This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected. Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies. Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue. The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.
United States............................................................................................................. 1188
Navy Takes over Army “Fleet”—Byrd Expedition Cancelled—- Germ Warfare—Conolly Advocates Strength—Defense Management Committee—New Munitions Board Head
Great Britain................................................................................................................. 1191
Amethyst Escapes—Hong Kong Strengthened—Navy May Man Coalships
USSR........................................................................................................................ 1194
Submarines in Arctic
China—India—Scandinavia
■ J
* B-36 Probe—Tactical Air Force—Jets Refueled in Flight—Comet
Tested—Air Operations in Malaya
Bids on New Merchant Type—Grain Storage in Ships—lie de France
Aeroballistic Range—Rocket Tests at 75 Miles
UNITED STATES Navy Takes over Army Fleet
New York Times, Aug. 2.—-The Army’s “fleet,” consisting of 320 ocean-going vessels, will be transferred as a unit to the Navy starting in October, under orders issued today by the Secretary of Defense, Louis Johnson.
The transfer was compared in importance as part of the unification program with an earlier order by former Defense Secretary James Forrestal abolishing separate air transportation services and placing them under the Air Force.
The Navy will combine its own and the Army Sea Transport Services under a new military Sea Transportation Service. It will be headed by an admiral, yet to be named, and directed by the Chief of Naval Operations.
The Army’s control thereafter will be confined to all joint facilities involved in land transportation, including highway, railway, pipeline and inland waterway facilities, assigned to it by a similar order last March 15.
New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 17.— Rear Admiral William M. Callaghan, chief of the recently-established Unified Military Sea Transportation Service, said today that the Navy’s pending take-over of all Army ocean transportation would not jeopardize the jobs of nearly 11,000 civilians who are now operating the latter system.
He also gave assurance that the amalgamation will not affect the business of private shipyards engaged in periodic overhaul and repair of the 200-odd vessels to be shifted to Navy management.
“For all practical purposes,” Admiral Callaghan said in the first interview he has granted since the consolidation was announced on Aug. 2 by Defense Secretary Louis A. Johnson, “the personnel concerned simply will be shifted from the Army’s pay roll to that of the Navy. Most of them have Civil Service status and are licensed in their various seaman’s specialties; it is also interesting that, despite having been employed by the Army for years, a great many of them hold commissions in the Navy’s inactive reserve.”
Admiral Callaghan added that the Navy would continue to patronize the same shipyards and other facilities employed by the Army for maintenance of its ocean-going craft. This, he said, was “absolutely essential” in order to preserve a civilian nucleus of such organizations which could be expanded rapidly and efficiently in the event of a national emergency.
Consolidation of all ocean-going military transport into a single unit to serve the needs of the Army, Navy and Air Force was directed by Secretary Johnson to be “initiated not later than Oct. 1 and completed as soon thereafter as practicable.” Admiral Callaghan’s new “fleet,” operating under the direction and control of the Chief of Naval Operations, will consist of the old Naval Transport Service augmented by vessels inherited from the Army—a total of more than 300 craft of all types—thereby outnumbering the Navy’s total combat strength of 265 vessels.
Antarctic Expedition Cancelled
New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 17.—The Navy bowed to budget limitations today and postponed indefinitely Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s proposed expedition into the Antarctic.
Admiral Byrd, veteran polar explorer, had been scheduled to lead a task force of eight ships and 3,500 men into the south Polar region this fall to map a large part of the Antarctic continent now being claimed by half a dozen nations.
Under-Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball said the expedition has been cancelled for the time being because of “compelling reasons of economy.”
Mr. Kimball said he acted on his own initiative after Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson ordered the Navy to cut down on all spending wherever possible.
“Secretary Johnson didn’t ask me to do it or not to do it,” he said. “I told him this morning that I was going to do it.”
Germ Warfare Defense
Chicago Tribune, Aug. 21.—Frederick, Md.—If biological warfare comes to the United States, the civilian population will be defended by germ fighters dressed in uniforms such as a man from Mars might wear.
Army scientists described the weird garb which has been perfected at Camp Detrick, the government’s super-secret germ warfare defense plant near here.
The uniforms will be worn by members of decontamination squads. They form a head to foot, hermetically sealed covering.
Spray Poison Areas
Air will be pumped into the suits thru hoses leading to mobile compressor units. One compressor, gas engine operated, will be able to supply air to several germ fighters, who will spray disinfectants over contaminated areas, the scientists disclosed.
In addition to these precautions, the scientists also disclosed they have designed a 100 per cent foolproof filter, which can be installed in the air lines leading to insulated suits.
What substances the filters contain to make the scientists so sure that no death dealing organisms can pass beyond the germicidal barriers, was not disclosed.
Urge More Study
The scientists, under the direction of Dr. Oram C. Woolpert, Camp Detrick’s director, told The Tribune that the filters for the special uniforms cannot be used to screen out infectious agents that might be liberated into the ventilating systems of large enclosures.
They recommended, however, that more study be devoted to perfecting similar devices capable of handling bigger air volumes.
One gets the impression in talking with the scientists that there are many unknown and variable factors involved in germ warfare and its defense.
Dr. Woolpert pointed out that germ warfare, potentially, is a highly selective weapon. It might be used against plants, animals or men as the attacker wishes, he explained.
However, Dr. Woolpert added, there are many “offsetting factors that would tend to break the chain” in effective use of biological substances as new weapons of attack.
Defenses of Nature
“Natural defenses would operate to large extent,” Dr. Woolpert explained. “There are
the mechanisms of natural immunity, sunlight, settling out and drying that would come to the defense of the civilian population in addition to any artificial protection that could be employed,” he said.
“Life would be intolerable if bacteria and other pathogens did not thin out from natural causes,” he added. “However, we must take into account that an enemy would be just as smart as we are.”
“B. W. should not be regarded as an all or none weapon,” Dr. Woolpert emphasized. “If it should be employed against us, it is likely to be used to complement and supplement other forms of attack.”
Admiral Conolly Advocates Strength
London Times, July 13.—The unbalance of power in certain localities constitutes one of the great dangers of the present world situation, declared Admiral Richard L. Conolly, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Naval Forces in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, when he was the guest of The Pilgrims at a luncheon at the Savoy Hotel yesterday.
From the first world war, he said, Americans returned disillusioned, frustrated, and convinced that their former policy of isolationism was right. In the last war their heritage as a spectator nation was left behind for ever, and in the crucible of war a new destiny was wrought for America.
At present the Western Hemisphere Defence Pact, Western Union and the Atlantic Pact all attested the unity of good intentions of critically important groups of nations. For any of those pacts to be effective as a shield against aggression they must be supplemented and girded by adequate military defence. As the world was constituted to-day and for the foreseeable future this conclusion was inescapable. And the elements of military strength surely included the morale of the populace and its moral fibre, the intelligence and technical skill of its people, their industry and energy.
But to preserve their self-respect they must have the resources, the equipment, the training, and the organized military forces capable of contributing effectively to the protection of their own liberties and the preservation of their independent national existence. They should permit no merchant of propaganda to distort this or misrepresent it as an armaments race. It was prudent preparedness to defend liberty which, like a man’s sacred honour, could never be entirely entrusted to others. Let us not be ashamed to be strong and let us not apologize for building and maintaining our military defences.
No single nation would ever again be strong enough to face combinations of potential aggressors without strong allies. Collective security was in reach if we did not falter.
Business Efficiency in Defense Department
Army-Navy Register, Aug. 13.—-Instituting a continuing program for maximum reduction of Department of Defense expenditures, consistent with maintaining military effectiveness and existing statutory authority, Secretary of Defense Johnson on August 10 appointed a National Defense Management Committee and a Management Advisory Group.
The Committee is headed by Gen. Joseph T. McNarney, present Chief of the Air Force Materiel Command and a member of the Research and Development Board, who has been on temporary duty as adviser to Secretary Johnson on organization and administrative matters since Mr. Johnson took office on March 28. Gen. McNarney also has headed a staff group in the Office of the Secretary of Defense which has been eliminating unnecessary groups. To date, 134 committees and boards have been abolished.
Gen. McNarney has been relieved from duty with the Air Force and assigned to the Department of Defense.
The members of the Committee are Secretary of the Army Gordon Gray, Under-Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball, and Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert.
Robert Heller and Associates of Cleveland, Ohio, who have an international reputation for accomplishment in the business management field, will provide the personnel for the Management Advisory Group. This group will work under the leadership of Robert Heller, head of the firm, and under the active direction of Frank L. Elmendorf, the vice-president. It will include also two other members of the firm, Fred E. Raach, a specialist on cost accounting, and Frederick O. Robbins, a specialist on organization.
Secretary Johnson, in a memorandum to all Defense Department Components, emphasized that the work on the program, which will be started on August 15, 1949, is a joint undertaking.
“It involves,” Secretary Johnson said, “both a long term program and the immediate institution of measures to effect very substantial economies and increased efficiency of operations. Every advantage will be taken of past studies, surveys and reports, and of economy measures already instituted by executive action within the three Services. I wish to emphasize that this must be a fast moving operation and that it cannot be accomplished without the facilities and cooperation of the Services.”
Secretary Johnson’s instructions to the Management Advisory Group are that it will:
(a) “Examine current and prospective programs of the Department of Defense designed to reduce expenditures through reorganization, management control and increased efficiency of operations.
(b) “Recommend to the Management Committee policies, plans and procedures required to establish co-ordinated continuing programs to achieve the maximum reduction in expenditures consistent with maintaining military efficiency.
(c) “Recommend to the Management Committee and the Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force such reorganization, changes in procedure, elimination, reduction or consolidation of functions, facilities or personnel, and/or additional surveys, reports or investigations as may be indicated.
(d) “Assist in establishing such programs, policies, plans and procedures as may be agreed to or directed by appropriate authority.”
Robert Heller and Associates, retained by the Department of Defense to provide the Management Advisory Group, has a broad experience in Federal Government, both in Congress and in the Executive Branch, and in industry. This firm recently completed a study of the Post Office Department.
Mr. Ilgenfritz to Head Munitions Board
New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 13.— President Truman today nominated Carl A. Ilgenfritz, vice-president of the United States Steel Corporation, to be chairman of the Munitions Board, which has responsibility for military buying programs.
The second business man to head the Munitions Board, Mr. Ilgenfritz has been vice-president of United States Steel since December, 1946. Before that he was an executive of the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation and the Republic Steel Corporation.
He is already a member of Munitions Board committees on nonferrous metals and iron and-steel, and also has been acting as an adviser to the Federal Bureau of Supply. He was a member of the Hoover Commission on Government Reorganization, and served as an adviser to the State Department on the question of international tin supplies.
A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Mr. Ilgenfritz would take charge of the military agency that has the chief job of planning the military side of mobilization in event of another war. The board, which was renamed the Munitions Board under the unification act of 1947, prepares estimates of potential production, procurement and personnel for use in figuring strategic war plans. It also recommends assignment of buying responsibility among the various services, and has a big job in cutting military costs by trying to standardize the purchases of the services wherever possible.
The board also has charge of the nation’s huge program of storing scarce materials for use in an emergency.
GREAT BRITAIN Amethyst Escapes
London Times, Aug. 1.—Hongkong.— H.M.S. Amethyst slipped her moorings last night and, successfully overcoming more than 140 miles of navigational hazards on a pitch-dark night, safely gained the open sea. She is at present with the destroyer H.M.S. Concord off the mouth of the Yangtze, and is expected to head south for Hongkong under her own steam to-morrow. Vice-
Admiral A. C. G. Madden, Flag Officer and Second-in-Command, Far East Station, left Hongkong to-day in the cruiser Jamaica to meet her.
The first announcement of her escape was contained in a statement issued by the naval authorities this morning. “H.M.S. Amethyst” it said, “has been held hostage on the Yangtze since April 20, and has been on half rations since the beginning of July. At about 10 o’clock last night she slipped her cable in defiance of her gaolers to escape down the river. She immediately came under heavy fire from shore batteries that had been watching her for months and had frequently threatened her destruction. She managed to get past this initial opposition, and at 1 a.m. to-day, by skillful navigation without the help of a pilot, she reached the Kiangyin forts. Once again she came under heavy fire, but succeeded in negotiating a boom and an extremely difficult part of the river without serious damage or casualties. At 2:30 a.m. she was still on her way down river. Although our hopes are high, and we are all indeed proud of her feat, she still has dangers to negotiate.”
This was followed shortly afterwards by a second statement:—
“At 5:30 a.m. to-day H.M.S. Amethyst passed the Woosung forts and met H.M.S. Concord. Apart from the opposition of the forts and batteries, the Amethyst's passage was a superb feat of pilotage carried out at full speed on a pitch-dark night. A strong current and a flooded river accentuated the all-round difficulties of the Yangtze. She sustained no casualties.
Navigational Hazards
Naval officers here, especially those who know the Yangtze, are unanimous in their praise for the skill with which the navigational difficulties were overcome. The Yangtze is one of the trickiest rivers in the world, and in the past even naval vessels always took on special pilots. Especially below Kiangyin the river debouches into an expanse of dangerous—and constantly shifting—sandbanks. One officer who knows the river well says that he put the navigational dangers as three times more formidable than the opposition to be expected from the
Communist shore-based batteries. The Amethyst was under the command of Lieutenant- Commander J. S. Kerans, assistant naval attache in Nanking, who worked his way down to her and took over command after the original encounters in which Commander Skinner was killed.
Captain’s Story
London Times, Aug. 4.—Lieutenant-Commander Kerans told your Correspondent that two things made him decide to try to make the dash for the open sea. The first was the Communist refusal to let him have any fuel and his growing conviction that they did not intend to let the Amethyst go anyway. The second was the steady worsening of the physical condition of the crew. The date and timing of the escape depended partly on the moon and partly on the estimated steaming time to the open sea. Except for one other officer who was in the secret, the ship’s company were informed only on the day of the projected escape, Lieutenant-Commander Kerans having concluded that the less time they had to mull over this hazardous venture the better for their morale. He himself put the chances at fifty-fifty.
He said that the trickiest part of the whole operation was the initial getaway. The Amethyst was pointing upstream and had to make a 180 deg. turn, and it was known that there were Communist batteries trained on her. He had packed the cable with sacking to reduce noise when it was slipped and had spread dark canvas along parts of the superstructure to try to alter the silhouette. It was several minutes before the Communist gunners realized what was happening, but then fire was intense and the machine-gun fire was withering. The Amethyst was hit on the starboard bow by a shell estimated to be a 75 mm. He had previously decided that if anything went wrong he would beach the ship and blow her up. For a few minutes he thought this might be necessary. Not only was the fire intense, but he was having difficulty in getting under way. “They were anxious minutes,” he said.
Fortunately the Communist gunners registered no further hits, and he had now fallen in behind a river steamer. The Communist charge, made yesterday over Peking radio, that the Amethyst sank this steamer Lieutenant-Commander Kerans dismissed as an absolute lie. The Amethyst fired only one round with her large gun, although plenty with Brens and Oerlikons, but the fire was directed exclusively at the shore batteries to try to keep them quiet.
Just round the bend in the river there was the mix-up with a Communist gunboat or light naval vessel which later appeared to have been hit by the Communist guns. Men in the Amethyst could see the gunboat’s crew jumping into the water. Trouble was expected at Rose Island, where the original engagement took place; nothing happened there, but they were fired at for a quarter of an hour going past the Kiangyin forts. The boom they had to get through consisted of a row of sunken ships originally laid by the Chinese at the beginning of the Sino-Japa- nese war, with a narrow channel marked by white buoys.
Lieutenant-Commander Kerans said that the echo-sounding apparatus helped them in their navigation. The fact that the river was in flood helped them in one way, but was a disadvantage in that it concealed certain well known sandbanks and other landmarks. They drove the ship’s engines for all they were worth. The heat in the engine-room rose to 150 deg. and was so stifling that two men fainted.
Asked about his negotiations with the Communists and the way in which the latter treated him, Lieutenant-Commander Kerans said: “I was treated with the utmost discourtesy. Everything was thrown at me. I was subjected to personal vilification for weeks on end. They even threatened me with the destruction of my ship.” He said that what the Communists really seemed to be after was an admission by the British that they had “wrongfully and criminally invaded Chinese national waters.” They made the granting of a safe-conduct conditional upon a number of completely false admissions by the British Government which the latter were not prepared to make. The Communists throughout insisted upon the matter being negotiated and settled locally instead of letting it be dealt with at a higher level and through diplomatic channels. “I used to feel that I was up against a stone
wall of indifference. We once argued for three hours about one sentence,” he said.
Period of Uncertainty
Colonel Kang Mao-chao, the chief Communist negotiator, who also commanded the 3rd Artillery Regiment on the Chinkiang front, concealed the fact that he spoke English and insisted that all the negotiations be conducted through his own interpreters. Only a few days before the escape Lieutenant-Commander Kerans discovered that Colonel Kang spoke quite tolerable English.
Members of the crew told your Correspondent that worse than any of the physical discomforts—the heat, mosquitoes, and short rations—was the long period of uncertainty of what lay ahead for them. The mornings would be spent in keeping the ship clean and serviceable, but they had little to do for the rest of the day and could not go ashore. For several weeks they had been on half rations, and had had bread only twice a week. All spoke highly of the eight Chinese mess-boys, who remained with the ship all through and displayed never-failing cheerfulness.
The Peking wireless version of the incident [reported in The Times yesterday] is the version that is being disseminated throughout Communist China. There is no means of correcting it. Whether the Communists will take any retaliatory action against British interests remains to be seen.
The Defence of Hong-Kong
Manchester Guardian, July 23.—Hong- Kong.—Recent announcements that the 1st Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers, is being posted to Hong-Kong, and that the Georgic has left Malta with the main body and equipment of the Third Royal Marine Commando Brigade draw attention to the steady progress which is being made in building up the garrison of the colony.
It is understood that when current troop movements are completed the total strength of the garrison will be approximately twenty- five thousand men. This is more than twice the figure of 12,000 which has appeared several times recently in unofficial statements and it illustrates the extreme importance which the British Government attaches to the maintenance of Hong-Kong’s present status.
Indeed, it is probable that there are already more than 12,000 troops in the colony. They are now in the process of being formed into the Fortieth Division under the command of Major General G. C. Evans, who arrived recently. It was also learned to-day that Brigadier M. S. K. Maunsell, whose last appointment was Seccnd-in-Command at Sandhurst, will be arriving shortly to become Chief of Staff to Lieutenant General Festing.
Morale Strengthened
There is no doubt that these vigorous measures taken by the British Government, which are on a far greater scale than even the most sanguine of local residents hoped for or expected, have had a steadying effect on local morale, which was rather shaky three or even two months ago. Whatever attitude or tactics the Communists decide to adopt towards Hong-Kong—and there is still no indication from their side of what these will be—it is obvious that during the coming months Hong-Kong will experience difficult and testing times. It looks fairly certain that Hong-Kong is destined to play a vital part in the cold war in Asia, similar to that which Berlin and Trieste have played in Europe.
Fortunately the recent behaviour of the Communists towards foreign interests in Tientsin and Shanghai has made people here take a far more realistic attitude towards the Chinese Communists and there is far less wishful thinking than there was a few weeks ago.
Crowded Colony
The administrative problems arising out of the arrival of so many troops in a small colony which already contains three times the civilian population it can comfortably accommodate can readily be conceived. Under the circumstances, it has been unavoidable that the necessary requisitioning which is carried out by the civil Government, at the request of the military authorities, should have caused some distress and have given rise to considerable criticism in the local press.
It has been difficult for the inhabitants to appreciate the scale of the installations needed by a large modern military force, with all its ancillary units and elaborate technical requirements.
(Editor’s Note: See August Proceedings, Professional Notes.)
Australian Navy May Man Coalships
New York Times, Aug. 8.—Sydney.—-The Australian Government, already using troops in strike-bound coal mines, plans to use naval personnel to man coal ships, on which the Seamen’s Union last month imposed a “sympathetic blockade,” usually reliable sources said here today.
These sources said the Federal Government also would use naval personnel on the docks if workers refuse to handle troop- mined coal.
Troops called in to work the strip mines of New South Wales—strike-bound for seven weeks—are working all day today to raise their first week’s production figures.
U.S.S.R.
Submarines Operating in Arctic
New York Times, July 23.—Hammerfest, Norway.—Reports of fishermen operating from this and other ports on the “roof” of the Scandinavian peninsula appear to indicate that the Soviet Union’s naval base at Murmansk, 265 air miles to the southeast is far from being dormant.
Several fishing smack crewmen with whom the writer has talked say they have occasionally observed submarines sometimes in flotilla formation, their silhouettes suggesting that they are Russian. Submarines have been spotted in various areas, always well outside Norwegian territorial waters. Some fishermen go as far afield as the edge of the Polar -ice pack around lat. 80 degrees N. and while these informants had seen no submarines in the general vicinity of Spitsbergen they asserted that comrades had.
Reports on these craft concur on size and speed. The average estimate is that they are 250 feet long. Estimates of speed vary from fifteen to twenty knots. Whether these are post-war units, transferred from the Arctic, through the Lake Onega canal, it is impossible to establish from these rather vague accounts.
Maneuvers Held Normal
The Soviet fleet has always stationed a number of submarines at Murmansk and Archangelsk and may have some in Petsamo, annexed from the Finns in the 1946 peace treaty. It is perfectly normal that they should maneuver in waters so close to their home bases, but local inhabitants, who have been made fairly sensitive by the Soviet Union’s two Atlantic Pact notes to Norway, no less than by the move in 1947 to revise the Spitsbergen Treaty, read more significance into the submarine reports than the situation may warrant. Keeping the sea communications open is vital to the defense of this exposed area and repeated warnings by the new Commander-in-Chief, Admiral T. Horve, that Norway must improve her defense against high-speed submarines, have been taken here as applying to North Norway in particular.
OTHER COUNTRIES China
Blockade Enforced
New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 12.— Hong Kong.—The Chinese Nationalist navy sank one Communist ship and ordered four foreign vessels, including the United States Lines’ Iran Victory, out of Taku Bay Tuesday in an effort to enforce its blockade of the North China coast.
The Nationalist Central News Agency, which reported the navy’s action, said twelve Chinese steamers were detained. The ships were all off Taku, port for Communist- held Tientsin.
The other three foreign ships were Panamanian, including the Atlantic Trader. Central News said Nationalist gunboats escorted them from the port and warned them not to return. The agency declared the ships were all blockade-runners, flouting Nationalist “closure” of Tientsin and Taku.
Two of the Chinese ships which ignored the Nationalist warning to halt when they tried to enter the bay were fired on and one
1.0- ton vessel was sunk, according to the report. The gunboats also destroyed four barges and three small Communist boats.
Message to London
[In London, S. Livanos and Company, agents for the Atlantic Maritime Company’s
7.0- ton cargo ship Atlantic Trader, said they had received a telegram from the master of the vessel off Tientsin on Tuesday which said: “To-day, at 11:30 a.m., an officer with twelve armed men from Nationalist warships boarded my ship. They asked for some information and ordered me to abandon immediately the port and the North China coast. Between 3:30 p.h. and 4 p.m. one of the ships was fired on and sunk by the warship.”
[S. Livanos and company said the Atlantic Trader is an American-built Liberty ship, flying the Panamanian flag, with a Greek master and crew members of different nationalities. They said it was waiting to take on a cargo of salt consigned to Japan at Taku when boarded by the Nationalists. It now is proceeding to Japan, the agents said.]
The United States Lines confirmed that the Iran Victory had been at Tientsin, but said it had had no direct word from the ship, which left Hong Kong Aug. 6 en route to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
India
London Times, July 29.—At Portsmouth to-day the destroyer Rotherham, 1,750 tons, was transferred by the Royal Navy to the Royal Indian Navy and renamed H.M.I.S. Rajput by Lady Willis. Admiral of the Fleet Sir Algernon Willis, Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, formally handed over the ship. The High Commissioner for India, on behalf of his Government, expressed appreciation of the cooperation and good spirit shown by the Admiralty and the Royal Navy in helping to build up the Royal Indian Navy.
The Rajput is to be the leader of the first R.I.N. destroyer flotilla. On leaving England she will be accompanied by two other destroyers, the Ranjit and the Rana, which have been transferred to the R.I.N.
Scandinavia
London Times, July 14.—The Norwegian submarines Utsira and Utvaer, and the escort vessel Sarpen will arrive at Portland on Saturday for a six-day courtesy visit. Commander S. Valvatne, head of the Norwegian submarine division, will be the senior officer of the group. A squadron of Swedish warships comprising the cruiser Kronorad and the destroyers Uppland, Oland, and Visby will be in south Dorset waters from July 20 to July 22.
AVIATION
B-36 Probe
Aviation Week, Aug. 22.—Sensational new performance figures for the Convair B-36 intercontinental bomber were revealed to the House Armed Services Committee during its investigation of U. S. Air Force strategy and procurement.
New B-36 data included:
Top speed of more than 435 mph. and altitude of more than 50,000 ft. have been attained by the B-36D prototype equipped with two pod nacelles housing four General Electric J-47 (5,200 lb. thrust) turbojets.
Simulated combat mission of well over
10,0 miles has been flown non-stop without aerial refueling by a B-36D of the Strategic Air Command. Bomb load of 10,000 lb. was dropped well beyond the 5,000 mile mark.
B-36B has flown 6,000 miles above 40,000 ft. averaging 300 mph. This mission covered considerably more mileage above 40,000 ft. than would be required for maximum penetration to Russian targets.
USAF plans to purchase an additional 79 B-36Ds during fiscal 1950-51 to bring total B-36 strength to 249 planes, deployed in four bomb groups and two strategic reconnaissance groups. Total of 28 are scheduled for purchase in fiscal 1950 with 51 earmarked for the fiscal 1951 budget.
Cruise control techniques developed by Strategic Air Command make a range of
12,0 miles for the B-36 “well within reason.” .
B-36 bombers of the Eighth Air Force have already flown simulated missions against points duplicating all possible top priority targets in the Eurasian land mass. Results of these missions have convinced Lieut. Gen. Curtis LeMay, SAC commander that the B-36 would be effective against these targets in wartime.
These data were presented during five days of hearings on Capitol Hill climaxed by two sharp clashes—one between Air Secretary W. Stuart Symington and Rep. James Van Zandt (R., Pa.) and the other between Gen. George Churchill Kenney, commander of the Air University, and Lieut. Gen. Curtis Emerson LeMay, who succeeded Kenney as commander of the Strategic Air Command.
Symington Angry.—Symington took the offensive against Van Zandt on the final day of the Washington hearings before packed press tables and gallery. Obviously angry to the core, Symington demanded that the Pennsylvania congressman and Naval Reserve captain who instigated the B-36 investigation produce proof of his charges against Symington, the Air Force high command and Defense Secretary Louis Johnson.
Symington Challenge.—Symington also challenged the anonymous authors to “stand up and be counted, produce their documents and their witnesses, throw open their files to you (the committee counsel) and establish the good faith and accuracy of their charges.” Symington denied in detail all of the charges contained in Van Zandt’s speech adding considerably to his earlier rebuttal of these, allegations.
Highlights of his rebuttal included:
The B-36 is a true intercontinental bomber.
There has been no consideration other than national security influencing the purchase of B-36 bombers and cancellation of contracts for other kinds of aircraft.
Kenney vs. LeMay.—The other clash, between Kenney and LeMay, occurred over tactics to be used in intercontinental bombing with the B-36. These two outspoken generals have long disagreed over strategic bombing tactics. Top level USAF endorsement of the LeMay views, is generally credited with having caused Kenney’s replacement by LeMay as SAC commander. Kenney testified that he did not credit his early opposition to the B-36 with causing his transfer from SAC.
Kenney asserted he would use the B-36 solely at night because accuracy now obtainable with radar bombing made it foolish to abandon the defensive cover of darkness for daylight attacks.
Expect 100 Back.—“If I sent 100 B-36’s on a long range bombing mission, I would expect to get 100 back, barring mechanical troubles,” Kenney told the committee.
In response to questioning, Kenney repeated:
“The B-36 is a night bomber. I would not use it in the daytime.”
LeMay View— LeMay took the responsibility of being the chief USAF advocate of the B-36 and told the committee the B-36 was a round-the-clock bomber capable of attacking in daylight or in darkness.
“I believe we can get the B-36 over a target and not have the enemy know it is there until the bombs hit,” LeMay testified.
No Interceptors—-Kenney and LeMay agreed that neither the United States nor any other nation, to their knowledge, had a night fighter capable of making interceptions and successful attacks in darkness or bad weather above 40,000 ft. Kenney estimated it would take five years for an efficient high altitude night fighter to be developed.
They disagreed on the effectiveness of current day fighters against the B-36. LeMay pointed out that it was ridiculous to suppose that the B-36 could not be intercepted and shot down by a fighter under certain conditions but that it was extremely difficult to do so under combat conditions if the B-36 was above 40,000 ft.
Banshee’s Chances.—Kenney said he thought the fighters would be very successful in a blue sky when the vapor contrails of the B-36 would be visible 100 mi. away.
He said he thought that both the Navy’s McDonnel Banshee (F2H-2) and the British Vampire jet fighters could probably intercept and attack the B-36 successfully in daylight.
Carrier Cancellation.—Both Kenney and LeMay indicated they concurred with the
Secretary of Defense’s decision to cancel the super-carrier.
“It was a wise decision,” Kenney said.
“There is now no Navy plane that can take-off from a carrier deck, deliver an atom bomb to a target, and land again on the carrier,” LeMay told the committee. “They have no plane that can go 10,000 miles, carry 10,000 lb. of bombs and fly above
40,0 ft.”
Engine Trouble.— Kenney testified that his early sad experiences with the B-36 during its initial test period were caused principally by early models of Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major engines.
“The early engines overheated so badly the XB-36 was lucky to get to 30,000 ft. and stay there,” Kenney testified. “It was impossible to tell how high the airplane would really go. When the engine problems were licked and the B-36 hit 40,000 ft., it became a completely different picture.”
Aerial Tankers.—He admitted that at one stage the B-36 picture looked so glum that he recommended using the planes already built as aerial tankers to refuel B-50 and B-54 bombers. Kenney said he was not satisfied with Air Materiel Command’s assurances that the B-36 troubles could be cured and he did not share their optimism over the promise of the Pratt & Whitney VDT engine in its proposed application to the B-36. USAF later admitted this program was a “complete failure.”
Kenney said the performance of the B-36 during early 1948 surprised him, Convair engineers and the rest of the Air Force.
Higher and Faster.—“The B-36 went higher, faster and farther than anybody thought it would, and the pilots liked it,” Kenney said. “It was a lucky freak.”
LeMay testified that he encountered considerable opposition to his early arguments before the Senior Officers Board for more B-36’s and he thought his chances of getting them were slim. By early 1949 he thought the B-36 was better than the B-54 would be and that the Boeing B-47 would be considerably better than the B-54 ever could be. He picked the B-47 as his alternate bomber choice if the Board turned him down on more B-36’s.
No Other Plane.—Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, USAF Chief of Staff, supported LeMay’s views on strategic bombing stating that LeMay had had more experience participating in and planning for strategic bombing than any man in the world. Vandenberg said the USAF was faced with the alternative of buying more B-36’s to carry out its assigned primary mission of strategic bombing or not buying any bombers at all since no other plane would do the job.
To Reconvene.—-The committee is scheduled to convene again in Washington on Aug. 22 after a subcommittee flies to the Pacific Coast to take testimony from Gen. H. H. Arnold, retired USAF commander; Donald Douglas of Douglas Aircraft Co.; J. H. Kindelberger and J. L. Atwood, of North American Aviation Inc.; John Northrop and Gen. Echols, of Northrop Aircraft, Inc.; Robert Gross of Lockheed Aircraft Corp.; and William Allen of Boeing Airplane Co.
Committee’s Washington hearings were concerned only with the first two items on its seven point agenda:
1. The truth or falsity of all charges reported by Van Zandt.
2. Examination of performance characteristics of B-36 bomber to determine whether it is a satisfactory weapon.
Other points are:
3. Locate and identify the sources from which the charges, rumors and innuendoes reported by Van Zandt have come.
4. Examine whether the USAF is putting too much emphasis on strategic bombing at the expense of air support of ground forces.
5. Examine the decision to cancel the $189,000,000 super-carrier planned by the Navy.
6. Examine the roles and missions of the USAF, Navy, and Marine Corps.
7. Examine whether it is wise for two of the armed services to pass on the weapons to be used by a third. This will go into the procedures used in Joint Chiefs of Staff meetings where a 2 to 1 vote is now final.
(Editor’s Note: To be continued.)
Tactical Air Force
Aviation Week, July 25.—U. S. Air Force moved this month to ease its strained relations with the Army over tactical air support of ground forces.
USAF action included:
Assignment of an improved version of the Republic Thunderjet (F-84D and E) as a tactical air support plane.
Creation of a new Tactical Air Force with headquarters at Pope Field, Ft. Bragg, N. C., for close co-operation with the Army in joint air-ground training maneuvers.
Lack of adequate air support planes and joint training facilities have been the two major points at issue between USAF and the Army. The controversy was also politically important since USAF has been winning major decisions over the Navy by a 2 to 1 vote of the JCS which saw USAF and Army chiefs of staff vote together against the Navy. ,
Army Unhappy.—Army has been unhappy over the situation since last fall when Tactical Air Command (then located close to Army Field Force headquarters at Langley Field, Va.) was relieved of its combat air groups and made a subordinate unit of the Continental Air Command. Lieut. Gen Ed- wood (Pete) Quesada, TAC commander, was transferred to USAF headquarters. Quesada had been active in organizing joint training maneuvers with both Army and Navy and had sent TAC pilots to fly off Navy carriers in Atlantic fleet maneuvers.
In recent testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Omar Bradley pointed out that the Marines enjoyed an air support of 21 squadrons for two ground divisions. Bradley said this was more air support than the army had ever had in World War II except on the Normandy beachhead. Bradley indicated that the Army had been putting steady pressure on USAF to increase its tactical air support elements during a series of conferences in the past several months. He said some progress had been made but there were still points of difference.
USAF Peddles Jets.—-USAF has been interested in peddling its obsolescent jet fighter types as tactical air support planes while the Army is interested in a design competition for a new type ground support plane tailored specifically to its requirements. Tactical evaluations were also made of the Douglas Skyraider (AD) and Martin Mauler (AM) series, both Navy carrier-based attack planes
packing a heavy armament of cannon, rockets and bombs. USAF rejected these types because of their lack of speed when compared with jet types.
Indications are now that USAF has at least partially sold the Army on the performance of jet fighters as ground support planes. Top Army brass has indicated they were surprised at the accuracy of divebombing and strafing by the Lockheed F-80 and Republic F-84 but they are still skeptical about these planes’ ability to pick up pinpoint targets at speeds of over 500 mph. and their lack of range which restricts the time they can spend in a target area.
Next generation of possible ground support planes would include the McDonnell
F-88, Lockheed F-90, both twin jet penetration fighters and the Martin XB-51 triple jet light bomber.
The new Tactical Air Force has no definite combat units assigned as yet. Its initial role will be to co-ordinate USAF-Army training maneuvers. It is likely that for initial ground- air training maneuvers it will get combat groups from Continental Air Command on temporary loan. USAF is also studying Army requirements for mass movement of ground troops by air over 3000-mile hauls.
British Refuel Jet Fighter in Flight
Manchester Guardian, Aug. 9.—-The tactical powers of jet fighter aircraft have been greatly extended as a result of the develop-
ment of flight refuelling which ended yesterday with a continuous flight of 12 hours 3 minutes by a Gloster Meteor. The aircraft, powered by two Rolls-Royce Derwent I jet engines, was flown by Mr. P. Hornidge from Tarrant Ruston airfield, Dorset.
The tanker aircraft was a converted Lancaster III bomber. The Meteor carried a long hollow spear attached to its nose, and the Lancaster trailed the refuelling pipe behind it with a large cone offithe end. When Mr. Hornidge wished to refuel he flew up behind the Lancaster and “speared” the center of the cone with the projection on his own machine.
This projection is called the “probe.” Directly "^ne probe enters the cone and takes the air pressure off the cone an automatic locking device grips it, a valve opens, and fuel flows from the tanker to the fighter. The fighter pilot breaks the link with the tanker sifnply by throttling down; air pressure then again comes into play on the cone and the hose is automatically released.
Helped by Radar
The refuelling operation took place ten times to-iSay, every time without a hitch, although the latter part of the flight was made in rain and cloud and the interception of the fighter by the tanker aircraft had to be assisted by radar.
This is an entirely British development, for which Sir Alan J. Cobham has been largely responsible. He developed flight fuelling first of all as a means of improving the commercial returns from transport aircraft, for it enables much greater loads to be carried. It was proved successful in this capacity during tests over the Atlantic made by B.O.A.C.; but as yet none of the State corporations has said what it intends to do about using the method.
Jet fighters have a very limited duration in the air, because of the high consumption of the jet engines. They are, therefore, hampered in such duties as escort work. With the new method of refuelling, jet fighters will be able to stay in the air for any length of time which the tactical _situation dictates.
Jet Airliner’s Initial Test Flight
New York Times, July 28.—Hatfield, England, July 27.—Britain’s “trump card” in the world race for commercial air supremacy, the de Havilland Comet jet airliner, appeared publicly for the first time here today and successfully made its first flight. Piloted by de Havilland’s chief test pilot, Group Capt. John (Cat’s Eyes) Cunningham, World War night fighter ace, the conventionally streamlined ship with swept back wings rose to 8,000 feet then flew at 100 feet over the de Havilland airdrome here for the benefit of the company’s employees.
According to Captain Cunningham the new craft, with which Britain hopes to revolutionize long-distance commercial flying, “was very nice to handle” and the flight was entirely successful. Captain Cunningham said the four de Havilland Ghost engines, each with 5,000 pounds static thrust, had performed perfectly.
Earlier in the day Captain Cunningham, with a crew of four, had given the Comet its first serious taxiing tests and had lifted the plane to six feet over the ground for a dis tance of 500 yards at 100 miles an hour. The Comet was completed Monday after two years and ten months of intensive building in strict secrecy to protect it from commercial “pirating.”
De Havilland officials declined to reveal details but from near by it is apparent that the plane has a conventional cigar-shaped fuselage with a tricycle landing gear and a low wing swept back at approximately a twenty-five-degree angle.
When the Comet goes into commercial operation—the estimated date is 1952—it is expected that it will carry thirty-six passengers in a pressurized cabin at 40,000 feet and at a speed of 500 miles an hour.
Noticeable among the features of the plane is that the four ghost jet engines have virtually been buried inside the radically thin wing. This affords the direct entry of air to the compressors through the front spar of the wing and it also gives additional benefits in the way of fire prevention, anti-icing of the engine bay, and the elimination of an extra installation.
Company officials said that two to three years’ work remained to be done before the craft might be considered as a standard commercial airliner. In the meantime, they said that construction would be continued on sixteen Comets already on order, of which the first two are for the Ministry of Supply with the remainder allotted to the British Overseas Airways Corporation and the British South American Airways.
Air Operations in Malaya
The Aeroplane, July 29.—In the constant war against armed insurgents in Malaya, operations by the R.A.F. have increased in strength over the past few months. Difficult terrain hampers the movements of ground troops, but by close liaison R.A.F. aircraft have used their mobile fire-power to good effect. These operations have shown close air support at its best, and have involved tactical reconnaissance, supply dropping and ground strafing.
Spitfire F.R. 18’s have recently made many armed reconnaissance sorties over remote areas in South-East Pahang with the object of raising local morale and to deter insurgents.
Between June 24 and July 25, Dakotas have dropped about 80,000 lb. of supplies and rations to units operating deep in the jungles of Malaya. Drops have been made over a wide area, ranging from Johore in the South to Kedah in the North. The accuracy of dropping in difficult country is best illustrated by the fact that, of 223 packs dropped since July 1, only four containers have not been recovered for technical reasons. Other operational flights have included routine air- sea patrols, air-lifts of police and military personnel, and a search for a lost patrol in the jungle.
On July 15, aircraft made a 24-hour series of attacks in an extensive and dense area of mountainous jungle East of the Grik Leng- gong Road in Perak, where concentrations of bandits were known to be based.
Beaufighters delivered shallow-dive attacks with rockets, cannon and machine- guns, and Sunderlands made methodical bombing runs from several thousand feet with large numbers of fragmentation bombs. These latter aircraft also brought their gun turrets into action, machine-gunning the sides of valleys and ravines. During the hours of darkness, the precision and dive-bombing was maintained by the dropping of flares.
In warfare of this type as was proved by the Russians, small aircraft can be as valuable as any, and in Malaya the sturdy Harvard has been given a respite from its longstanding training duties and pressed into aggressive action. Its wing-mounted Browning machine-guns are supplemented by clusters of fragmentation bombs for ground strafing.
On the following day Harvards were again used, and the A.O.C. Malaya, Air Vice Marshal F. W. Mellersh, flew on a strike in one of these aircraft, accompanied by Major- General D. Dunlop, G.O.C. Singapore District. Spitfires, Harvards and Sunderlands flew in five waves from their bases in Singapore and made prolonged attacks in the Tangkak District, West Johore.
MERCHANT MARINE
New Wartime Merchantman Bid to Ingalls
New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 15.— Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation, Pascagoula, Miss., today bid $4,864,000 to construct a new-type successor to the wartime liberty ship as the backbone of the American merchant fleet.
Its proposal was the lowest submitted to the Maritime Commission by eight companies which offered to construct the vessel.
In announcing plans to build the new ship, the Maritime Commission said the vessel will form the “prototype for large scale shipbuilding in any future national emergency.”
Newport Yard Runner-Up
The new ship will approximate the size and weight of the war-famed Liberty and Victory ships. About 10,000 tons, the vessel, however, will embody post-war developments in ship design. .
(Editor’s Note: See Notes in June Proceedings.)
More Liberty Ships to Store Grain
New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 13.—-The Department of Agriculture yesterday requested the Maritime Commission to provide twelve additional laid-up Liberty ships for use as floating Hudson River grain warehouses. Completion of loading operations on the first dozen grain Liberties was announced at the same time by a New York commission spokesman.
Each group of twelve ships can hold
3,200,0 bushels of grain weighing 85,000 tons. Most of the ships used are taken from the commission’s temporary reserve fleet site in Tomkins Cove, on the Hudson River, to Pier 15, Stapelton, S. I., for fumigation. Loading of grain is done from New York’s unique floating grain elevators at various railroad piers on the Jersey shore.
The decision to use ships as grain warehouses, described as “expensive” by the commission spokesman, is one of several steps taken recently by the government to cope with a critical storage scarcity. The Commodity Credit Corporation, which runs the government’s farm price support program, is responsible for loading and unloading the grain and for the cost of the entire operation, including towing and preparation of ships.
The Agriculture Department proposes to store the surplus grain for a ten-to-twelve- months’ period. The Tomkins Cove site is the only laid-up fleet location on the East Coast with depth great enough to accommodate grain-loaded vessels. Since the grain is loaded only in the lower holds of the Liberties, the draft is approximately twenty-two feet. A fully-loaded Liberty sinks to a twenty-seven- foot depth.
lie de France Modernized
Marine News, June, 1949.—When the lie de France, luxury liner of the French Line, arrives in New York on her post-war maiden voyage on July 27 she will not look like her old self. Her friends who get an opportunity to see her before she departs on the return voyage to Plymouth and Le Havre on July 30 will hardly recognize her.
Stripped to the hull, after having served as a troop carrier, the long popular North Atlantic passenger liner has been transformed so that she will exceed even her former self in luxury, passenger comforts and technical improvements. The port holes are virtually all that remain of her pre-war passenger installations.
The familiar three-funnel silhouette of the original “lie,” has given way to two streamlined stacks equipped with devices to divert smoke from the aft part of the ship. This, together with the re-designing of the closed- in upper decks and the open promenade decks, will give the ship an entirely new appearance.
While changes in the new He de France will be most apparent in her appearance, the technical transformations are equally drastic. The engines and boilers have been rebuilt. Every foot of electric wiring and cable has been removed and three new vertical distribution systems, completely independent of each other, have been installed. Throughout the ship every precaution has been taken to prevent fires and the most modern equipment for fire detection and fire fighting has been installed. All the fire detection and alarm circuits are centered in a main control station manned at all times by a fireman detail.
The He de France, launched March 14, 1926, made her maiden voyage to New York on June 22 of the following year. Up to September, 1939 she carried 245,000 passengers in 346 crossings of the Atlantic. During her war and post-war repatriation services, for which she received the Croix de Guerre with Palms, she carried nearly half a million troops.
SCIENCE
Navy’s New Aeroballistic Range
Aviation Week, Aug. 8.—Progress in aeronautical research demands, first of all, progress in the design, construction and operation of research equipment. In this respect, the United States is easily a decade ahead of the rest of the world. But this was not so prior to V-E Day, when Germany led the world by a safe margin.
Our scientists are only now beginning to move out ahead of where the Germans were more than four years ago. It has taken that long to improve and, in many cases, to duplicate the equipment and techniques in use or planned by the Nazis.
Missile Range.—An important example of such German-conceived equipment is the pressurized aeroballistic range recently dedicated at the new Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oak, Md., near Washington, D. C.
This device consists, essentially, of a sealed tube three feet in diameter and 300 ft. long, down the length of which a model missile is fired. Along the length of this tube are 25 camera stations which photograph the missile in three dimensions as it progresses down the tube.
Importance of the NOL version of this unit is that it can be pressurized to six atmospheres or evacuated to a pressure of only 0.001 atmosphere, providing a wide range of Reynolds numbers for tests.
Supplements Tunnels.—-The new aero- ballistic range is intended to be used in conjunction with the Kochel wind tunnel now in operation at the Laboratory to check and amplify wind tunnel test results. Its pressure range from a near-vacuum to six atmospheres greatly extends the range of the data to determine exact Reynolds number effects at speeds up to 5,000 mph.
The new range combines features of the wind tunnel, the free-fall method and the rocket test method all in a single facility and thereby comprises an important new research tool that complements existing equipment and extends the range of data available into new areas.
Rocket Tests Due at 75-Mile Height
New York Times, Aug. 14.—As part of its program for the perfection of guided missiles, the Air Force will start next week a series of additional tests to determine the character of the atmosphere up to 75 miles above the earth’s surface, it was announced today. The tests will last over a period of two years.
Upper atmosphere studies have been under way for some time at the Army Proving Ground at White Sands, N. M., with the cooperation of the Navy and the Air Force. German V-2 rockets have been sent aloft. The new series of firings will use sixty “Aerobee” rockets, developed by the Navy. The first firing will take place Tuesday at Almagordo, N. M.
The “Aerobees” will carry electronic recording instruments, which will be released with ribbon-type parachutes at the zenith of the rocket’s flight. This method of recovery is employed in the White Sands tests as well.
The instruments will record temperature, pressure, humidity, radio propagation characteristics and other atmospheric qualities.
The various instruments will weigh about 200 pounds. Some of them will be of the selfrecording type, while others will transmit in flight to receiving instruments on the ground.
Some thirty different educational and research institutions will take part in the two- year program, each one loading the instruments aboard at least one of the rockets to be fired, and then evaluating the recordings.
“When all the data from this upper-atmosphere research program have been evaluated,” today’s announcement said, “they will be used by the Air Force in evolving the design of guided missiles, in determining the relation between solar activity and weather changes, and as basic atmospheric information to be used in the guided missiles program.”
The “Aerobee” is about twenty feet long and a little over a foot in diameter, with three stabilizing fins. Propelled by a liquid fuel, it can reach an altitude of more than seventy-five miles and has attained a speed of nearly 3,000 miles an hour.
Designed by the Aerojet Engineering Corporation and the Douglas Aircraft Company, the rocket was developed under the technical supervision of the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, at Silver Spring, Md.
The rocket was first fired at the White Sands Proving Ground on March 5, 1948. Five months ago two were fired from the deck of the U. S. S. Norton Sound off the coast of South America.
Composition of the atmosphere above
100,0 feet, the height to which meteorological balloons rise, is relatively unknown.
The Air Force’s research program is being conducted under the direction of the Geophysics Laboratory of the Air Materiel Command’s Cambridge Field Station, Cambridge, Mass.
★