p.h. Wren operators handled the gliders and also did minor repairs made necessary by crashes or bullets, though major damage to the fuselage necessitated return to the works.
The Free Flying Glider was fairly successful and provided the U/T gunners with the much-needed “live” targets, hut it was soon realized that a faster and more versatile target was required. This necessity was the mother of the “RG,” a rocket-propelled glider with twice the speed and range of the previous type, and, even more important, the ability to fly well in the rough weather which would appear to be standard at all D.E.M.S. ranges. Another advantage was that the “RG” could he operated from restricted spaces, needing only a catapult for take-off.
Numerous experiments were carried out, at first with propellent charges of gunpowder, hut later with cordite-filled rockets developed at Woolwich. Eventually a satisfactory model was evolved. The experimental models were of wooden construction, but quantity-production made new methods essential. A completely new method of manufacture was developed, making extensive use of plastics, and at the same time giving a very high strength/weight ratio. Full power crashes at 100 m.p.h. usually result in no damage to the glider. This has a span of 4 ft.
The fuselage is constructed of seven laminations of resin-impregnated paper pressed to shape, with an interior |-in. ply keel and bulkheads. Wing, tailplane, and fin attachments are “Cellomold” plastic moldings anchored to both skin and bulkheads. A balance weight of 20 oz. is fitted in the extreme nose. The rocket is carried in the fuselage below the wing in a bakelized paper tube, and held in position by a steel clip. Launching slides, fitted to the fuselage, arc jig spot-welded to the rocket-clip plate before assembly, so that no positional variation is possible.
The wings of NACA 23012 section have embossed paper skins with reinforced leading edges and tips, a full depth sprucespar and balsa ribs. The roof is a plastic molding with a projecting tongue to fit the fuselage box attachment. The tailplane and fin arc of similar construction, though a small screw-adjusted trimming tab is fitted to the fin. Although the models are individually rigged in production, the tailplane angle may be adjusted to correct longitudinal trim should flight trials of very rough weather show this to be necessary. The “tongue” method of surface attachment has proved very successful in avoiding damage in rough landings or crashes, as the whole unit simply parts company with the fuselage directly any undue strain is placed upon it. A life of six flights per machine was specified by the Admiralty, but a much higher average is possible; in fact some have completed 30 to 40 flights with no damage whatsoever.
The rocket-case consists of a drawn steel tube with an end cap on which are mounted the venturi and firing gear. A standard 5- grain percussion detonator is used to fire the wrapped solid cordite charge, and the unit may develop 1.5 to 2.25 lb. thrust according to the size of the venturi aperture. The standard production type gives 1.8 lb. for approximately 35 seconds, and for a loaded weight of 1 lb. 2 oz. The case is not expendable, though the venturi is replaced after each flight to ensure a constant power output.
The launching catapult is a steel tube structure 7 ft. long with two f-in. dia. elastic cords to project the model. Take-off speed is approximately 45 m.p.h., thus giving a phenomenal acceleration of about 35 g. Rubber pads retard the trolley, and a hand winch is fitted to bring it back to launching position. Two firing lanyards are used, one for rocket detonation and the other for trolley release. Direction and elevation are adjustable.
All operations except charging the rockets are carried out by Wrens, and the whole of the equipment has been kept as simple as possible for rapid flying programs. With various weapons to master in a very limited time, it was essential that no time be wasted
by the U/T gunners between flights, and the usual procedure was to carrv through a series of 15 to 20 flights.
Average flight time is about 100 secs., and the models are trimmed to circle across the firing arc for as great a proportion of this time as possible. A rather interesting point about this model was that in spite of a high wing loading (2.5 lb. per sq. ft.) and very large longitudinal “V” (8$ degrees), its glide was very flat. On several occasions R.G.’s showed every sign of soaring after the rocket motor had stopped burning. The model was produced at a high rate, and more than 20,000 were built, together with the necessary launching catapults and maintenance kits.
The pilotless towed glider is, besides being an important contribution in the training of gunnery and radar personnel, an important technical achievement. Many experiments were carried out in the years before the war, both in this country and abroad, with this type of aircraft. Some met with partial success, but never to a degree which would enable production and service operation to be achieved. In the United States, for instance, the project was abandoned as being impracticable, and over here the same opinion was expressed at R.A.E., Farnborough, before our experiments reached a reasonably successful stage.
The development work leading to the production versions of the 16- and 32-ft. gliders makes a very interesting story, but there is only space for a very brief outline of the various types tried. The initial flights were made with a balsa wood model of only 2-ft. span, which was towed behind a car at speeds of up to 80 m.p.h. From the results obtained, balsa models of 4-ft. and 8-ft. span were designed and built, test flown behind cars and, later on, by aircraft.
The first successful flight was made on September 9, 1942, with a 4-ft. model towed by a Hawker Hart flown by Group Captain J. Noakes.
From this beginning a series of gliders was produced; many car and aircraft-towed flights were made. Towed gliders must fly below the tug so as to avoid the slipstream and to facilitate landing, and these early tests showed the limitations of the singlepoint nose towing position as was then used. This method did not ensure adequate stability; on several occasions models, after climbing above the tug, dived through the slip-stream towards it—with somewhat nerve-shattering results.
Trials were, therefore, carried out with other forms of towing attachments. A two- point leading-edge tow was tried, but although partially successful did not give the positive control considered necessary. A fixed “V” towing bar was later fitted at the nose and this was found, besides providing the lateral stability of the two-point wing- tow, to give considerably greater control during take-off and landing. It was this type of towing attachment which was finally found to be most satisfactory, and it is now a feature of all the production versions.
At the same time the efficiency and stability of the gliders themselves were also increasing; various types of both wood and metal construction were produced. The 16ft. model then made its appearance and soon it was considered that its reliability was such that production was now practicable. From the data amassed during all the experimental flights a 16-ft. span production type was designed and prototypes constructed. After minor modifications—chiefly on the landing skids—this type was approved and large-scale production of the glider was put in hand.
The production model has an all-welded steel tube fuselage of triangular cross-section, with a cast balance-weight forming the nose fairing. Part of this weight may be taken out and replaced by a wooden block so that the
CG position remains the same for both the metal and wooden-winged types. The tow- bar projects outwards from the fuselage nose at 40 degrees to horizontal and is braced by stay wires from its outer ends to the wing roots. The bulkheads are of 20g mild steel sheet with flanged edges and lightening holes.
The main wing fixing consists of an “I” section built-up full-depth steel spar welded between two 16g bulkheads and bored at its ends to take the wing bolts. A secondary fixing is provided at the leading edge, consisting of projecting screwed rods to which locating lugs on the wing leading edges are secured with nuts. The towbar stay wires are also fixed at these points. Wooden fairing pieces are fitted, after the fabric covering of the fuselage has been applied, to enclose the gap between the wing roots and the fuselage sides.
The tailplane rests on two longitudinal steel tubes and is further supported by a transverse steel strip through which pass bolts holding both fin and tailplane in position.
The wings and tail unit are of R.A.F. 30 section and may be of cither wood or metal construction; the metal version was used extensively in overseas service. Both types have the same basic structure, namely, a single full-depth spar with sheet covering forward of it to form a leading-edge torsion- box, lightened sheet-ribs and a simple wedge trailing edge. The ribs are duplicated at the point where the wing-skids are mounted. A steel spar attachment is bolted to the spar- roots, with a further leading-edge location- piece fitted to the end-rib to match up with the fuselage rods already mentioned. The whole surface is fabric-covered. Tailplane and fin are of exactly similar construction, except that they are fitted with steel brackets for the fuselage attachment bolts.
The landing gear consists of a main skid below the fuselage and two auxiliary wing- skids. The main skid, of ash faced with f-in. mild steel, is fitted with 12 small coil springs as shock-absorbers and a pair of drag links to prevent any rearwards movement of the skid. The wing-skids do not actually take any load but only serve to keep the glider on an even keel. They consist of 1-in. by J-in. spring-steel strips mounted on plywood boxes, which in turn are screwed to the wing leading edges. Take-off or landing on a runway is rather spectacular from close up as showers of sparks issue from the skids—the main skid being just about red hot at the end of the run.
The whole glider weighs, with wooden surfaces, 144 lb., or with metal wings and tail unit 157 lb. A tolerance of 5 per cent is allowed on the all-up weight. Rigging tolerances are necessarily fairly small due to the absence of an automatic pilot and vary between 10 and 30 minutes, but in production, with the use of accurate jigs, they arc easily achieved.
Soon after the 16-ft. glider went into production, the development of a 32-ft. span towed target was put in hand. Several were constructed with quite promising results and a production prototype was then designed. This had a circular section monocoque fuselage and was of all-steel construction. After a short “snag-removing” period the type was passed for production, and became the 32-ft. Mk. I.
The fuselage skin is of 20 g. mild steel sheet at the nose and is successively reduced in thickness towards the tail, where it is only 26 g. Bulkheads, numbering 28 in all, are pressed out from mild steel sheet and have their edges and lightening holes suitably flanged. A hemispherical pressing fairs off the nose and immediately behind this is fitted the normal type of tow bar. The bracing wires are, however, taken out to the ends of the wing inner section on this type.
A four-wheel undercarriage is fitted, consisting of one nose, one center fuselage and two wing units. Standard fighter type tail wheels are used at all positions. Shocks are absorbed by solid rubber blocks fitted above the main cantilever struts and provide a simultaneous back and upwards movement. Attachment is made direct to suitably braced bulkheads in the fuselage and by means of nose torque-tubes in the wing inner sections.
The center part of the fuselage, i.e., round the wing junction, is internally braced by longitudinal tubes attached to each bulkhead by flanged collars, and these also assist in distributing the loads from the center landing wheel. Further aft, the fuselage tapers off to the tail unit seating, where the bulkheads are reinforced to take the attachment bolts.
The main wing is constructed in three sections, inner and port and starboard outer units. The construction itself is extremely simple, but quite strong enough to take all reasonable loads. Except for the attachment and u/c positions the construction of inner and outer sections is almost identical. The full-depth spar is of 22 g. mild steel flanged at top and bottom and with lightening holes spaced 3 in. apart.
Forward, the wing is covered top and bottom in the 28 g. sheet to form a torsion box round 26 g. nose-ribs spaced 10 in. apart. All the ribs are broken at. the spar and are of pressed sheet steel with flanged edges and lightening holes. They arc pop-riveted direct to the vertical spar web. Trailing edges are of 26 g. steel formed to a hollow “Vee” section and riveted over the ends of the ribs. Tape binding is used to brace the rear ribs and to prevent any undue sagging of the fabric covering.
Attachment of the inner section to the fuselage is by means of external brackets bolted between the wing-spar and fuselage bulkheads. The outer sections are assembled by means of full-depth steel bolts through lugs fitted to the spar ends. A secondary rear fixing is provided by external plates riveted to the end ribs and held by short bolts.
The tailplane and fin are of similar construction with root strengthening strips along the spars at the fuselage attachment points. External brackets are bolted to the fin root and the whole tail unit is held by J-in. steel bolts passing right through the tailplane to the fuselage bulkheads on which self-locking nuts are fixed.
The all-up weight of the steel Mk. I version was 800 lb. in its normal form, but special equipment is sometimes fitted with a corresponding increase on this figure. The type went into production and quite large numbers were produced by Lines Bros., Ltd., at Merton.
A further development of the 32-ft. towed target is the Mk. II, constructed wholly of light alloys and fitted with tapered outer wings. The construction is similar in all respects to the Mk. I and it was found possible to substitute dural for steel over a large proportion of the structure. This resulted in a very great saving of weight, which was thus reduced to 400 lb., with a correspondingly improved flight performance.
The Mk. II is at the moment going into production and, besides the normal target version, variants will be constructed fitted with special equipment for radar training and night flying. A special technique has been evolved for towing and releasing the night-flying gliders, which are fitted with lights.
Largest Amphibian Plane Test-flown
U. S. Air Services, January, 1946.—The Glenn L. Martin Company has made a strong bid for peacetime business with the armed services, having just turned out and flown the largest amphibian airplane ever built— a huge 30-ton craft.
Known as the XPBM-SA, the plane'is a modification of the Martin PBM Mariners, the flying boats which were used so successfully during the war by the Navy as patrol planes, bombers, and in air-sea rescue work. By redesigning the hull and certain basic subassemblies, and installing a special landing gear of Martin’s own design, the plane now has become dual purpose for landings either on land or at sea. It is the largest amphibian ever to get beyond the design stage.
Navy pilots turned in some fabulous stories of the Mariners in air-sea rescues during the war. One of the most outstanding was the rescue one Mariner made in 18-foot seas. The plane took aboard 40 men, 30 more than her normal complement, and then proceeded to take-off in the high seas. That is a tribute to the plane’s ruggedness.
The Navy realized early in the war that amphibians were highly important. Although the design of the PBM hull and the plane itself was regarded as excellent for amphibian adaptation, it was not until late in the war that engineering and manufacturing attention could be turned to the construction of an amphibious plane.
Now, with its tricycle landing gear—a forward wheel which folds up into the hull and two huge main wheels which swing up 180 degrees into wells in the hull sides—the
XPBM-5A is able to fly from runways, land at sea and return to a runway.
The need for an amphibious plane was brought about by unusual weather conditions encountered by the Navy in such places as the Aleutians and Iceland. In the subarctic areas the ordinary hazards of wartime (lying were increased many fold. Patrol flights were long and arduous. The weather was unpredictable. Frequently a plane might take off in bright sunshine, complete its patrol and return to find the runway completely fogged out—a situation where a flying boat could get down with greater safety than a landplane.
But there also were hazards to flying-boat operations. Frequently the air was much colder than the water and a boat taking off would gather a heavy spray of water which turned quickly to dangerous ice on the wing and tail surfaces.
At the recent flight tests of the plane were Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine aviation officers. All professed interest in the plane for air-sea rescue work. It is estimated that about 5,000 to 8,000 pounds can be taken off the wartime version of the PBM in turrets and armor plate. About 4,500 pounds has been added to the weight of the craft with the landing gear and consequent hull redesign. The range of the XPBM-5A has therefore been increased to an estimated
3.0 miles—or 1,500 miles out and 1,500 miles back.
With a stripped-down plane with gas tanks only partially filled, in all grossing about
46.0 pounds, Test Pilot Pat Tibbs took the XPBM-5A off the ground in 1,500 feet. With a gross take-off weight of 60,000 pounds he estimated he could get off in 3,000 feet of runway.
There is little doubt that amphibious Mariners will play a great part in Navy, Coast Guard, and possibly even Army operations during peacetime. Their greatest use will undoubtedly be in air-sea rescue work where they will be able to take off from a field, speed to the scene of a shipwreck or other disaster at sea and pick up survivors, take off and return to a runway, taxiing to waiting ambulances. Precious moments may mean the saving of lives.
Introduction of the new amphibian at this particular time appears particularly significant as no other manufacturer has a similar item to offer. The Navy used the Consolidated Catalina PBY-5A as an amphibious plane in the Pacific during the war. It was then the only amphib on the market.
Glenn L. Martin appears to have in the XPBM-5A a plane which the military services will need in peacetime—a commodity which will help cushion the shock of the drastic cutbacks of wartime production.
MERCHANT MARINE
WSA Outlines New Route for Atlantic Winter Crossings
Maritime Activity Reports, February 28.— As a result of extensive shipping experience gained in the North Atlantic during the war, a new safer route has been worked out. WSA officials believe that by following the more southerly route, Atlantic shipping will he able to insure more regular and faster passages, reduce hull and machinery damage from heavy weather, eliminate damage to hull and cargo resulting from shifting and lack of ventilation in cargo compartments, and insure greater comfort and safety for ships’ crews, officers, and passengers.
WSA is giving masters of its vessels considerable latitude in some areas, as in United Kingdom waters, when weather conditions are favorable, but its officials are known to be disturbed over the extent of storm and weather damage sustained by vessels during recent voyages, and is warning that disciplinary action will henceforth be taken against masters who fail to comply with new routing instructions, to reduce speed when required, or alter their course to prevent heavy pounding from the sea. Mounting repair bills resulting from weather damage are understood to be at the root of this action.
SS. “America” in Service by August
Marine Progress Weekly New Reports, February 27.—Conversion of the liner America is now underway at the yard of the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, with the work being scheduled for completion within five months. The ship ended her naval service on February 19, at the Norfolk Navy Yard, and was turned over to her owners, the Maritime Commission which renamed the ship, giving back the original name. While in naval service she was known as the U.S.S. Wcst Point. Conversion of the America may make the ship the first large liner to re-enter the passenger service. The conversion of the large British and French ships will lake an estimated seven to nine months and work has not yet been started on them. When the America is released by the shipyard she will be almost exactly the same vessel she was when originally delivered. The changes will be minor and will trend toward greater safety equipment and greater fireproof materials in the ship’s furnishings.
“Gripsliolm” First Liner to Get Loran
New York Times, February 17.—The first commercial installation of Loran, electronic long-range navigation device that makes it possible to determine accurately the position of a ship at sea, has been made on the Swedish-Amcrican liner Gripsholm, it was disclosed yesterday by Clifford W. Davis, former Loran officer for the Navy at Pearl Harbor, now associated with the Sperry Gyroscope Company, Inc. Mr. Davis said that the new navigation equipment was installed on the Gripsholm before the diplomatic exchange ship left here in January. According to Mr. Davis, the Sperry Loran solves virtually all of the navigator’s age-old problems of determining geographical position at sea. It is so accurate and simple to operate, he explained, that it makes methods of determining positions at sea now in use on merchant craft seem old-fashioned. He said a navigator using the Sperry installation could obtain an accurate fix in approximately two minutes.
Germany to Retain One-Seventh of Merchant Fleet
Chicago Daily Tribune, March 8.—The United States, Britain, and Russia today agreed to let Germany keep approximately one-seventh of its remaining Merchant Marine and split the remainder—1,189,000 tons, worth $80,000,000—three ways. The tripartite action was disclosed in an announcement made public simultaneously in
London, Moscow, and Washington, which said the transfers are taking place. In pre-war years Germany’s Merchant Marine ranked fourth in the world—behind Britain, the United States and Japan. The 200,000 tons which will remain in its hands is the equivalent of about 22 American Victory ships. Valuation is on the basis of 1938 building prices, less depreciation.
By agreement among the three powers, Britain and the United States will provide from their shares of the captured ships “appropriate amounts” to help compensate smaller allied nations for their wartime shipping losses. Russia, under the agreement, will make provision for Poland. This agreement is in line with a previous agreement at Potsdam on a reparation plan to take into consideration the interests of smaller countries. Today’s announcement represented acceptance by the three governments of a report submitted last December by a tripartite merchant marine commission set up under the Potsdam agreement. The United States, Russia, and Britain previously announced agreement on equal disposition of the remaining operating ships of the German Navy.
Division of the naval vessels also is under way. Disposition of the German fishing fleet, dredgers, port facilities, and inland water transport will be announced later. Simultaneously with the shipping announcement, a State Department spokesman said the allied control council in Berlin is working “with all possible haste” to complete a final determination on the level of peacetime industry which Germany will be permitted to have. At the Potsdam conference it was agreed to fix that level not later than February 2 of this year. On the dead-line date, however, the control council announced it had not completed an agreement on German industry and would require additional time. The State Department said today the agreement might be reached in from four to six weeks.
Reserve Fleet Vessels Taken Over by Maritime Commission
Maritime Activity Reports, February 21.— In a move toward the reconversion of shipping activities to a peacetime basis, the Maritime Commission last week took over the custody of the War Shipping Administration inactive ships in the laid-up fleets in the James River, near Fort Eustis, Virginia, Mobile (Alabama) River, and Suisun Bay, San Francisco. This action, recommended by Capt. Granville Conway, acting War Shipping Administrator, brings Government- owned ships under the national reserve fleet provisions of the ship sales legislation, which is expected momentarily to receive final approval by Congress. Frank E. Hickey, who directed the temporary WSA laid-up fleet operations, has been designated director of the Maritime Commission’s new reserve fleet division. More than 400 ships are now in lay-up and 163 additional vessels have been ordered to the reserve fleets, according to Mr. Hickey’s current report. The James River site has 194 with 104 ships ordered to that sanctuary; Mobile River has 50 with 14 ships slated to go to the site, Suisun Bay has 161 with 45 vessels scheduled to be tied up there. These vessels include virtually all the types built under the Maritime Commission’s wartime ship-building program as well as over-age vessels. Many of the ships are war- batterecl Liberty’s whose ultimate fate will be dismantling for scrap. Other ships will be maintained in the reserve fleets for security. These vessels will be preserved by a special dehumidification process.
MISCELLANEOUS Greatest Smoke Screens in History
The Cavalry Journal, January-February, by Lieutenant D. Wilson MacArthur.—The immense development of air power, both for reconnaissance and for bombing attack, created an urgent need in Britain and abroad for some means of hiding vital war targets and troop movements. Camouflage, even carried to great lengths, was not enough; the most expert camouflage can often be detected by trained eyes, and the camouflage that will defeat the normal eye is not always effective against the color-blind eye of a camera. The answer was the smoke screen, used by navies ever since the introduction of steam. Its first obvious application was in protecting harbors
and. vital war factories from enemy observation and attack. For this purpose the ack-ack screen was devised.
The ordinary orchard heater furnished the basis for researcli into the production of smoke on a large scale, and after various modifications it emerged as the first smoke generator, producing a dark oily smoke. Next came the larger Haslar smoke generator, also oil burning, and large numbers of these were deployed at British ports and inland. By this means whole areas could be covered by an impenetrable cloud of smoke, through which it was impossible to detect the location of shipping, port installations, armaments factories or dumps. There was, of course, one serious objection. Thick clouds of sooty, oily smoke made life extremely uncomfortable for everyone in the area.
At the same time, research was going on into other types of smoke, and the “chemical pot” was developed. It consisted of a canister containing chemicals which, upon combustion, produce a thick, white smoke. It is ignited with a match and, once ignited, the combustion continues of its own accord.
Another type of chemical “smoke” generator contains fuming acid, forced out under pressure, spraying a liquid which immediately turns into a white fog. Smoke liquids could be used by aircraft for laying screens, while smoke bombs of the chemical type could be shot from mortars, the flash of the propellant igniting them. Various types of smoke floats were also devised for use from ships. Chemical smoke, however, had one great disadvantage; although not so unpleasant as dark oil smoke, it was apt to cause a cough, and men could not remain in it indefinitely. Finally, the American Esso and Beslcr machines were introduced. These use a special oil which is forced out into the air and immediately turns into a white fog which is very persistent and, at the same time, nonirritant.
Thus, smoke and fog were used in many different ways, ranging from the small smoke bomb, fired from a hand-carried mortar, for immediate protection by the infantryman, and the long-range smoke shell used by artillery for providing cover for advanced units of spotting the fall of shot to the full-scale screen which covered many miles, for ack- ack or tactical purposes.
Apart from the screens laid down to cover harbors and inland targets in Britain, one of the most spectacular uses of smoke was in beleaguered Malta, where the enemy could indulge almost at will in short-range daylight bombing.
On May 10, 1942, H.M.S. Welshman docked at Malta with a particularly valuable cargo, which included smoke apparatus. Enemy attack was expected within a very short time, and a smoke screen was immediately organized. It was manned largely by survivors of recently sunk vessels—whose reward was to be a passage home in the Welshman, if she survived!
The first attack came, just one hour after she had docked; but by then the screen had become effective, and the enemy dropped their bombs blind through an impenetrable barrage of smoke that hid the target completely. She was not hit. Three more attacks were made at short intervals; but the screen was maintained, and the Welshman remained untouched.
From this small beginning at Malta, 7 frontages were soon developed which covered between 7,000 and 8,000 yards, and eventually a coverage circuit of from 5 to 6 miles, which included the whole of the Grand Harbor, was obtained. This great screen was fully operative by the time the August convoy fought its way to the island, and the ships had the fullest protection when they arrived.
By the summer of 1942 in the Middle East Theater large smoke screens were prepared for the protection of important ports and inland targets, particularly at Alexandria, Suez, and Haifa. This method of frustrating
enemy observation may have been partly responsible for the fact that no heavy attacks ever developed on these ports. Smoke was to play a still more vital role in the great North African campaign, when many severe attacks, particularly at night, were launched against the harbors seized by the Allies, which included Phileppeville, Bougie, Bone, and Algiers, and within the next 6 months, Sousse, Sfax, Bizerta, and Tunis. By November, 1942, 10 major screens were operating and smoke became a first priority. As each port was captured, the screen was prepared and was in full operation within a day or so. This led to the provision of ack-ack screens at every port taken in the Sicilian and Italian campaigns. All the stores and personnel were ready before the assault on Sicily began, for by this time smoke had been accepted as an essential part of warfare. In the short time between the first assault, in July, 1943, and the end of the year, no fewer than 8 major screens were functioning.
Important as these ack-ack screens were, smoke was to play a still greater tactical role in the war. In the Dieppe raid the skilful use of smoke helped the Navy put the troops ashore, and withdraw them afterwards. The ships were able to approach within 600 yards without meeting any well-directed fire because the enemy was compelled to shoot blind into a great wall of smoke. Smoke was provided not only by the Navy but also by the Royal Air Force, who used smoke bombs, and smoke screens laid at high speed by the aircraft. Under such a cover the assault craft stormed in, while the tank landing craft were able to retire into the main screen whenever the fire from the shore became too accurate. When the time came for the withdrawal, smoke screens laid by the aircraft provided a cover under which the craft took the men off the beaches. Without this aid it might well have been impossible to re-embark so many men. At Salerno more extensive use was made of smoke. As soon as the troops had landed, they laid out screens on all the beaches to cover the assembly points and the landing of stores.
The battle of Cassino was planned with smoke as a major tactical weapon. From Monastery Hill the enemy had perfect observation of troop movements, artillery concentrations, and all other preparations for an assault. It was essential to discount this heavy advantage, and a great smoke plan was devised. For this the British chemical pot was used, and complete cover was provided for the crossing of the River Gari. When the assault developed, a great screen entirely covered the movements of the troops along the whole of the British and Polish fronts. It enabled the engineers to throw bridges across the Gari for armored Iroops, and a continuous haze was maintained over the area in which the artillery was deployed. Afterwards the German commander stated that smoke had been used on an unprecedented scale, and compelled his gunners to shoot blind.
These experiences and developments led eventually to the greatest operation of all, the invasion of northwest Europe. First, immense ack-ack cover was provided at all the points of embarkation and over concentration of troops and material in Britain. A similar cover was provided after the landings to protect the Mulberry harbor and other disembarkation points. Smoke was used in the same manner in the landing on the south coast of France.
The culmination of this type of warfare, however, came with the preparations for the crossing of the Rhine. The whole of the operation of assembling troops and materiel for the crossing was completely covered by a gigantic smoke screen, and when the assault was launched the screen extended over a continuous front of 68 miles—indubitably the greatest in the history of war. Between
2,0 and 2,500 men were employed in laying and maintaining this vast screen, in addition to the great transport columns which brought up the equipment and materials.
A tactical screen intended to raise a wall of fog behind which troops and artillery and tanks can be deployed, involves a vast expenditure of labor and material, costing about 4 tons of chemicals per mile of front each hour. Thus the tactical smoke screen played its vital role in many battle zones, and in at least one of these it proved completely indispensable. This was in the Anzio beachhead, where, after the enemy had contained the beachhead, the whole area occupied was under direct observation and artillery fire from the ring of hills surrounding it. Without smoke, it would have been only a matter of time, and very little time, before the beachhead would have become untenable.
Immediately after the assault, however, an ack-ack screen was laid to cover the shipping in the bay, and at the same lime energetic steps were taken to protect the troops and artillery. Otherwise the whole area would have been at the mercy of the German guns, which could have picked off lorries moving along the roads, blasted troop encampments, and smashed every concentration inside the beachhead. The screen which was laid down, and maintained throughout the hours of daylight, covered a wide semicircle with a radius of 3 miles or more, and thus prevented observation of supply dumps and troop movements inside the area.
In the Apennines a different record was set up in the maintenance of smoke screens. Here, where perfect observation would otherwise have been possible, a screen was maintained throughout the daylight hours for 4 months to protect vital supply routes and artillery deployment areas. Much of this time the chemical pot was used, but it caused a good deal of throat irritation, and men on patrols often gave themselves away to the enemy by unavoidable coughing, so the white oil fog type of generator was introduced in the later stages.
The development and employment of smoke and fog screens, far beyond anything every achieved by the enemy, played a vital part in protecting the harbors and factories of Britain, and in prosecuting the war in the Mediterranean and northern Europe. It undoubtedly saved not only vast quantities of material, but the lives of many thousands of soldiers who would otherwise have been at the mercy of German guns and planes.
Swimming Tanks in the Pacific
Carrier Corporation Press Release.—Thirty- ton Army tanks were converted into tiny battleships which swam ashore from landing craft firing their turret guns to support beachhead invasion troops in the Pacific war, it was revealed by Carrier Corporation, manufacturers of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment.
With the permission of the War Department, Carrier officials described the M19 Swimming Device, which made the cumbersome 30-ton tanks into warships which waddled through heavy seas at 5J miles an hour. Supported by rigidly attached steel pontoons each filled with rubber sponge as a protection against small arms fire, the first of swimming tanks were used at Okinawa. Manned by U. S. Marines, all but one of the inaugural wave of tanks reached shore safely despite rough waters and reefs. One tank stalled on a coral reef but its crew escaped successfully. When the balance of the wave reached the beaches, the girdles of pontoons were blasted loose by explosive rivets controlled by the tank crew and the tanks moved forward to the assault as land vehicles. When the tank is in the water it “rides” so low that only the turret projects. The silhouette presents a very small target. While acting as a “battleship” the tracks of the tank furnish propulsion. Motor exhaust gases are carried off by ventilators which protrude above the water like periscopes.
The War Department told Carrier that battle experience had proved the Ml9s safe and dependable even in very rough seas. As protection for crews, the principal escape exits are above the water line.
According to War Department records, Carrier manufactured 500 of the swimming devices at its Philadelphia Division under contract with the Philadelphia Ordnance District. The corporation was helped in the manufacture of the first hundred units by York Safe and Lock Company.
Weapons Development Predicted by Mathematical Curve
New York Herald, 'Tribune, February 24, by John J. O’Neill.—Atomic energy was inevitable. There was a place waiting for it in the curve representing several forms of technological development. This is the picture presented by Dr. Hornell Hart, professor of sociology at Duke University. Just as Einstein has been seeking to write the field equation that will describe all cosmic phenomena under a single universal law so has Professor Hart been studying the phenomena of the biological world searching for the fundamental principle that will describe human progress. The growth of populations in all countries keeping records over a sufficient period of time has been fitted, by the late Professor Raymond Pearl, of Johns Hopkins University, into a logistic, or “S,” curve. Professor Hart has studied a variety of activities of the human race and has found that they all fit such a curve. The curves may differ in slope, amplitude, or period of time covered, but they all belong to a single family whose properties can be described in a simple equation. This simple equation, Professor Hart believes, gives the clew to a fundamental law controlling human progress, in a material sense, the discovery of which has thus far escaped the scientists.
Many investigators have studied a vast array of human activities and have found that the growth of these activities with time when charted produces a line that fits into the generalized curve. The generalized curve is almost horizontal for a considerable period, then starts to slope upward at a slow rate and the rate of upswing then increases until the curve becomes vertical. This is the middle point of the curve. The second half tends away from the vertical at a rapidly increasing rate and finally becomes horizontal. The curve means that every particular activity gets off to a slow start, goes through a process of expansion, or increase, at a rate which increases, then tapers off to a new high level which is maintained. Practically all of the activities which have been studied and fit this curve have values of social usefulness. It is interesting to note that one activity investigated gives a graph which is the complete reverse of the upswinging curve and gives, instead, an equally good logistic curve that is of the downswinging variety. This activity is lynching in the United States.
If this curve is of universal application to all scientific social, economic, and biological phenomena, which professor Hart believes is the case, then by watching the course of any development for a short time and keeping statistical records it should be possible to predict the time and magnitude of the final results and what will take place at all intervening periods. When the various activities to which atomic energy will be applied, and the limited use already made of this agent, are charted, the curve shows that we have
Visiting American sailor beside the statue of Buddha in an ancient temple in Shanghai.
just turned the lower bend of the curve and are headed for a steep upward swing that will continue for a long period. Atomic energy is, to Professor Hart, merely the most recent phase of a generalized development that got under way thousands of years ago. He is preparing his data for publication in the June issue of Tlic American Journal of Sociology. The atomic bomb is the first application of atomic energy. He compares the destructiveness of the bomb with that of other weapons and states:
The terrific increase in destructive power is less significant than the fact that atomic developments arc evidently part of an accelerating process which has been taking place for hundreds of thousands of years, and which has now reached ominous rapidity.
The curve which Professor Hart draws seems to indicate that the bomb arrived prematurely, perhaps a dozen years before its time in a more normal course of events. If it had arrived in 1956, however, we could then look forward, according to this curve, to a weapon with a destructiveness twice as great by 1965, with a further doubling in about the following half-dozen years, with the curve still trending upward. The range of projectiles has been studied by Professor Hart, starting with the earliest period when man’s earliest projectile was the hand-thrown stone of short range and little power. In order came the javelin, the arrow, artillery, and rockets, including airplane carriers of bombs. The most interesting curve in this field concerns the range of all chemically propelled projectiles. Atomic energy rockets will be charted in this category, so the curve can be considered as a means of forecasting the range of this weapon and when it will arrive. I he record is held by the bombing airplane, about 1,350 miles. A record of 10,000 miles should be reached by 1950 and about 25,000 miles before 1960, with a quick rise to 100,000 miles within the next few years, with still greater increases to follow.
No predictions are made by Professor Hart as to what kind of a projectile will achieve these higher ranges. It is obvious however, that the airplane is limited to the earth’s greatest dimension of 25,000 miles and distances beyond this will have to be achieved by rockets traveling beyond the earth. Since
the curve indicates that about 1960 we will have rockets capable of reaching the moon, and that these will be powered by atomic energy, it is quite probable that within the next few years we will be producing atomic- energy rockets capable of traveling thousands of miles to any point on the earth s surface.
Speed of travel is another subject of Professor Hart’s study. The present record is about 630 miles an hour. His curve promises that by 1951 we will travel at 1,000 miles an hour. By expending his curve still farther along its normal course, we have indications that we will be traveling several thousand miles an hour by 1965.
Future Warfare and the Atomic Bomb
Digested in Military Review, March, 1946, from article by Captain Grenfell, R.N., in The Navy (Great Britain).—How will the atomic bomb affect future warfare? Many opinions have already been expressed on the subject, most of them sensational. It has been said that the advent of the new bomb means a revolutionary change in the basic nature of warfare. Two fearful explosions knocked Japan out of the war and thus eliminated the necessity for a landing on Japanese soil and avoided the heavy loss of life that would have been incurred, in the final defeat of the Japanese armies. This tremendous fact meant, or so many commentators including some notable public figures have averred, that armies, navies, and air forces are now obsolete and can be relegated to the nearest museum. Wars, if there are any more wars, will be decided by atomic obliteration. But the power of the atomic bomb is so devastating and terrible that it is more than ever necessary to prevent wars breaking out. Otherwise, mankind might well destroy itself altogether; for there is no escape from atomic explosive. To quote a leading newspaper, “so far as human foresight can divine, the powers of destruction have now gone beyond the possibility of de fense.” It is, therefore, essential in many people’s view that there should be effective control over the atomic bomb,’ some international authority for the purpose being a popular suggestion.
Arc these opinions to be regarded as
sound? It has to be remembered that the atomic weapon came upon the peoples of the world out of the blue. Not a whisper of its existence had previously reached the general public of this or any other country. Then, all of a sudden, came the terrific news that not only was atomic explosive an accomplished fact but that it had actually been used to wipe out a Japanese city with immense loss of life. In such circumstances, there was every likelihood that the first psychological reaction to the new weapon would be highly emotional and therefore unbalanced. The premise, for instance, that Japan was knocked out of the war by two atomic bombs is distinctly questionable. On the evidence, it cannot be said with any certainty that the atomic bomb knocked out the Japanese by itself. The most that can be claimed for it is that it completed the discomfiture of an already defeated nation.
On the other hand, if the decisive and revolutionary nature of the atomic bomb is not proved by the Japanese experiment, it is not disproved. The assertion that armies, navies, and air forces are now museum pieces has still to be examined in detail. Let us assume that the world’s soldiers, sailors, and airmen were all disbanded. How, then, would nations knock each other out by atomic explosive? They could only do so by long-range gun or rocket fire. As long as the secret of atomic explosive is known to one nation or set of nations only, this might be possible. But such secrets have never remained long in the possession of any one group. We can be quite sure that the Russians, the French, the Spaniards, and any other free and independent countries are now feverishly at work in the endeavor to catch up with the Anglo- American advantage; and one of our own scientists has declared that it should take no more than five years for the atomic discovery to be made by any nation that is in search of it.
If war is delayed for five years, therefore, we can expect both sides to be equally equipped with atomic explosive. In that case, wars in a world without navies, armies, and air forces would presumably be fought by reciprocal obliteration of opposing cities and civil populations through the agency of atomic missiles shot from launching platforms in the territories of the two combatants. But under these conditions it would inevitably occur sooner or later to one side or the other that if the launching sites could only be captured and occupied, either by ground invasion or by air- or seaborne troops, the enemy’s bombing would come to an end and the just cause would prevail. But, if so, here are armies, navies, and air forces coming back on to the stage—on one side at least. And since the other side, if it were any use at all, would anticipate such a move by the enemy, or, more probably, contemplate it for itself, it is reasonable to assume that the old- fashioned armed forces would be maintained by all.
And if armed forces exist, they will naturally be used. Were, say, France and Spain to be engaged in pulverizing each other’s cities with long-range atomic bombs, it would still be possible for a French (or Spanish) army to carry out an ordinary normal invasion of the enemy country which, if successful, would be just as efficacious in winning the war as the pulverization of its opponent’s cities.
The answer to such a move might be to switch the atomic artillery from the city targets to the invading army; and thus we are brought back to first principles of strategy and to the traditionally higher value of making the enemy’s armed forces the objective in preference to the more primitive idea of “cross-raiding,’’ which is what “strategic bombing,” whether by piloted or pilotless missiles or with amatol or atomic bombs, really is.
Established principles are, however, always unpopular on account of the familiarity that brings them into contempt. Humanity loves novelty, especially when it is dramatic and exciting, a psychological characteristic which goes far to explain why so much enthusiastic support was given to the air strategists who declared early in the war that armies and navies were costly encumbrances and that the war would be won by bombing. But, with prosaic fidelity to ancient rule, the war againsL Germany was not won until the German armies had been beaten in the field; nor the war against Japan until the Japanese Navy had lost the command of the sea. In any case, a defeated country has to be occupied, a task that can only be carried out by trained soldiers.
Whether and how atomic bombing will be used as part of military operations remains to be seen when the next war comes. It can be argued that the bomb’s power is so great and its blast effect so extensive that its employment anywhere near the front line would be as dangerous to friend as to foe. No doubt it will be used, as with “tactical” air bombing, for back-area “preparation.” In this way, it may add still further to the immense destruction that aerial warfare has brought in its train or it may not be used at all. It is conceivable that the fearful destruction of life that accompanies the use of atomic bombs may cause warring nations tacitly to keep them in leash, as they have done in this war with poison gas.
But it would undoubtedly be optimistic to suppose that the power of the atomic bomb will frighten humanity off war altogether. Not only are aggressor nations invariably confident of victory and therefore indifferent to the risks involved in going to war, but the adaptability of mankind to the dangers of existence on a dangerous planet is almost infinite. The capacity of Londoners to withstand enemy bombing in the way they did would not have been believed before 1939; and it is proverbial that new hazards which cause alarm to one generation are the accepted commonplaces of the next. A hundred years ago, Lord Cochrane, one of the bravest, most original, and seasoned of warriors, thought the idea of poison gas so diabolical that he cloaked it in sealed codicil to his will, with the instruction that it was only to be opened in the moment of Britain’s direst extremity. Today, we think more composedly of gas, among other reasons because, vile as it is, we have learned how to counter it.
The latter consideration must surely also apply to atomic warfare. So far, history has always shown countermeasures being devised to meet and limit the effects of all new weapons. The very wonder attaching to atomic explosive suggests that what scientists have accomplished in one direction they may also achieve in the opposite. Who knows whether some ray may not be produced for neutralizing an atomic missile in flight? Or, if not that, that a countermissile of the same
kind may not be sent speeding up and radar- directed on to the approaching rocket bomb to explode it harmlessly at a high altitude? The idea that there is no defense against atomic bombing is probably as fallacious as Lord Baldwin’s famous dictum that “the bomber will always get through,” a prediction that the discovery of radar shortly afterwards rendered invalid. Indeed, in some respects, atomic explosive may actually have increased security, for it may well prove the deadliest antidote to the hostile bomber aircraft.
But the more purely defensive countermeasures also demand attention. Passive defense has always played an important part in opposition to any form of attack, as Lord Fisher found to his and our cost when he thought speed could be a satisfactory substitute for armor in his early battle cruisers. The result was that three of them blew up at Jutland, in spite of their heavier gun armament. It is a weakness of ours in this country to neglect this defensive aspect of warfare. Our battleships have been generally less well protected than the enemy’s. Our tanks in this war have had thinner armor than the German. Our Air Force was dangerously late in adopting self-sealing petrol tanks. Having armed our merchant ships against the submarine in 1917 and 1918, we scrapped the whole organization after the war and had to build it up again from zero after 1939.
In anti-bombing defense, we have been equally behindhand. The question of public air-raid shelters was only played with by comparison with what was done in Germany. Not only with their massive concrete “bunkers” but also with underground and hidden factories and Lhe dispersion of factory plants, they were a very long way ahead of us; and had we been subjected to the terrible bombing that they had to undergo we should have suffered proportionately much more heavily than they.
The coming of atomic explosive throws a lurid and urgent emphasis on our general slackness in these defensive matters, since the consequences of unpreparedness will be desperately serious. It is unquestionable that the implication of atomic bomb power is underground existence, and we should now be hard at work putting our factories, air-
fields, harbors, and dwelling houses below the earth’s surface and inside hillsides and cliffs. Yet it is noteworthy that the government’s housing policy shows not the faintest awareness of any such necessity.
It will naturally be said that the cost of such a revolutionary development would be fantastic. Quite correct. But no price is too high for national survival, and we need to face the fact that small, densely populated, and highly industrialized Britain is peculiarly vulnerable to atomic warfare. By comparison, Russia has a natural protection by virtue of her huge area and the wide dispersion of her population and industries. Her war factories behind the Urals, for instance, are 2,500 miles from her present western boundary; whereas Britain is only a few miles from the nearest foreign territory.
It would be the height of ostrichism to imagine that we can rely on any form of international control for our defense against atomic attack. Security Council or no, so long as an atomic bomb factory exists anywhere in the world, whether in the United States, Russia, China, or where you will, the land forces of its country of location will have the real control over its utilization, and will assuredly not hesitate to insure exclusive national possession of it in times of emergency.
We have played with fire many times in our past history in the way of under-preparedness for war, often with a near approach to disaster as a consequence. To play with atomic fire in the same way might be fatal. ,