Professional Notes

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United States................................................................................................................................. 606

Visit to Greece and Turkey—Aid to Greece and Turkey—Policing World Seas—Joint Defense Plans—Antarctic—Atomic Defense- Atomic Laboratory—Electronic Computer—Naval Lend-Lease— Launchings—Model Basin Tests Canal Designs—New Infantry Divi­sion—V-l Rocket From Sub.—Foreign Scientists.

Great Britain................................................................................................................................. 616

Equipment for Greece and Turkey—National Service—Arctic Air­fields in Canada—Australian Rocket Test Range—Navy, RAF, and • Army Estimates

France............................................................................... '............................................................. 619

New Unit—Airborne Equipment—Operation of U-2326—Naval Cadet Cruise

USSR.............................................................................................................    620

Antarctic Expedition—Stalin Resigns—Soviet Navy

Other Countries................................................................................................................................. 622

Germany—Ne th erlands—N o rway—Turkey

Aviation...............................................................................................................................................   624

Sonic Planes—Helicopters Plane-guard—Developments—Canadian Arctic Tests—British Order Constellation Airframes

Merchant Marine............................................................................................................................... 627

U. S. Cost Handicap—Britain Leads in Shipbuilding—Sales to British—-New Ships—Radar—Foreign Ships under Panama Flag— Stokehold Tests

Miscellaneous..................................................................................................................................... 632

Russian Scientists Ahead—Mine Peril

UNITED STATES

U. S. Task Force to Visit Ports in Greece, Turkey

New York Herald, Tribune, March 19.—- A task force of United States warships led by the 27,000-ton aircraft carrier Leyte will visit Greek and Turkish waters including the stra­tegic Dardanelles, the Navy disclosed today.

In a brief announcement, the Navy said that the force would include three light cruisers and six destroyers.

Navy officials would not say whether all the ships would put into the various ports at the same time, but it was believed that they would probably stay together until they had completed the first part of their program of visits.

The carrier is scheduled to visit Gibraltar, Naples, Italy, and Suda Bay, on the Greek Island of Crete about 150 miles south of Athens. It will then sail through the Dar­danelles Straits to Istanbul, and finally visit Alexandria.

Although there is no present plan to send any major fleet unit to other Greek ports be­sides Suda Bay, Navy officials indicated that “one or more light units” might visit Greek ports on the mainland later in the spring or early summer.

The Leyte will leave Quonset Point, R. I., for her Mediterranean station next month, accompanied by two destroyers as far as the Azores. There, two other destroyers from the Mediterranean Fleet will take over and es­cort the carrier eastward.

Navy officials said the Mediterranean visit of the Leyte was part of its routine training operations. They added that a plan to send a carrier to the Mediterranean for service with units of the operating fleet there had been under consideration for some time.

The three light cruisers already in the Mediterranean are the Providence, Ports­mouth, and Dayton. Since the Navy has closed its operating liases at Palermo and Naples, the task force will be accompanied by auxil­iary vessels.

The vessels now in the Mediterranean are under the command of Vice Admiral B. H. Bieri. In London Almiral Richard L. Conolly, commander of the 12th Fleet and all United States naval forces in Europe, was reported to have said he had recommended the pro­jected visit of the task force to the Mediter­ranean two months ago.

Announcement of the visit marked a further increase in the attention the United States Navy is paying to the eastern Mediterranean area. Last September, James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, announced that the American fleet units were in the Mediterranean to support American foreign policy, and that they would remain there.

Earlier, less than a week after Greece voted in a plebiscite for the return of King George II, the heavy United States aircraft carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Piraeus, the port of Athens. Six months earlier, the 45,000-ton battleship Missouri reached Istan­bul bearing the body of the wartime Turkish Ambassador to the United States, Mehmet Ertegun.

Navy’s Greek Role Limited

New York Times, March 16.:—Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal said today that any direct assistance to Greece or Turkey by the United States Navy would consist solely “of a staff character.”

In an interview preceding an address be­fore 1,000 persons at a luncheon of the Foreign Policy Association and the United Nations Council of Philadelphia, Mr. For­restal said he thought there was considerable misunderstanding of President Truman’s suggestion of military aid to Greece and Turkey.

Such aid by the Navy, he said, “would be limited possibly to three or four officers, who would be added to the staff of attaches now stationed there. The Army’s part in such a program would, I believe, be limited to the same staff character.”

Warns Against Arms Cut

In his address, broadcast over a national hook-up, the Secretary warned that there was serious doubt whether this nation’s mili­tary strength was sufficient to discharge United States obligations to the United Na­tions.

“Certainly, if we proceed further in emas­culating our strength, we will lack the ca­pacity to defend ourselves or anyone else,” he said.

Although this country would like to set an example to the world by disarming, we cannot afford, he asserted, “to lead with our chin” and discard defenses “until we have a fool­proof system of collective security, the de­velopment of which is a long and difficult job that has only started.”

The basic principle of American policy, Mr. Forrestal said, “is that peace can be se­cured only by the removal of the political, social, economic and psychological frictions that are the real causes of war.” He added:

“The United Nations is the keystone in the edifice of peace which we are striving to construct and we have dedicated our energies and resources to its success. But as a human institution it is young and still in a formative state; it has not had time to be fixed in a firm mold.

Cites Duty to United Nations

“While the United Nations is in embryo, the United States has a moral responsibility in shaping it into an acceptable and effective instrument for world well-being. Our practi­cal sense tells us that in this still imperfect world, high principles and noble purposes are not enough.”

Upholding American proposals that con­trol of atomic energy receive top priority in the consideration of arms control, the Navy Secretary asked: “What would it avail the world if we abolished all other arms and left uncontrolled the weapon that can wipe out whole cities at one blow?”

This country insists that it is imperative to deal with atomic energy first because “if its devastating power is not neutralized the con­trol of other arms is futile,” he said.

“The current outlook for an agreement on atomic power,” he added, “is not promising, but we cannot despond. The settlement of this issue is difficult because it must be set­tled where all our issues are—in the minds and souls of men.”

In conclusion, Mr. Forrestal warned that America’s success at peace-making would de­pend on her strength at arms and in charac­ter, mind and heart.

Navy Policing World Seas as Post-War Policy

New York Herald Tribune, March 1, by

James Minifie.—James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, enunciated today an American post-war naval policy of world-wide policing of sea lanes “to insure unvexed travel at sea.”

He pointed out in an informal talk to newspaper men that the British have been doing this alone for a century, and that the United States Navy is now sharing in the work. He implied that the Navy has taken on this burden more through force of circum­stances than as a result of any agreement, overt or tacit, with the British. He empha­sized that the public must realize that the end of the war did not mean the end of the Navy’s world-wide tasks.

“Our fleet, in conjunction with the British, is now doing what the British did alone for 100 years,” he said.

Importance Stressed

Mr. Forrestal’s statement was in effect the first definite announcement by a high public official of a global American post-war naval policy. It was accompanied by strong empha­sis, both from the Secretary and from Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Chief of Naval Operations, on strategic raw materials and the safety of the sea lanes along which they travel and the stability of the areas in which they are produced.

Mr. Forrestal illustrated this by pointing out that, although the average citizen thought of the United States as a fairly self- contained economy, this was far from the case.

“Actually our economy depends on imports to a much greater degree than is realized,” he said. “Seventy-three per cent of our im­ports are considered necessary to our econ­omy. If ten per cent of these failed to get through, our economy would be tied up.” He stressed the dependence of the United States on rubber and tin from Malaya and manganese from India, as examples.

The Secretary said that United States naval forces would continue to operate in the western Pacific and Chinese waters, despite withdrawal from the political situation in China.

Task Called Obligation

Admiral Nimitz added, “we still feel that we have an obligation to keep the sea lanes open and maintain such stability in the situa­tion as we can.” In reply to a further ques­tion, he extended the western-Pacific sea lanes to cover trade routes all over the world.

Admiral Nimitz pointed out that commit­ments to occupation forces made it necessary to maintain strong naval squadrons in the Mediterranean and in Japanese waters, as well as in the western Pacific.

The forces at present used to carry out United States obligations amount roughly to 290 combat vessels, Admiral Nimitz said. These include task forces in both the Atlan­tic and Pacific, based on six carriers in each ocean, with their accompanying vessels for protection, chiefly cruisers and destroyers. Battleship protection was much reduced from war strength.

Joint Defense Plan is Ready

New York Herald. Tribune, March 27, by James Minifie.—Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Chief of Naval Operations, said to­day that joint Army-Navy military policy and a strategic concept and plan for the em­ployment of the armed forces in national de­fense had been drawn up and approved.

He told the Senate Armed Services Com­mittee that “the Joint Chiefs of Staff have completed and the Secretaries of War and Navy have approved” these interim plans for military operations in the event of an­other national emergency. These disclosures highlighted his testimony in favor of the Army-Navy unification bill.

In reply to a question by Senator Styles Bridges, Republican, of New Hampshire, Admiral Nimitz said the objective of joint Army-Navy policy was “to keep the ravages of war and the areas of armed conflict as far removed as possible from the continental United States.” “This has been a United States military policy of long standing, one under which we have successfully fought two wars within a generation,” he declared.

He added that while such planning would be “expedited and facilitated” by passage of the bill, nevertheless joint planning already had covered the following major fields:

1.       Joint defense of Canada and the United States. “A new long-range security plan for the United States and Canada has been ac­cepted by the Chiefs of Staff of the two coun­tries,” Admiral Nimitz said. “Certain asso­ciated matters, such as the standardization of weapons and equipment, have been an­nounced from time to time.”

2.       Development and defense of the Alaska Base Area. Joint on-site boards have been ap­pointed for this area and for the Marianas, with guidance furnished by agencies of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Reports on Alaska were approved by the Secretaries of War and the Navy on 7 November, 1946,” Admiral Nimitz said, “and the Marianas board is presently preparing its report on its on-site examination.”

3.       United States requirements for Philip­pines bases. These were approved recently by the Philippine government and are await­ing United States treaty ratification.

4.       Military, naval and air bases. “Our base requirements have been reviewed re­peatedly in the light of changing conditions, and the State Department has been fur­nished with a series of expressions of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in this important mat­ter,” the admiral said.

5.       A unified command structure for United States forces beyond the continental limits of the United States was approved by President Truman December 14 and has been pub­lished.

6.       Routine joint studies are in progress on “special staff studies, specific campaign plans and plans for contingent operations in vari­ous parts of the world based upon different conditions which might conceivably de­velop.”

7.       Procedures for the preparation of an in­dustrial-mobilization plan were approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff November 19. “The concept of strategic guidance for industrial mobilization was approved by the joint staff planners and forwarded to the Chiefs of Staff 13 February, 1947,” Admiral Nimitz said.

In response to questions, Admiral Nimitz said that he did not fear the broad powers granted to the proposed Secretary of Na­tional Defense under the unification bill. He said the man who would direct the Secretar­ies of the Army, Navy, and Air Force “will have just as much and just as little authority as the President gives him.”

l

Questioned about amending the bill to in­clude safeguards for the Marine Corps and

1

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naval air power, Admiral Nimitz responded, “I don’t think you can write the complete ticket now.”

He said he was not in favor of amending the bill because the measure, as drawn, rep­resents a compromise among the three serv­ices and any changes might throw their agree­ment out of balance.

Admiral Nimitz began his testimony with a prepared statement in which he described the unification bill as “a forward-looking bill” and “a very excellent one.”

He inserted into this prepared address a strong attack on the idea of a centralized procurement agency, which, he said, “no fighting man would trust.” The bill does not specifically provide for establishment of such an agency. It might, however, be set up un­der the powers given to the Munitions Board “to make recommendations to re­group, combine or dissolve existing inter­service agencies operating in the fields of pro­curement, production and distribution in such manner as to promote efficiency and economy.”

Admiral Nimitz said that since he under­stood that notions about procurement cen­tralization were current, he wished to make known his strong opposition.

Antarctic Expedition Successful

New York Times, Feb. 28.—The fourth Byrd antarctic expedition has been “very much a success” both in discoveries and in polar training for the Navy, Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, operations commander of the expedition, said tonight as this flagship began her long journey home over a fog- veiled sea.

The Mount Olympus and the ice-breaker Burton Island are steaming toward New Zea­land with their work finished. Admiral Cru- zen noted that “the time is getting short” for further flights by the expedition’s Eastern or Western groups.

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, in a message received from Washington during the day, said:

“The Chief of Naval Operations congratu­lates Task Force 68 on its achievements and the determined manner in which it overcame all obstacles to those achievements. Your ex­perience and training in operations in polar weather are a great asset to the naval serv­ice.”

Admiral Cruzen said the expedition per­sonnel got a “real insight into the type of problems you have to risk in polar regions, and that was the primary objective—to find out what our problems are.”

Invaluable navigation experience was ob­tained in forcing through the Ross Sea ice­pack, which scarcely could have been tougher. In aviation exploration, Admiral Cruzen said, “one of the most surprising things was the ability of seaplanes to operate in the open sea from the seaplane tenders.”

Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s flight over the South Pole obtained good photo­graphic coverage of new areas, especially in penetration beyond the Pole, where the high plateau was found to extend flat and feature­less.

Twenty-nine operational flights were made from Little America during the brief stay there, of which twenty did mapping work, Admiral Cruzen added, and the Western Group has made more than thirty flights. Re­capitulation of the number of flights by the Eastern Group was not available.

Within a few days, Admiral Byrd expects to have a fairly complete report on all flights to map in thousands of miles of newly-seen coastline and great blocks of previously un­known areas. On the homeward voyage, offi­cers also are busy compiling reports on les­sons learned regarding equipment, engines, clothes, food, construction and other factors.

Test Station for Arctic Research and Experimentation

Military Engineer, March.—A test station has been established by the Bureau of Yards and Docks at Point Barrow, Alaska, for the conduct of Arctic research and experimenta­tion.

Considerable knowledge of Arctic condi­tions has been gained from various sources, including Navy and Army cold weather op­erations and studies made by Arctic expedi­tions, groups such as the one now stationed at Point Barrow, and by.foreign governments who have shared their knowledge with the United States. Additional data are expected to be gathered by the present Naval Antarc­tic Expedition.

Atomic Defense

New York Herald Tribune, March 4.— United States must maintain adequate mili­tary forces trained to take into account the effect of atomic bombs even if a plan for in­ternational control and inspection is put into effect, Rear Admiral William S. Parsons told members of the Science Talent Institute to­day. He warned that a major war would al­most certainly bring the use of atomic weap­ons.

Admiral Parsons, who is Navy director of atomic defense, asked this question: “What would we do if we were operating under the Baruch plan and an aggressor nation obvi­ously violated these international agree­ments? Merely attacking this nation in our newspapers editorially and in notes of pro­test would not be enough.”

Other conclusions to be drawn from con­siderations of the human as well as the phys­ics problem raised by the fissionability of the uranium atom were discussed by Admiral Parsons.

“The ideal defense against surprise attack with atomic bombs is political and is embod­ied in the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission plan of Dec. 30, 1946,” he said. “Until such a plan is in effective operation, we must keep our atomic armaments in good order.”

He pointed out that, as far as science knew at present, “the nucleus of the rare isotope U 235 has a property which is almost cer-

tainly not possessed by any other isotope of any other element, that of nuclear fission when struck by a slow new neutron, that is, breaking into two lighter nuclei and at the same time releasing several new neutrons and a tremendous amount of energy. No other natural isotope has this property, and this property is required in order to produce plu­tonium from U 238. Therefore this rare iso­tope of uranium is the key to the whole atomic energy problem.”

Admiral Parsons pointed out that the ade­quacy of our physical control over fission was shown by the fact that there were no injuries in the United States due to release of atomic energy throughout the war-time operations of the Army’s Manhattan District, which developed the bomb.

The problem of control from the stand­point of physics was soluble, he said, “and a fair solution has already been achieved. The problem is human, that is political, economi­cal and psychological, rather than a problem of physics.”

Atomic Laboratory and Research Center

New York Times, March 1, by W. L. Lau­rence.—Plans for the greatest laboratory of its kind for research into the fundamental forces that hold the universe together and into the mysteries of the vital processes of life were unfolded yesterday by a group of leading atomic scientists at the first confer­ence to be held in the Brookhaven National Laboratory for Atomic Research, Brook- haven, L. I.

The laboratory, now being constructed on the 6,000-acre site of Camp Upton, is a Gov­ernment-owned, Government-financed proj­ect operated by Associated Universities, Inc., an organization formed by nine major Eastern universities to carry on research on the peacetime uses of atomic energy. It will operate under contract with the Atomic En­ergy Commission and will cost about $50,­000,000, of which $10,000,000 has been allo­cated so far.

It will provide for universities, industries and other research organizations in the north­eastern and middle Atlantic States a training and research center for the investigation of atomic energy and its applications. It will be equipped with facilities far beyond the reach of any institution or industry.

It will build every kind of apparatus for studying the nuclei of atoms, including two atomic energy piles, one of which will be considerably more powerful than the experi­mental uranium-graphite pile of the Clinton Laboratories at Oak Ridge, Tenn. Other plans include a 240-inch cyclotron (56 inches larger in diameter than the 184-inch cyclo­tron of the University of California, now the largest in the world); an electro-nuclear ma­chine capable of accelerating either elec­trons or positive particles (possibly both) to the unheard-of energies of a billion electron- volts; a 600 to 1,000 million electron-volt synchro-cyclotron; possibly a ten to twenty million volt Van de Graaff generator, and other apparatus and instruments for use in research with these machines and their prod­ucts.

A $25,000,000 Machine

One of the most ambitious and imagina­tion-staggering machines to be built, pro­vided funds are made available, was de­scribed by Professor I. I. Rabi of Columbia University, Nobel prize winning physicist, one of the trustees of Associated Universities. This machine, estimated to cost about $25,­000,000, would accelerate atomic particles to energies up to 2,000,000,000 or 3,000,000,000 electron volts.

With particles of such tremendous ener­gies, Professor Rabi said, it would become possible for the first time to create protons and neutrons, as well as mesons, out of en­ergy. As protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms, of which the material uni­verse is composed, this means that man stands on the threshold of creating matter out of energy.

Protons are the positively charged heavy particles (2,000 times the mass of the elec­tron) that constitute the nuclei of the hydro­gen atom, the lightest element in the uni­verse. Protons, when set free, combine quickly with free negative electrons in their vicinity. The creation of protons out of en­ergy thus would mean that man, for the first time, will have created one of nature’s ele­ments.

This is not a plan for the distant future,

according to Professor Rabi. “It would take about three years,” he said, “from the time the funds are made available.”

The apparatus, Professor Rabi added, will make possible the artificial creation of mat­ter out of energy in sizable amounts. Such an achievement, astounding enough in itself, would lead to a new understanding of how the universe came into being and how it op­erates.

The creation of nuclear substances out of energy, it was pointed out, is the reverse of the process operating in the atomic bomb, or in the fission of uranium and plutonium, in which part of the matter in the nucleus is converted into energy.

The laboratory, it was revealed in an inter­view with the trustees, will have a permanent scientific staff of 300, a visiting staff of 200 or more from cooperating institutions, 500 laboratory technicians, and administrative, service and maintenance personnel number­ing 1,000. Scientific activities, including the design of the first atomic pile and other large equipment, have been started under the di­rection of Prof. Philip M. Morse, director, formerly professor of physics at the Massa­chusetts Institute of Technology.

Research for Peacetime

“This is not an ‘explosives’ plant,” Dr. Morse said. “We.will engage in peacetime re­search. We will train young scientists in the fields of the atomic sciences. Our work will be made available to the young scientists of the country as fundamental data from which peacetime applications can be developed.

“By our research in physics and chemistry, we hope to learn more about the behavior of atoms so as to control atomic energy for beneficial uses. In biology and medicine, we will learn more about living organisms, in or­der to develop methods of treatment for dis­eases such as cancer and many other ills. By fundamental research in engineering, we hope to be able to speed the development of atomic power production.”

The nine member universities of Associated Universities, Inc., are Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, M.I.T., the Uni­versity of Pennsylvania, Princeton, the Uni­versity of Rochester, and Yale. Each of these universities nominates two trustees, one of whom is an administrative and the other a scientific officer. They serve without com­pensation. The corporation is a non-profit institution.

Other universities, as well as private and public institutions, also will participate in the research planning and the use of the research facilities. Because the laboratory expects to concentrate on fundamental research, most of the work will be unclassified, and will be available to further the progress of all science and to promote human welfare all over the world.

Edward Reynolds, administrative Vice President of Harvard University, is Presi­dent of Associated Universities. He read a telegram signed by David E.Lilienthal, chair­man, and the four other members of the Atomic Energy Commission, which read in part as follows:

“The commission fully endorses your plan for broadening the partition in the nation’s atomic energy program. It is a sound one and is fully consistent with the purposes and pol­icy of the people of the United States as de­fined by Congress in the Atomic Energy Act of 1946.

“We must do more than merely attempt to preserve our nation’s present position in the field of atomic energy; our course is and must be to intensify our efforts and advance our knowledge in this field. The commission and the nation look to your organization for a major contribution to the United States atomic energy program.”

Mr. Reynolds emphasized that the pro­gram of the laboratory “includes no military applications.” “We are seeking the peace­time uses of atomic energy, which will pro­long life and raise the standard of living of mankind,” he added.

The activities of the Atomic Energy Com­mission in the Northeastern region are admin­istered by the Madison Square area, with headquarters at 261 Fifth Avenue, New York City. This area is headed by Col. G. W. Beeler, acting manager, and W. E. Kelley, deputy manager, who will succeed Colonel Beeler on March 1. The Brookhaven area, a unit of the Madison Square area, headed by E. L. Van Horn, area engineer, is the com­mission’s administrative unit for the Brook- haven Laboratory project.

New Electronic Computer

New York Herald Tribune, March 4.— War-time developments in electronics as ap­plied to peaceful uses was the theme of the annual convention of the Institute of Radio Engineers which opened yesterday at the Commodore and at Grand Central Palace.

Highlight of the meeting will be presenta­tion today of a high-speed electronic calcula­tor, which can solve complicated mathemati­cal problems involving thousands of multi­plications, additions and subtractions in ninety seconds—problems which would re­quire 600 hours by trained operators using conventional calculating machines.

The device, known as EDVAC (electronic discrete variable computer) was announced Sunday at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsyl­vania, where it was developed. It is ten times faster and much smaller than the fastest pre­vious computer. EDVAC’s vital parts will be demonstrated for convention audiences to­day.

19 Nations Owe Naval Ships on U.S. Lend-Lease

New York Herald Tribune, March 28.— The Navy said tonight that Great Britain, Mexico and Panama are the only countries to return any of the 4,795 naval units lend- leased during the war.

Russia and France are the two countries with the heaviest outstanding loans, while sixteen other nations, not including Great Britain, still retain the naval craft leased to them by the Navy.

According to figures of February 1, 1947, 2,216 units have been returned, 643 were lost during the war and another 1,943 remain to be returned “prior to termination of World War II.”

Great Britain received 3,656 naval units in all. This included thirty-seven escort car­riers, seventy-eight destroyer escorts and nu­merous landing craft, minesweepers and auxiliary vessels. Of these, two carriers were sunk and thirty-five returned; seven DE’s were sunk, seventy were returned and one still remains in British possession.

In all the British lost 635 lend-lease craft, returned 2,207 and still owe another 814.

Mexico received seven units and Panama two. These were all returned to the Navy.

Russia leased 580 small craft, the Navy re­ported, and as of February 1 had returned none. Three PT boats loaned to Russia were lost. France, which leased 247 vessels including six DE’s, lost four small units and returned none. China got ninety-two vessels, which included two DE’s; Brazil received sixty-six craft including eight DE’s, while Greece re­ceived thirty-three and the Netherlands twenty-three. None of these countries had returned any craft on February 1.

The number of ships still owed the United States include: Norway, ten; Yugoslavia, eight; Venezuela, four; Peru, ten; Paraguay, six; Haiti, one; Colombia, thirteen; Lruguay, four; Ecuador, nine; Chile, nine; Dominican Republic, four, and Cuba, twelve.

Launchings

U.S.S. Salem

New York Times, March 26.—The 100th ship built at the Quincy yard of the Bethle­hem Steel Company since Pearl Harbor— the air-conditioned cruiser Salem—was launched today.

The craft, one of the largest of its type, is named after the city of Salem—the second United States warship to bear the name of that community. The first, a scout cruiser, was launched in 1907 at the same site where the new Salem was constructed.

The keel of the new Salem was laid on July 4, 1945, but construction was delayed some­what after the Japanese surrender, and the design was reviewed to take advantage of the most recent developments originating from war experiences.

The air-conditioning will serve all living spaces, control centers and working compart­ments, except the boiler and main engine rooms. Separate ventilation and forced draft blowers will supply air to those compart­ments.

This extensive installation was decided upon as a result of knowledge gained from operation of warships in tropical waters dur­ing the war. It was designed to increase ef­ficiency and morale of crews in areas where high tempertaure and humidity combine, in certain seasons, to reduce stamina.

The U. S. submarine Sennet of Rear Admiral Byrd’s Antarctic Expedition taking a heaving line from the icebreaker Northwind for a tow out of the rapidly closing ice fields.

The craft, propelled by geared turbines, is 716 feet in length overall, forty feet longer than predecessors of the Baltimore class.

U.S.S. Worcester

Maritime Reporter, March 1.—The U.S.S. Worcester, largest light cruiser ever built, was launched recently by the New York Ship­building Corp. at Camden, New Jersey. Dis­placing 14,700 tons, the Worcester will mount twelve 6-in. dual purpose, rapid-firing guns in twin turrets. Her sister ship, the Roanoke, is now under construction at Camden.

Model Basin Tests Panama Canal Designs

New York Herald Tribune, March 5.—One of the few naval establishments still operat­ing at something near capacity is the David W. Taylor model basin at Carderock, Mary­land, where the shape of a variety of things to come is determined.

At the moment this basin, under Captain Harold E. Saunders, U.S.N., is pushing stud­ies on new channels for the Panama Canal, new hull shapes for submarines, the sailing qualities of vessels captured from the Ger­mans and Japanese, and hull shapes and pro­pellers for private industry. Eighteen officers and 1,080 civilians are employed there, nearly as many as during the war.

The shallow-water basin is taken up with studies of the Panama Canal, in order to ob­tain data on which decisions can be reached as to the future of the canal. President Tru­man has asked for a report with recommen-

sion, announced last December, was the re­sult of war time experience. The purpose of the overhauling was to make the infantry di­vision more self-sufficient by integrating into its organization a tank battalion and an anti­aircraft artillery battalion, among other things.

The new division will comprise 17,698 men and officers, approximately one-fifth more than the war-time strength of 15,000.

Designed for war-time use, the new divi­sion plan will remain on paper, except for ex­perimental purposes. In peace time the divi­sion will number 14,000 officers and men for economical operation.

Equipment tables for the new division have just been approved, the ground forces spokesman said. He said revisions may be made later as the result of further study and the introduction of new weapons.

A comparison of the weapons of the old

* Including 81 2/36 inch bazookas, and 449 § inch, f Self-propelled.

Nine Man Squad

Introduction of an improved Garand rifle

dations by the end of this year. Possibilities being examined are: deepening of channel with extension of the present lock system; substitution of a tidal lock system; cutting of a sea-level canal.

Carrier Model Towed

Boards at the side of the shallow basin simulate the canal’s banks at different angles and widths. A twenty-foot model of a Frank­lin D. Roosevelt-type carrier, 45,000 tons, is towed at varying speeds, at varying distances from the “banks” and at varying depths of water. In new sets of experiments with these same variants the model is self-propelled, in order to study her steering reactions.

Differences in Tides

Would a sea-level canal, eliminating the vulnerable locks entirely, be practicable? To assemble data permitting an answer to that question the basin has to use a circulating water channel, in which a nine-foot stream can be made to flow up to ten knots. The dif­ference in tides—a twenty-foot tide on the Pacific and a two-foot tide on the Atlantic side—would set up currents as great as four knots in a sea-level canal. Decisions involv­ing hundreds of millions of dollars will have to be based on the data assembled in this series of tests.  .

New Infantry Division Organization

Chicago Tribune, March 9.—The Army ground forces today made public a list of weapons which will triple the fire power of the projected new infantry division.

Fast firing automatic weapons, recoil-less rifles, and heavy caliber artillery have been added to give the division more punch, a ground forces spokesman said in response to an inquiry.

The new division will carry into combat 5 per cent more Garand rifles, almost twice as many .45 caliber automatic pistols, and more than double the carbines of the old division, the spokesman said. The sharp increase in sidearms results from the addition of more artillerymen, tankmen, and officers to the division.

More Self-Sufficient

The reorganization of the infantry divi­and new divisions follows:

OLD NEW

Garand rifles........................................ 6,327.... 6,668

Sniper rifles............................................... 81......... 81

Automatic rifles [BAR]........................... 405....... 409

Automatic pistols, .45 cal................       1,329     2,483

Carbines, .30 cal.................................. 2,820.... 7,031

Submachine guns, .45 cal...................................... 612

Bazookas................................................ 354..... 530*

57 mm. recoil-less gun............................................ 81

75 mm. recoil-less gun............................................ 57

105 mm. howitzer..................................... 36......... 54

155 mm. howitzer..................................... 12......... 18

75 mm. gun.................................... ... 64                  

57 mm. anti-tank gun...................... 81                       

.30 cal. light machine gun...............          126        228

.30 cal. heavy machine gun.............            72          40

.50 cal. machine gun................................. 99....... 303

60 mm. mortars......................................... 81......... 81

81 mm. mortars......................................... 54......... 40

Hvy. mortars, 4.2 in. [chemical].............................. 24

Light tanks, M-24, 75 mm. gun................................ 9

Tank destroyers, 90 mm. gun....                    27           

Medium tank, M-26, Pershing,

90 mm. gun.......................................................... 123

Heavy tank, M-45, 105 mm.

howitzer.................................................... 27......... 12

Twin 40 mm. anti-aircraft guns.................... 32 f

Quadruple .50 cal. anti-aircraft

guns.....................................................................    32f

which can be fired automatically like a sub­machine gun would not alter the equipment table for a new 9-man squad provided by the new division plan. The old division has a 12- man squad.

The modified Garand is being tested and has not yet been accepted as standard equip­ment, Army ordnance officers said. The gun is being converted into a rapid-fire, automatic rifle which could fire a clip of 15 or more rounds instead of its present magazine of eight cartridges.

The present semi-automatic .30 caliber Garand rifle requires a separate trigger pull for each shot fired. The automatic Garand would fire bursts with a single trigger pull.

The ground forces spokesman said the nine man infantry squad would consist of eight riflemen and a corporal gunner carrying a BAR Browning automatic rifle. One of the riflemen would assist the BAR gunner and another would carry a grenade launcher for his rifle. If the automatic Garand is accepted, the squad sergeant may be permitted to carry a .45 caliber automatic pistol or some lighter sidearm, it was reported.

The Army said the weapons organization for the recently revamped armored division has not been completed and will be an­nounced later.

V-l Rocket From Navy Submarine

Chicago Tribune, February 27.—The Navy has fired successfully a German V-l rocket from the deck of a submarine, unofficial re­ports said today. The Navy Department re­fused to answer questions concerning the ex- •periment which is reported to have been con­ducted at Point Mogu, Calif., the Navy’s rocket testing station.

Spectators on shore witnessed the flight of the Nazi “buzz bomb” along the coast last week, according to the reports. The use of hard hitting rockets was just getting into full swing when the war ended. Packing a tre­mendous wallop without recoil difficulties, rockets have been considered logical weapons for new type submarines, and the test has been anticipated for some time.

Fleet Admiral Nimitz, in discussing weap­ons of the future recently, suggested subma­rines some day might be equipped to launch guided missiles with atomic warheads.

Foreign Scientists in America

Army Ordnance, Jan.-Feb.—Continua­tion of the joint State-War-Navy program for utilizing the scientific knowledge and skill of selected German and Austrian specialists in science and technology to further Ameri­can military research and development re­cently has been announced. It is planned within the next several months to bring to the United States additional volunteer Aus- tro-German specialists to join the more than 200 brought over since the end of the war in Europe.

GREAT BRITAIN Equipment for Greece and Turkey

New York Times, March 18.—The Gov­ernment revealed today in a written Parlia­mentary reply that British military, naval, and air equipment supplied to Turkey since the end of the war included:

Two destroyers, one submarine, five mine­sweepers, four motor minesweepers and other naval items with a total value of more than $10,000,000; 400 planes and “small quanti­ties” of equipment for the Greek Army, “mainly spares for materials supplied during the war.”

Britain also provided a number of mili­tary, naval, and air advisers.

National Service Bill

London Times, March 13.—The National Service Bill, which was published yesterday, proposes a scheme of compulsory service in the armed forces for all male British subjects between the ages of 18 and 26. The scheme will operate from January 1, 1949, when the present transitional arrangements end, and National Service men, as they are to be called, will serve 18 months whole-time and five and a half years in the Reserve—a total of seven years in all. The Bill will run until January 1, 1954, unless a later date is fixed by Order in Council.

The Bill is flexible in its proposals for serv­ice and the way in which it may be given. Provision is made for deferments, and it is already known that all underground miners will be deferred. Doctors and dentists, if about to undergo some special professional

training, will be able to defer their call up to any time before they reach the age of 30. Apprentices, learners, and students may make special requests for deferment, and, in the case of apprentices, the authorities will need to be satisfied that a genuine appren­ticeship exists.

A man may apply to enter upon his 18 months’ service at the age of 17J if this will help in any training or .career which he may intend taking up after his service. This pro­vision may help particularly those who are going to a university.

The Bill also provides that the services may themselves shorten a man’s whole-time service if it is clear before the 18 months are up that he has reached a point where neither he nor the service will benefit by further training. But a general reduction in the whole-time period can only be made by Order in Council.   .

Canadian Arctic Airfields

New York Herald Tribune, March 13.— The Canadian Department of National De­fense disclosed tonight that four sub-Arctic air bases built secretly during the war for use in ferrying fighter planes to England are op­erational and are being used to map from the air the terrain of Hudson Bay and the Arctic frontier.

The four bases, which comprised what was known as the plane-ferrying Crimson Route, are situated at The Pas, Manitoba; Fort Churchill, on the southwestern shore of Hud­son Bay; Southampton Island, at the north­ern opening of Hudson Bay; and Baffin Land, between the Hudson Bay region and Green­land.

The United States built the bases at the time when German submarines were sinking Allied shipping so fast that it was feared re­placements of fighter planes that were being sent to Great Britain by ship might be cut off.

Canada has paid the United States about $20,000,000 for the bases, it was learned to­night, and had made two of them, those at The Pas and Fort Churchill, operational air fields of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The other two are under Canada’s Department of Transport, which kept them open last win­ter in some of the coldest weather in a dec­ade.

Canadian defense chiefs believe that the bases in addition to their present mapping functions in the Arctic, would enable the British Royal Air Force to reinforce the R.C.A.F. with defensive fighter squadrons overnight in the event of an enemy invasion across the North Pole basin.

During the war only a few fighter planes flew the Crimson Route bases to England by way of Greenland and Iceland. This was be­cause Allied naval and air action ended the submarine menace almost completely after mid-1944 and also because it was feared that most fighter pilots lacked sufficient knowl­edge of navigation to fly the route alone.

In recent months, however, a Canadian of­ficer, Wing Commander R. C. McClure, has developed a new method of simplified navi­gation in the northern regions which is being taught to British and Canadian pilots and is being widely adopted by other nations.

The Canadian government, which has urged Soviet Russia to participate in the in­ternational development of the Arctic to a greater extent, flew a military group includ­ing Major Ivan Pavshukov, Soviet assistant military attache to Fort Churchill a week ago for an inspection of the air base and the cold-weather testing station.

Australian Guided Weapons Tests

London Times, March 12.—-The scope of the experiments which are to be conducted from the rocket-testing range at Mount Eba, South Australia, is not to be confined to rockets, but will include the testing of jet- propelled supersonic aircraft guided by radar. The ultimate object will be to find ways of directing atomic warheads with deadlier ac­curacy and increased range against a distant enemy.

The Defense Minister, Mr. Dedman, in a statement today, emphasized that in any future wars Australia could be subjected to attack by guided weapons possessing greater range and destructive power than VI and V2. Should Australia be forced to defend herself against aggression, it was imperative that she should attain and maintain the technical initiative in the development of scientific weapons. It was now part of the Govern­ment’s policy for Australia to make a larger

contribution towards the defense of the British Commonwealth.

Navy Estimates

London Times, March 5.—-The Navy Estimates for 1947-48 (Stationery Office, 3s. 6d.) published yesterday show a net total of £196,700,000. This is £58,375,000 less than the original Estimates for last year, to which were later added a Supplementary Estimate of £20,000,000.

The Estimates, as issued, contain rather more detail than a year ago, but there are still some noteworthy omissions, and a num­ber of features which seem to call for ex­planation. No one of the “explanatory notes” with which the whole document is interleaved, for instance, gives any hint of the size of the fleet for which provision is made, and that fundamental factor has not been made public at all since the conclusion of the war, now nearly two years ago; and it is difficult to understand without explana­tion why it should be necessary to spend £1,286,000 more on “Guns, torpedoes, mines, ammunition, &c.,” this year than last.

The largest decreases, of course, are in Votes 1 (Pay and Wages) and 2 (Victual­ing). The total numbers in Vote A come down from 490,000 last year to 191,000, and there is a corresponding decrease in the smaller number of Royal Marine Police. This enables Votes 1 and 2 to be reduced from a total of £106,925,000 last year to £56,638,000. Vote 3 (Medical services) is correspondingly reduced by some 10 per cent to £1,680,000. The next four votes, however, all show increases, but as they pro­vide for civilians employed on fleet services, for education, for scientific services, and for Naval Reserves—into which many formerly serving have now passed—that was to be expected, as was the increase in Vote 13 for the “non-effected services” of retired pay and pensions.

Shipbuilding Vote

Vote 8, for shipbuilding, shows as a whole a reduction from the £84,496,000 of last year, but only to £75,107,000; and one sec­tion of it, Vote 8, I, for personnel in dock­yards, shows an increase of £700,000. This would appear to be chiefly due to higher wages of the working men, for the item of “Salaries and Allowances” shows a decrease and it is hardly to be supposed that the labor force in the dockyards has increased since last year. But material costs of dock­yard work are up by over £8,000,000, and cost of contract work is up by just under £2,000,000; no details of these are given. Vote 9, for naval armaments, is up by £2,737,000 on a total of £12,645,000. Nearly £1,000,000 seems to be accounted for by wage increases, but, as already noted, actual weapons and munitions at £4,650,000 call for an increase of £1,286,000 over last year’s figure. Works and buildings, at home and abroad, call for an increase of £700,000, but this would seem to be chiefly on account of deferred repairs and maintenance, though £300,000 has been provided for land pur­chase. The cost of the Admiralty office shows a welcome saving of £394,000, which will doubtless be carried further as terminal liabilities are liquidated; and there is a charge in respect of merchant ship-building —presumably also chiefly a terminal charge —of £1,666,000.

R.A.F. Estimates

Manchester Guardian, March 5.-—The net total of the Air Estimates for 1947-48, pub­lished today, is £214,000,000, and the maxi­mum numbers of officers and airmen to be retained are: for Air Force service 370,000, for Royal Air Force Reserve and Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 60,000, and for the Auxiliary Air Force 12,000.

The main problem confronting the Air Council, the White Paper continues, will be the preservation of the structure and con­tinuity of the Royal Air Force. Since the end of the war in Europe the R.A.F. has been releasing at an increasing speed a large pro­portion of the intakes of the war years, be­ginning, under the system of release by age and length of service, with the most ex­perienced.

Losses to be Made Good

These losses have to be made good by the output of the training establishments. “But the process is a race against time, since if the output is too small the training establish-

ments themselves cannot be manned and a vicious circle is created, diminishing training output producing a diminishing training potential.”

A special committee on man-power econ­omy has been appointed to examine whether economies can be found in more radical changes in method or organization. But im­provement of efficiency, it is pointed out, must primarily depend on regaining greater stability and a high average of skill and ex­perience. For that reason it is essential to maintain an adequate flow of volunteers for regular engagments, and above all the force needs the re-engagements of the greatest possible number of war-time en­trants who, having learned their trades, can add to efficiency immediately. The numbers of men with previous experience who have re-engaged have not, it is stated, come up to expectations.

Recruiting is to be reopened in the coming year for the general reserve of the R.A.F.V.R with the aim, in the first instance, of pro­viding flying training for pilots and naviga­tors released since the war. University air squadrons have been formed as units of the R.A.F.V.R. at eleven universities. The ceil­ing of the Air Training Corps has been set at

75,0          cadets.

The following table shows the maximum strength estimated for 1947-48 against that for 1946-47:

Army Estimates

London Times, March 4.—Army Esti­mates for 1947-48 published yesterday show a decrease of £294,000,000 as against those of 1946^47, net expenditure for each year being respectively £388,000,000 and £682,000,000, the latter excluding the sup­plementary estimate (Stationery Office, 2s. 6d). In a memorandum issued by the Secre­tary of State for War relating to the Esti­mates (Cmd. 7052, 2d.) it is pointed out that “the real decrease is larger than is shown by the comparison of the Estimates for the two years because in 1947—48 provision is made for payments to the Ministry of Supply and other departments for stores and services, the charges for which in 1946-47 were borne finally on the votes of those departments.”

The Estimates include £45,000,000 for ter­minal charges connected with the war, and a net sum of about £15,000,000 is included for the maintenance of the Polish Forces pend­ing repatriation or resettlement.

The number of men on the establishment for 1947-48 is given as 1,210,000, and those for the previous year as 2,950,000 excluding a supplementary estimate (65,000).

FRANCE

New Unit

La Revue Maritime, January.—The cx- German aviation tender Immelmann, ceded to us by the British Navy, will be re-armed and incorporated in the aircraft carrier divi­sion.

The Minister of Armies has decided to name the ship Commandant Robert Giraud in memory of Lieutenant Commander Giraud, executive officer of the Bison, who was mortally wounded by a Stuka bomb which struck the ship on May 3, 1940, during the evacuation of Namsos.

Air Borne Equipment from British

London Times, March 8.—The French purchase from the British Government of arms and other materials, including trans­port aircraft and gliders, to complete the equipment of an airborne division, is an­nounced here. Certain financial agreements and arrangements have still to be made.

It is disclosed that negotiations for the purchase of the equipment have been in progress since January of last year, when the French Government asked if the British Government could help them to equip the airborne division they were forming. In re­sponse to a War Office suggestion that a French military mission should go to Eng­land to study the question, General Reg- nault, with 11 other officers, paid a visit of two weeks. Since then the matter has been taken further by General de Lattre de

Tassigny, Chief of the General Staff, and by General Dimitz, in command of airborne training, both of whom went to England at the invitation of the War Office. There is, therefore, nothing particularly new or secret about the purchase.

The French have wished to make as much use as possible of their own production facilities, and their orders will be limited to specialized equipment not at present obtain­able from their own resources. Any idea that the deal involved the standardization of French and British military equipment is described as entirely false, and a spokesman of the Ministry of National Defence today formally denied that any measure of, standardization—as was suggested in a recent report by the Paris correspondent of Pravda—was contemplated.

The British Army Airborne Training Unit which is now in France is here, it is em­phasized, only to lend any help and advice that the use of new arms and technical methods may require in a field in which the French Army has so far had little experience.

Operation of Ex-German U-2326

La Revue Maritime, December 1946.—The ex-German Submarine 2326, after trials at Lorient, got under way 16 September, 1946, for La Pallice. The 23rd it left La Pallice for Casablanca.

After simulated attack by the destroyer Iloche, the 2326 proceeded submerged under Schnorchel as far as Casablanca, 35 hours in all, under convoy of the submarine Doris, at the surface.

The submerged craft communicated with the Doris by the radar antenna (Runddipel) located at the extremity of the Schnorchel.

No discomfort was experienced by the crew, despite variations in pressure occur­ring when the air shaft of the Schnorchel closed due to waves or variations in im­mersion.

The motors functioned admirably. With a sea no. 7 the sub takes in about 500 litres of water every ten minutes, despite the auto­matic closing of the Schnorchel, but this water is readily flushed through the bilges.

The captain pointed out the new problem created by long crossings in submerged posi­tion, since astronomical observations are not feasible.

(Ed. Note : See report of loss of XJ-2326 in March Insti­tute.)

Future Naval Officers Serve as En­listed Men

I-a Revue Maritime, December 1946.—• The 80 future pupils of the Naval Academy and the 14 future engineering officers of the class of 1946 (entering) will serve a cruise (15 November-1 February, 1947) as enlisted men aboard small ships: light cruisers, destroyers, sub-chasers, and escort vessels. The former will serve as quartermasters’ mates, the second as machinists’ mates, and will be billeted in the various crews at the ratio of 2 or 3 at most per unit.

The purpose of this cruise is to put the cadets in frank and direct contact with the crews, to teach them to know the men they are to command, to suppress prejudices, to destroy certain apprehensions and favor the development of mutual confidence.

It is likewise necessary that the cadets be­come acquainted with the reactions of the crew in their relations with officers and petty officers.

For this reason, the cadets should be sailors among the others.

Moreover, the cruise should have value in character formation and should constitute a test calling for sturdy qualities of endurance and energy.

U.S.S.R.

Antarctic Expedition

New York Times, February 27.—The Moscow press reported today that a Soviet whaling expedition that set out for the Antarctic last December was now operating inside the polar circle and that its work was “progressing satisfactorily” despite change­able weather.

A radio dispatch from V. I. Voronin, com­mander of the expedition, reported that whales were being taken daily.

Announcement of the departure of the Russian expedition shortly before Christmas aroused considerable speculation because of growing scientific interest in the Antarctic, due in part to the belief that uranium—raw

material of the atomic bomb—might be found in .the polar wastes.

The Russian expedition was described in Moscow dispatches at the time of departure as consisting of nine whaling vessels and a supply ship. Little has been published con­cerning its whereabouts or activities.

Stalin Resigns as Minister of Armed Forces

New York Times, March 4.—Prime Minister Stalin, after six years as commander of the vast Russian military organization, resigned his post as Minister of the Armed Forces today because of the “excessive pres­sure of his main work” and handed the job to Gen. Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin, the Moscow radio said tonight.

The change in the top military command came as the Soviet Union gradually was de­emphasizing military activities and de­mobilizing millions of soldiers to enter in­dustry and speed up the country’s current Five-Year Plan. Prime Minister Stalin stepped out of the military office only a week before the four-power Foreign Ministers’ Conference was scheduled to open in Mos­cow.

Mr. Stalin, who retains his post as Prime Minister, also will continue as a member of the Presidium, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist party, head of the powerful Central Committee of the Communist party, head of the powerful Politburo and of the Orgburo, the latter the supervising organization of the Communist party.

General Bulganin, who succeeds Prime

Minister Stalin as Minister of the Armed Forces, was named the chief Vice Minister of the Armed Forces a year ago when the Rus­sian military machine was reorganized under a unified command with four branches —land, navy, air and rear.

General Bulganin is a former vice chair­man of the Council of People’s Commissars, actually vice premier of the U.S.S.R., and rose spectacularly in the Soviet army during the war. He was regarded as a skilled nego­tiator and administrator rather than a great soldier.

As head of the Moscow City Soviet during the war he specialized in public affairs, al­though he was a member of the military council of the city when the Germans were repulsed almost at the city’s gates during the bitter defense of the capital in 1941. The following year he was appointed a lieutenant general in the Soviet army.

Soviet Navy

La Revue Maritime, December 1946.— Very few reports have been published by the Soviet Navy. It does not appear, however, that the Soviet Navy has received appreci­able reinforcements in new ships beyond those ex-German units delivered to Russia under the Potsdam agreement. Neither the

40.0           ton battleship Sovietski Soyus, nor any of the 4 cruisers (Pelropavlovsk, ex­German Lutzow, and the 3 Kirov type) which, according to the Swedish Marinkal- ender, are being completed at Leningrad, have yet entered service.

If one may believe the various informa­tions from the naval journals, the Soviet Navy in various theatres is made up of the following:

Baltic: 1 old battleship; 2 cruisers of 9,000 tons, type Kirov; 1 ex-German cruiser of

6.0              tons; about 20 destroyers, including 10 ex-German; about 30 submarines, of which 10 are ex-German.

Black Sea: 1 old battleship, the Sevastopol;

2 cruisers of the Kirov class; 1 old cruiser; about 10 destroyers; about 15 submarines.

Arctic: 1 battleship of 30,000 tons, the Arkangelsk (ex-H.M.S. Royal-Sovereign)-, 1 old cruiser of 7,000 tons; the Murmansk (ex-U. S. Milwaukee)-, about 6 destroyers, a few submarines.

Far-East: 1 or 2 cruisers of Kirov class; about 10 destroyers; a rather large number of submarines.

Besides these vessels, the Soviet Navy has a considerable number of escort and auxiliary craft.

OTHER COUNTRIES GERMANY

All Air Force Equipment Destroyed

New York Herald Tribune, March 16.— Berlin, March 15.—Germany’s once mighty air force, including planes, engines and general wartime aviation equipment, has been destroyed completely in all four occupation zones, according to a report of the Armed Forces Division of the American Military Government issued today.

Officials of the Armed Forces Division emphasized that the semi-annual report on demilitarization given by Russia, Great Britain, France and the United States showed that all four Allies had been zealous in removing Germany’s equipment for waging aggressive war. The Americans, in their zone, have gone so far as to convert one-time military airfields back to agricul­ture. Four thousand German planes captured by the Americans have been blown up, as have 30,000 engines.

Lieutenant Colonel Beverly E. Steadman, chief of the Air Forces branch of the Armed Forces Division, said that the four powers are working on stringent controls to prevent any future German blitzkrieg. At the same time it is hoped that means can be devised for Germany to become a link in the world’s peace-time air lines. This could be done, in the opinion of experts here, even though Germany may be temporarily restricted from having any civil aviation of its own.

Germany, because of its central position in Europe, can develop into an important air­line servicing center, Colonel Steadman pointed out. It can develop its airfields and aviation repair shops and perfect landing in­strument facilities and in this way play an important part in world aviation.

The co-operation of the four occupying powers on civil aviation in Germany has already produced substantial results, accord­ing to the A. M. G. For instance, a committee

f

W¹*

I

i

on flying safety for the Greater Berlin area has adopted uniform regulations and estab­lished airdrome traffic zones and air traffic rules, thus helping to promote air safety.

THE NETHERLANDS

La Revue Maritime, December 1946.—An ambitious program is under way in Holland. Within 10 years the Dutch will possess:

Eight cruisers, 4 aircraft carriers, 36 destroyers (6 of which are already in service), 3 repair ships, and 3 tankers, designed to make up in all 3 rapid “Task Forces.”

It is the intention of the Dutch Navy to acquire from Great Britain 1 light aircraft carrier, 1 cruiser, and 4 destroyers. The other vessels will be built in Dutch yards. In the framework of this program are the 2 cruisers of 8,500 tons abandoned on the ways in May, 1940; the plans of these vessels have been modified; their artillery will be entirely AA.

In 1941 the Netherlands Navy bought the British escort aircraft carrier Nair ana. This ship, which will serve for the training of per­sonnel, has been sent with most of the Dutch fleet to Indonesia.

NORWAY Atom Bomb Proof Plant

New York Times, February 6.—-What is called the world’s first atom-proof factory is now being built at Rjukan by the Norsk Hydro Company, producers of saltpeter and heavy water.

Many of Norway’s leading engineers are working on the construction of the enormous underground plant, expected to be complete in two years, whose cost is estimated at 70,000,000 kroner [about $14,000,000]. It is said that the plant will be able to resist every type of bomb so far invented.

TURKEY Naval Strength

Morskoi Sbornik, July, 1946, by R. Adm. Shvede.—After the first World War, and the transformation of the country into a bour­geois republic, Turkey completely reor­ganized its naval forces and included in their component a fairly numerous array of light surface and submarine craft. In the develop­ment of its fleet, Turkey in recent decades followed the example of the “axis” powers— Italy and Germany—but more recently, Great Britain also. The ships of the Turkish fleet at the beginning of 1946 are indicated in the following table:

Class of Ship                        Number of Units

in Commission

Battleship cruiser                       1

Squadron destroyers                   7

Submarines                             11

Old light cruisers                       2

Patrol ships                               7

Mine layers                               9

Mine sweepers                           5

Torpedo craft                          17

Patrol boats                                        30 (about)

Net barrier layers                       2

Auxiliary ships                          9

Battle cruiser. As seen in the table, the Turks have only one large unit, the Javuz (formerly the German Goeben, somewhat obsolete). Its features are: displacement (1): 23,000 tons; artillery, ten 280 mm. guns, eight 88 mm. and twelve 40 mm. A. A. guns; speed, 26 knots.

Squadron destroyers. Before the first World War, the basic orders for construction of destroyers for Turkey were placed in German yards; after that war, 4 nearly identical sister ships were ordered in Italy and launched in 1931. On the eve of the second World War, Turkey ordered 4 squadron destroyers in Great Britain (displacement 1360 tons; four 120 mm. guns; one 76 mm. A.A. guns; eight A.A. automatic guns; eight 533 mm. tor­pedo tubes; speed 34J knots). These de­stroyers were launched in 1941, but some of them were used during the war by the British fleet. At the beginning of 1946, 3 of them were returned to Turkey: Demirhisar, Sul- tanhisar, and Muavenet.

Submarines. The first Turkish submarines were built according to German and Italian plans. Finally, on the eve of the second World War, 4 medium craft were ordered in Great Britain. Three of these are now in the Turkish fleet: Burak Reis, Murat Reis, and Orug Reis (launched in 1940) features: 683/856 tons; one 76 mm. gun, one A.A. gun; five 533 mm. torpedo tubes, 4 forward and 1 aft; 13.7/9.0 knots. According to unofficial data, a fourth craft was transferred to the

Turks by the British. This is a medium sub, with 6 torpedo tubes of 533 mm.

Construction of new airdromes. According to communications of the Turkish press, American technical experts have visited areas in Turkey where great airdromes of in­ternational significance are being planned. The new airdromes will be built at the follow­ing points: Ankara, Istanbul, Erzurum, Izmir, Adana, Elaziz, Afyon Karahisar, and Samsun. All these airdromes will have ex­treme operational strategic importance.

AVIATION Shaping Sonic Plane

New York Times March 16, by Hanson W. Baldwin.—The major obstacle to piloted supersonic flight is the development of a suitable aircraft structure.

The corollary problems of high speed flight —perfection of jet engines, development of suitable guns, bombs, rockets, radios, navi­gation equipment, etc.-—are immense and complicated. But to build aircraft structures which are strong enough to withstand the giant forces of supersonic speed, and which at the same time can be controlled at trans­sonic and supersonic speeds and can land and take off safely, is the greatest challenge now facing the air forces and the aircraft industry.

That man is still rather far from a piloted practicable craft that will fly at such speeds seems more and more clear as new problems develop with continuing research. Rockets, projectiles and missiles—all of them un­piloted—have long traveled at supersonic speeds, of course, but even now, the problem of controlling them automatically or by radio, once they have been launched, is a major one.

But even more major is the problem of devising a supersonic or transsonic piloted plane. Man has not yet flown at the speed of sound; we are still exploring the sub-sonic ranges. But the real problems start once the speed of sound is reached, and it is in the so- called transsonic ranges (from about 600 miles an hour to 900 or 1,000) that “compres­sibility” builds up, tremendous vibrations in the plane’s structure ensue, the pilot cannot control the ship and all sorts of unpredictable things happen.

Models in Structural Tests

Once the plane has passed through the transsonic zone and is traveling at real supersonic speeds, the problems are believed to be simpler.

All sorts and shapes of plane structures (mostly in model form) are being tested in the Langley Field NACA wind tunnel laboratories and elsewhere in attempts to burst through the sonic barrier.

The famous swept-back wing in V or almost arrowhead shape gives promise, but this wing structure, while it makes a plane easier to control at very high speeds and very greatly reduces drag, gives poor control at low speeds and necessitates dangerously high landing speeds.

All wings for high speed aircraft are very thin, but the shapes differ radically. A rec­tangular wing with the Ackeret tip, a peculiar-shaped edge, gives promise of meet­ing the problems of truly supersonic flight and at the moment seems more promising than even the swept-back or swept-forward type.

However, an even more radical design, the so-called arrowhead flying wing, may be more aerodynamically perfect at high speeds, al­though the major problem of handling such an aircraft safely at lower speeds and landing and taking off still remains.

Jet Engines Solving Power Even when the wing problem is licked—- and at present it is still in the wind tunnel and model stage—the problem of controls, which in the words of the experts are “ter­rific,” must be solved. This can be resolved to some extent by sweeping back the tail. But just how to meet all these problems is still in the unknown realm of tomorrow.

Jet engines now exist which can push planes into the transsonic and, if they hold together, into the supersonic zones. They are not finished engines; there are many “bugs” still to be removed.

Reliability must be improved; the “buckets” of some of the turbines now in use in the P-80 drop off apparently due to metallurgical failures, and the United States must spend a great deal more time on main­taining its jet engines than the British do. But the jet engine problem is being licked.

But power plant development has gone far ahead of aircraft structure development, and the equipment that makes a fighting plane of military use—guns, bombs, rockets, radio, navigational equipment, etc.—is still geared to the air’s horse-and-buggy age of sub-sonic speeds.

So great are all these problems that some observers believe the principal supersonic craft of the future will be unpiloted au­tomatically controlled missiles. But the scientists and romanticists of flight are unconvinced and are still continuing their experiments in the unknown.

Helicopters as Plane Guards

New York Herald Tribune, March 23.— The Navy plans to replace destroyers with helicopters for “plane guard” duty with air­craft carriers at sea.

This was disclosed yesterday at the Park Lane Hotel by Lieutenant Joseph Rullo, Naval Aviator, who acted as observer on a series of mid-ocean air-sea rescue try-out flights by a four-place Sikorsky S-51 helicop­ter with the carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt during recent fleet maneuvers in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Lieutenant Rullo and D. D. (Jimmy) Viner, Sikorsky chief test pilot and ranking rotary wing airman of the world, were credited officially with rescuing six Navy airmen whose craft fell into the sea.

As a result of this convincing demonstra­tion—which included the rescue of one pilot whose life “couldn’t have been saved by any other means”—Lieutenant Rullo said the Navy intends, as soon as possible, to equip each of its carriers with a rescue helicopter. When this is done, he added, the destroyer that traditionally has been assigned to trail every carrier and attempt to pick up pilots who land in the water, will be relieved of this responsibility and assigned to other duties.

Saw Plane Start Stall

Mr. Viner and Lieutenant Rullo described their helicopter rescue experiences for re­porters prior to a luncheon given the two airmen in honor of their feats by officials of United Aircraft Corporation and its Sikorsky Aircraft Division. Other guests included Captain J. P. W. Vest, of the Roosevelt, and

Commander Merle Macvaine, of the 3d Naval District.

In the case of the “otherwise certain fatality” which the S-51 had averted, Lieu­tenant Rullo said he and Mr. Viner were trailing the carrier at 200 feet altitude and slightly to the starboard side in order to stay clear of the landing pattern of the carrier’s planes when they saw one of them stall and start spinning toward the sea from low altitude. Mr. Viner, he said, had the helicop­ter “on its way to the crash before it actually happened.”

Crewman August J. Rinella perished in the crash, Lieutenant Rullo said, but the pilot, Lieutenant Commander George R. Stablein, came to the surface. He was so dazed and injured that he did not inflate his Mae West life jacket; he had sunk twice in the heavy sea and was going down a third time when Mr. Viner stopped the S-51 a few feet above and Lieutenant Rullo threw the drowning man the thin steel cable and rescue belt harness attached to the helicopter’s hydrau­lic hoisting winch.

Nose Wheel in Water

“Commander Stablein was so far gone that he merely clutched the line frantically with both hands and hung on, too dazed to put the rescue belt around himself,” Lieutenant Rullo said. “All this had happened in sec­onds—so quickly, in fact, that the destroyer standing plane guard for the Roosevelt had not yet even been able to change course toward the crash scene.”

Mr. Viner, it was discovered later, had descended so low to effect the rescue that the S-51’s nose wheel actually was in the water. As he lifted it to a safer distance above the waves, Lieutenant Rullo started the winch to hoist the 230-pound airman, with his drenched flying gear, to a point where he could be pulled in the helicopter’s open door. Just as the 145-pound Rullo got his arms around him and started to pull him aboard, the cable wound one of Commander Stab- lein’s thumbs onto the winch drum and he let go his hold, nearly dragging his rescuer out of the cabin.

“Jimmy saw what was happening,” Lieu­tenant Rullo said, “and tilted the helicopter sharply to starboard, literally tossing Com-

mander Stablein into the cabin on top of me. We got him into the back seat and hovered around for a while trying to locate the other man before Jimmy set the S-51 down on the carrier and turned our injured passenger over to the doctors, less than five minutes after the crash.”

Just “Routine Pickups”

News of the rescue was relayed im­mediately to Vice-Admiral William H. P. Blandy, fleet commander, aboard the flag­ship Missouri, who promptly sent back the prized and rarely-given Navy commenda­tion, “Very well done.” The S-51’s other rescues, on one of which another Sikorsky pilot, Jackson E. Beighle, substituted for Mr. Viner, were described as “routine pick­ups” of airmen who had made normal forced landings in the sea.

In addition to its rescue work, the S-51 carried several hundred passengers—in­cluding John N. Brown, Assistant Secretary of Navy for Air, Admiral Blandy and other high-ranking officers—on intra-fleet flights during the maneuvers. Mr. Viner said it made 121 plane guard flights, 123 carrier landings and 101 mail deliveries to the fleet, visiting a dozen vessels in thirty-five min­utes—heretofore a dawn-to-dusk chore for the destroyer used for this work. During the six-week maneuvers, the S-51 was aloft a total of sixty-five hours on thirty-three dif­ferent days, during five of which all other fleet aircraft were grounded because of weather or rough seas.

Developments

Army Ordnance, Jan.-Feb. 1947.—The world’s largest and first twin-engined heli­copter, known as the Navy’s XHJD-1, has been built by the McDonnell Aircraft Cor­poration in collaboration with the Bureau of Aeronautics. Two 450-horsepower Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior engines power the craft’s two lifting rotors which are arranged side by side. The big 40-foot blades turn in opposite directions, making a tail or torque rotor unnecessary. The span from rotor tip to rotor tip is eighty-one feet. The helicopter will cruise at more than 100 miles an hour with a useful load of over 3,000 pounds.

Model Airplane News, April 1947.—

More details and photographs are now available on the long-rumored Curtiss XF15C-1 single seat Navy fighter plane. It is a combination reciprocating-jet engined design with propeller located in the nose and the jet engine in the lower fuselage under­neath the tail. The reciprocating engine is a Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp R-2800 driving a four bladed propeller enclosed in a large spinner. The turbojet unit is a Halford H-1B unit of British design manufactured by Allis-Chalmers. A distinctive feature of the XF15C-1 is the location of the horizontal tail surfaces (believe it or not!) on top of the fin. A tricycle landing gear is used with the nose gear folding rearward and the main gear folding inboard into the wing centersection. The pilot is located in a bubble canopy. Three of the unorthodox fighters have been built for the Navy for experimental purposes and no plans for production have been an­nounced.

Chicago Tribune, March 10.—A specially modified P-80 jet fighter plane is being pre­pared by the Lockheed aircraft company for a renewed attempt this spring upon the world’s absolute speed record, now held by the British at 616 miles an hour. The special plane is being reassembled at the company’s Burbank plant, it was learned today.

The modifications include major changes in the wings’ size and shape and greatly en­larged ducts which will provide the engine with almost double the air available during trials held last year. Lockheed engineers hope these changes will enable the little craft, known to the Lockheed personnel as “Racey,” to achieve the average speed of 621 miles an hour necessary to establish a world mark.

Under international rules by which record attempts are recognized, speed flights must be made at less than 250 feet above the ground. No diving approach is permitted, and no new record is allowed unless it repre­sents an increase of at least five miles an hour above the old—hence the need for averaging at least 621 miles an hour on four laps over the course.

For the record trials a special General Electric turbine engine with turbine com­pressor will be used. Standard versions of this engine deliver 4,000 pounds of thrust.

This may be increased by half again for the record attempt, Lockheed experts said.

The British record was established in a twin-jet Gloucester Meteor modified fighter, fitted with two Rolls-Royce Nene engines each capable of delivering 4,000 pounds of thrust.

British Study Canadian Arctic Tests

New York Herald Tribune, March 10.—- NAMAO, Alberta, March 8.—The British Ministry of Supply has sent a mission here consisting of twenty representatives of the most important companies manufacturing military and naval aircraft in the United Kingdom, it was learned Saturday.

The mission is attached to the winter ex­perimental establishment of the Royal Canadian Air Force, to which also are at­tached units of the British Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy’s fleet air arm. Its mem­bers commute by air between this one-time Indian village, in the Canadian Northwest, and London.

The purpose of the mission is to report directly to the chief aeronautical engineers of the British firms on how their aircraft are functioning in the sub-zero cold of the north­west territory.

The Canadians, who use both British and American aircraft types, are happy to be able to assure that the planes they would use to defend their territory, in the event of an enemy invasion, are entirely suitable for operating in the worst winter weather.

On Tuesday, Canada announced the establishment at Rivers, Manitoba, of a new three-service joint air school, where instruc­tion is to be given in techniques used by British and American forces, so that future Canadian forces will be trained to operate efficiently with the land, sea and air forces of both those nations. The school will stress airborne and air-transport operations.

British to Order Constellations Minus Engines

New York Herald Tribune, March 21.— The British government is about to place an order for more Lockheed Constellation trans­port planes, but will equip them with British-built Bristol Centaurus engines, it was learned today.

The combination of American planes and British engines not only will save Britain dollars, but will give British Overseas Air­ways Corporation a fleet of transports prob­ably slightly superior in performance to Constellations now equipped with standard Wright air-cooled engines. Centaurus en­gines are rated at 2,600 horsepower, com­pared with 2,300 horsepower for the Wrights, and can be fitted into Constellations with only limited modifications.

The move to purchase more American planes and equip them with British recipro­cating engines may be taken as further in­dication that jet transports are still a long way off. The British hold admitted leader­ship in jet-engine design, but they have yet to develop an air-frame design to match the Constellations, the Stratocruisers, the D.C. 6s and the D.C. 4s operating over the North Atlantic.

MERCHANT MARINE U.S. Merchant Marine Cost Handicap

Baltimore Sun, March 25, by Carroll Williams.—Among the factors which darken the outlook for the American merchant marine is rapidly mounting competition, coupled with high construction and operat­ing costs.

Great Britain, reluctant to accept for long a subordinate position as a maritime power, is rushing to completion new ships of special design. Scandinavian yards are especially active in pushing new construction.

As the abnormal cargo movements now offered diminish and as foreign nations get more ships, the United States will inevitably lose its present inflated tramp-ship business because of our cost-of-operating disadvan- * tage in the highly competitive tramper trade.

Generous to Competitors

Under a ship-disposal plan, that recognizes that we have an enormous if none-too- diversified seagoing tonnage, far in excess of our requirements, we have been extremely generous to our competitors. •

We are selling to them at bargain prices tonnages which will ultimately compete with us under conditions decidedly un­favorable to our merchant marine.

The sale of 146 vessels during February brings total transfers under the Merchant Ship Sales Act of 1946 to 1,046.

Transfers Last Month Here is a breakdown of transfers last

During the same period the United States Maritime Commission transferred to United States owners 31 ships.

To date American operators have bought 352 vessels from the Commission; foreign operators, 732.

Decline Between Wars

Between the early nineteen twenties and the early thirties American-flag ships in foreign trade carried approximately 35 per cent of our nation’s exports and imports, compared with about ten per cent carried in ships of American-registry before World War I. Now our vessels carry 75 per cent of the nation’s exports and imports.

In 1927 and 1928 the percentage of exports and imports carried by our own vessels reached 40 per cent. It progressively declined thereafter until in 1939 it was but 22 per cent.

Construction in Two Wars

When, in 1936, the Merchant Marine Act was passed, the percentage of American commerce carried overseas in ships of American registry was 27 per cent, or almost ten points under the average carried in the thirteen years preceding.

The construction program in World War I resulted in the delivery of approximately 6,000,000 tons' deadweight of shipping. During World War II delivery of new ships totaled close to 50,000,000 tons. These figures indicate the relative size of the job we face today in realigning out merchant fleet

as compared with that of the nineteen twenties.

The problem, however, is virtually the same then as now, namely, how to transfer this vast Government-owned armada to private ownership and how to keep it operating at a profit in private hands.

Upon the Congress, with the guidance of the Maritime Commission, rests the re­sponsibility for promoting policies that will allow the American merchant marine to be maintained under private ownership in adequate strength for the nation’s security.

Possibilities of Competition

Uppermost in the minds of those most anxious to maintain a relatively high volume of offshore shipping in vessels of American registry is to what extent American tonnage can compete with foreign-owned bottoms after the early postwar years have passed.

It will obviously depend (1) on the volume of world trade and (2) on the extent to which the American taxpayers are willing to sub­sidize the nation’s merchant fleet.

It is axiomatic that subsidies to American offshore shipping will be required as long as our merchant fleet is unable to compete economically with the fleets of other nations.

Where Subsidy Goes

A subsidy in this field is in reality an in­strument to maintain the high American standards of living.

It does not go to the shipbuilder or the ship operator, but to the American shipyard workers and the American seamen.

The best information available indicates the labor cost of operating an American- owned Liberty ship monthly runs to $11,500; under the Greek flag, $6,300; under the British, $4,300; under the Norwegian, $4,200, and under the Dutch, $4,000.

Expressed in terms, of potential prdfits this means that if an American operator “breaks even” on this basis of labor costs, theoreti­cally a Greek owner would show a profit of $62,400 annually; a British owner, $86,400 and a Norwegian owner, $87,600.

Seamen’s Earnings Compared

An able-bodied seaman aboard an Ameri­can flagship now earns approximately $265

ft

to $275 monthly, including overtime and average penalty payments, as compared with $80 a month prewar.

The tabulation herewith, prepared by the National Federation of American Shipping, shows the big gap between American and foreign over-all monthly wages in one cate­gory:

Able-Bodied Seaman

Est. Total Per Mo. Basic Including Penalty

Particularly, when the conditions under which we operate are evaluated, it will be seen that our national shipping establish­ment is not as formidable as foreign critics contend.

Costs of Construction

A 10,000-ton, 165-knot cargo carrier built in this nation will cost approximately $4,000,000, against $2,000,000 in Great Britain.

The Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s super­liner of 70,000 tons, was built at a cost of $22,700,000. To build a 22,000-ton passenger liner—one third the size of the Queen—in this country would cost approximately $20,000,000.

The operating differential against Ameri­can flagships presents a serious, continuing handicap.

In the field of financing, United States operators are also placed at a disadvantage; British owners, for example, can borrow money with which to build new vessels at 1| per cent.

Interest Rates and Recapture

American operators must pay 35 per cent interest when they purchase “subsidized” ships from the Government.

Shipping laws of the United States call for the recapture of profits accruing to operators in excess of ten per cent. Foreign operators work under no such handicap.

By and large the biggest percentage of our wartime-built shipping comprises Liberty vessels which are deemed ill-suited for most peacetime services.

This narrows down our available com­petitive tonnage to speedier, more economi­cal to operate C-type ships, few in number, Victory ships which are not numerous, and vessels originally designed as troopships.

We are particularly weak in passenger tonnage, being almost entirely dependent on prewar vessels diverted to emergency war service which have been or are being recon­verted to meet a small part of our require­ments in this division. During the war we did not consider postwar needs when we built ships. We devoted our entire ship­building capacity to constructing emergency tonnage best suited to war needs.

It was only in the latter months of the war that we turned a small part of our vast ship­building capacity to the construction of a few vessels suited to operation during the postwar period on some foreign trade routes.

Objection Raised to Subsidy

One ready argument advanced by those who oppose maintenance of a sizable mer­chant marine under the American flag is that it must be subsidized by the Government. In the light of the various handicaps briefly sketched here, it is obvious that some form of Government aid is imperative if our flag is to remain on the high seas.

By far the larger part of the cost of subsidy currently granted to American-flag vessels is returnable to the Government. Conserva­tive estimates indicate that the net cost of subsidizing American ships over a ten-year period will not exceed more than $4,000,000 annually.

Spur to Efficiency Sought

Profits of an American ship must be made out of vessels’ earnings, a provision calcu­lated to stimulate individual initiative and to promote efficient ship operation.

The moderate financial aid granted to American shipping is not a bonus which can

be pocketed by operators or distributed to stockholders. It is plainly aid granted to overcome competitive handicaps.

Operating subsidies, furthermore, are available only to a very limited number of operators engaged on essential foreign trade routes. Vessels engaged in foreign tramping operations are not entitled to subsidies, nor are tank ships.

Britain Led World in ’46 Shipbuilding

New York Times, March 26.—Britain and Northern Ireland produced more than half the world total of merchant ships built during 1946, according to Lloyd’s Register, being published tomorrow.

Excluding ships of less than 100 tons gross, 747 vessels, totaling 2,127,421 tons, were launched. Of these, 1,333,245 tons were from berths in Britain and Northern Ire­land.

The United States produced 501,294 tons, according to the Register, while Sweden was third with 146,875 tons. France, the Nether­lands, Italy and Denmark all showed sub­stantial increases in the amount under con­struction at the beginning of 1947, while the United States was then building at a rate below that of 1946. Only seven vessels of more than 15,000 tons gross were launched in 1946.

Sale of Ships to British

New York Times, March 27.—Formal ap­proval of the immediate cash sale of thirty merchant vessels to the British Government and 107 to ship operators in the United Kingdom was announced here last night by the Maritime Commission.

A spokesman for the commission explained that the 137 vessels, sale of which will return $72,000,000 to the United States Treasury, are among the 306 now in operation by the British on a cash charter arrangement as a result of modification of the original lend- lease agreement.

The remaining 169 ships will be redelivered by Great Britain to this country under a schedule that provides for return of those types in which American operators have expressed interest on or before June 30, 1947. The other types, largely Liberty ships, will be returned at the rate of ten a month.

The latter phase of this redelivery pro­gram will begin in June and will be completed not later than March 31, 1948.

New Ships

New York Times, March 5.—The steam­ship Yaque, first of nine new refrigerated cargo-passenger vessels being built at the Bethlehem-Sparrows Point Shipyard for the United Fruit Company, returned here tonight from her sea trials on the Kent Island course in Chesapeake Bay.

The vessel, which is the “name ship” of a new class of “reefers,” ran her tests success­fully and should be formally delivered to her owners within the next few days.

In her trials today the Yaque was sub­jected to a continuous series of exhaustive tests from dawn to dusk. These involved the measured mile run, including tests for speed and endurance. Trials were also made for the “crash stop” from full ahead to full astern, and vice versa. The ship was also put through steering gear and anchor tests.

Designed to carry bananas and other tropical fruits, the Yaque class ships are single-screw, completely refrigerated, with a cargo capacity of 195,000 cubic feet. They are slightly more than 385 feet long, have a 56-foot beam and a cruising speed of ap­proximately sixteen knots. Each one of the ships will have accommodations for twelve passengers.

The Nautical Magazine, February.—The new Cunard-White Star liner Media, which has just been launched by John Brown & Company of Clydebank, is the first of the new third line of the Cunard-White Star service, the first line being the two “Queens” and the second the Mauretaniaand the new Caronia. She makes a remarkably interesting comparison with ships of the same grade before and after the First World War, the two well-remembered “A” classes. The first were fine-looking two-funnelled ships for the London-St. Lawrence service which had been taken over from the Cairn Line shortly before; all these were sunk by enemy action during the war and were replaced between 1921 and 1925 by the second “A” class, designed for the same service as well as the New York run and inheriting their names. The Media has a length of 540 feet for a

gross tonnage of about 14,000, about 250 passengers in the cabin class only and stowage for 7,000 tons of general cargo. Her geared turbines have a shaft horse power of 13,600 for a service speed of 17 knots.

New York Times, March 23.—The recent launching of the motorship Washington in Saint-Nazaire, France, marked the revival of shipbuilding under auspices of the French Merchant Marine. She was the first ship to go down the ways in France since the country’s liberation.

The Washington, a Diesel-propelled cargo vessel of 10,250 deadweight tons, will be operated by the French Line from Antwerp and northern ports of France to Pacific ports of the United States and Canada. She has a freight capacity of 554,000 cubic feet, of which 120,700 feet are refrigerated space.

Equipped with two engines developing 12,000 horsepower, the vessel will have a speed of seventeen knots. The first of a series of three similar vessels, she will accom­modate twelve passengers.

A spokesman for the line here explained yesterday that the vessel is the third in the company’s history to bear the name Wash­ington. The original was the first mail steamer of the company to sail the North Atlantic in 1864, carrying 160 passengers. The second was built for France after the first World War as part of German repara­tions. She served in the North Pacific serv­ice.

Weekly News Reporter, February 26.— Radar installations in American ships now number seventy-five. Thirty applications for installations were approved by the FCC dur­ing January. The companies using the equip­ment were Standard Oil Company, N. J.; Matson Navigation; American South African Line and American President Lines.

Loran installations by Sperry Gyroscope Company have been made in nine ships. One, the Mormacsaga, is for the American Scantic Line. The others are in three other Moore, McCormack ships, two in Boston trawlers and three in Army transports.

Coast Guard Bulletin, March.—Failure on the part of a Government vessel equipped with radar and manned with competent operators to make use of this equipment while under way in low visibility has been held by a court to be directly contributory to a collision in which the vessel was involved. Article 29 of both International Rules of the Road and Inland Rules of the Road are applicable. This article states that nothing in these rules shall exonerate any vessel, or the owner or master or crew thereof, from the consequences of any neglect of any precau­tion which may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, or by the special circum­stances of the case.

The court has considered the use of radar, where available, as one of the ordinary precautions which must not be neglected under the dictates of rule 29, this being based on the fact that ample demonstration has been made of the usefulness of radar as an anti-collision measure.

500 Foreign Ships Fly Panamanian Flag

New York Times, February 27.—Five hundred seagoing merchantmen aggregating 2,000,000 tons are now registered in Panama, it was reported today. Of these 147 were transferred from the American flag. Numer­ous other small coastwise fishing and pleas­ure craft fly the Panama flag.

Since Panama follows American rules of measurement, American flag vessels may transfer on American tonnage certificates at a cost of $1 per net registered ton. Foreign ships are measured under American rules before matriculation, and the only further charges are 10 cents per net registered ton annually. It is not necessary to enter a Panamanian port to change the flag or to obtain permanent registry.

Ships under the Panama flag operate with almost no restrictions or requirements of manning, security, wages, union agreements, food scales and quarters, licensed officer per­sonnel, or navigation rules and laws. A Panamanian law requiring that 10 per cent of all crews under the Panama flag must be Panamanians is not enforced because suffi­cient seamen are not available.

Masters and other licensed officers are not required to hold Panamanian licenses and virtually all Panamanian merchant marine officers hold American or other foreign tickets. Panama has no adequate inspection service, hence such matters as seaworthiness, qualifications of officers and crews and man­ning scale are largely up to the operators and masters.

It is difficult to determine the number of American-owned ships now operating under the Panama flag inasmuch as many belong to companies incorporated in Panama and showing Panamanian ownership although the capital may be American. Apparently the Panama Government’s interest in ships un­der the Panama flag rests largely with the matriculation fee and subsequent collection of the annual tonnage tax, the latter pres­ently netting $200,000 annually.

Stokehold Tests Show Fuel Saving

New York Times, March 9.—Scientific experiments, carried out in the stokehold of a British tramp steamer, have shown that smoke can be eliminated and coal saved by a simple and inexpensive device. British merchant ships consume about 5,000,000 tons of bunker coal a year. Though not all the coal burned produces smoke, the total saving is considerable.

The story begins in 1941. During the Battle of the Atlantic, the long trails of smoke from the funnels of coal-burning merchant ships made it possible for U-boats to follow a convoy below the horizon without being seen. The Fuel Research Station of the British Department of Scientific and In­dustrial Research was asked by the Ad­miralty to find a method of reducing the smoke. The result was the successful “smoke- eliminator,” afterwards fitted to most British ocean-going coal-burning ships.

Economy of 5 Per Cent

As a result of these trials it has been shown that smoke can be eliminated at sea with a saving of at least 5 per cent in coal or by more than one hundred-weight per ton. A piece of scientific research undertaken en­tirely for wartime purposes proves to be of real value in peace; for these smoke elimina­tors can be fitted in a suitably modified form to land boilers where there is a serious smoke problem.

If the tarry vapors and combustible gases are intimately mixed with air and burned in the furnace as they leave the fuel bed before “cracking” takes place, smoke is prevented and the heat generated by their combustion is efficiently used. In the smoke eliminator, air is therefore admitted over the fire to mix with the volatiles and burn them. A valve is opened after firing and is closed as soon as the smoke indicator shows that the evolution of volatiles has abated.

MISCELLANEOUS Russian Scientists Ahead

Chicago Tribune, March 12, by John Thompson.—Amsterdam, the Netherlands, March 11—Russia has cracked the secret of controlling atomic energy, has manufactured atomic bombs, and now is concentrating its research on an even deadlier weapon, cosmic death rays.

These sensational allegations were made in an article published by De Volksrant, organ of the powerful Netherlands National Catholic party and leading Dutch conserva­tive newspaper. Well informed sources sub­stantiated most 'of the story, which also alleges that:

1.       Soviet scientists have constructed atomic bombs four times heavier than the bomb the Americans dropped at Bikini, although not necessarily any deadlier.

Turn to a Different Atom

2.       Having learned of the mistakes made by Americans in pioneering work at Oak Ridge, Tenn., the Soviet bomb experimentation now is focused on splitting the protactinium atom instead of the uranium isotope.

3.       Their top secret atomic energy plant is in the Lake Baikal area of eastern Siberia, in the midst of the central Mongolian desert.

4.       Thousands of German nuclear physi­cists and other scientists, forced as paid slave laborers to serve the Kremlin, are employed on the atomic project, which dwarfs the American atomic plant at Oak Ridge.

300 Reported Killed

5.       Last April, 300 persons were killed at Atomgrad, closely guarded center of research on the northern shore of Lake Baikal, when an accidental chain reaction released deadly radio-active rays which penetrated steel and concrete and even underground water and tanks and sent thousands fleeing in panic.

6.       Closely guarded research into radio­active possibilities of powerful cosmic rays is going on at a center in the Pamir area of central Asia and in the Himalayan moun­tains.

Slaves Build Research Center

The De Volksrant article, which was based on a compilation of reports from scientific sources in Stockholm, Amsterdam, Vienna, Budapest, and Spain, added:

“After America dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August, 1945, Russia put 400,000 slave laborers to work building Atomgrad, and hundreds of millions of rubles were spent to make it more advanced than

American atomic research centers.

“Thousands of secret police, concrete pill­boxes, and guns guard a radius of 155 miles around Atomgrad, or Atomograd, as it is sometimes called. Many of the installations are underground.”

(Editor’s Note: Note “sensational allegations.”)

Marine Journal, February.—Mine peril still very acute—mostly in Mediterranean. 131 ships lost through striking mines since end of war—95 damaged. 45 total losses above 500,Tgr. 64 large ships damaged from contact with mines. Losses about even with period following World War I, although mines are more deadly.