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United States.......................................................................................................................

Navy Counters Russian Submarine Threat—First Decision of New Court of Military Appeals—Navy Endorses Human Engineering Re­search—Wind and Sea Versus Great Circle Course—Navy Rushes New Mine Sweepers.

Great Britain.......................................................................................................................

British Develop Atom Age Navy

France.....................................................................................................................................

U. S. Air Force Planes Base in France

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Russia......................................................................................................................................

Estimate of Soviet Naval Strength—Peasants Revolt in Russia—An Estimate of Russian Intentions in Europe.

Other Countries..................................................................................................................

Switzerland—Military Reorganization, Sweden—Military Effort Sovietization of Latvia—Attention Focused on Submarines in Far East—Japanese Develop F-.7 Lens.

Aviation.............................................................. .. ............................................. ;.................

Helicopters and Naval Fighters in Korea—New Navy Fighters ■ U. S. Air Force Flights to North Pole—Russian Interceptors Effective against B-29—British Launch Huge Flying Boat—New Carriers Han­dle Heavier Planes—Reds Struggle for Airfields in Korea.

Merchant Marine................................................................................................................

Ships Powered by Gas Turbines Planned.

Science...................................................................................................................................

Expedition Finds Larvae of Sea Serpents—A New Design for Engi­neering Research—Advances Made in Long Range Photography Navy Strikes Oil in Alaska—Navy Perfects Underwater Television.

International.......................................................................................................................

Navy Privateers at Malta—Withdrawal of U. S. Ground Forces Speculated Upon—Air Force Speeds African Bases—Antarctic: An- glo-Argentine-Chilean Conflict—NATO Maneuvers Commented Upon.

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UNITED STATES

Navy Counters Russian Submarine Threat

Herald Tribune, November 12.—New London, Conn., Nov. 11.—Special groups of United States Navy submarine experts are working intensively at this base on plans and scientific developments to counter the threat of Soviet Russia’s large undersea fleet.

Present Navy undersea warfare studies consider the possibility that the Soviet Union like the United States—may be de­veloping atomic-powered submarines able to cruise tremendous distances without refuel­ing. They also take into consideration the fact that Soviet industry with the aid of former Nazi U-boat technicians might pro­duce a “true submersible”—a submarine having the ability to stay underwater for long periods without even a snorkel breather tube above the surface.

The appearance of a “true submersible” in enemy hands would throw into the military ashcan much of the Navy’s new and secret anti-submarine radar equipment, which is sensitive enough when installed in aircraft or aboard ship to pick up the tiny breather tube of a submerged undersea craft at long dis­tances.

Radar is by no means the only egg in the Navy’s basket of submarine detection de­vices, but it has grown to be one of the most important. Its neutralization would cause a revolution in present anti-submarine warfare techniques and probably make the “killer” submarine rather than the anti-submarine “killer” aircraft the chief weapon of attack on an enemy submarine fleet.

The Navy yesterday commissioned here the U.S.S. K-l, first “killer” submarine ever built in the United States, and plans to put more of this type into service before long. The new craft foreshadow undersea subma­rine versus submarine battles which some day might reach the proportion of surface fleet actions of the past.

Although the details of sonic and magnetic detection devices for killer submarines are secret, it can be said that in the last two years these have undergone development ap­proaching the sensational. These undersea devices by which United States submarines can detect other submerged craft do not in­clude radar, which does not work below the ocean’s surface.

Capt. C. O. Triebel, commanding officer of the New London Submarine Base, disclosed today that the new “killer” submarines would be equipped with homing torpedoes in addition to their secret detection devices. He said:

“Iheir job is to lie in ambush along enemy submarine lanes and spot their prey with sonar gear. I hey nail the enemy with homing torpedoes equipped with electronic ears.”

Although the subject still is controversial, there are many United States and British naval officers who believe that submarines of the future will be able to navigate success­fully beneath the floating ice masses of the Arctic Sea, the huge landlocked body of water in which the North Pole is located and around which the most powerful nations of the earth are grouped.

In moves recalling the dreams of Jules Verne and Bishop John Wilkins, of England, ancestor of Sir Hubert Wilkins, the Arctic explorer, both the American and British Navies have sent submarines northward since the end of World War II to probe be­neath the North Polar ice and take sound­ings to determine how deep it extends. These studies as yet are far from complete.

The British snorkel submarine Ambush, which participated in the Arctic investiga­tions, on one occasion was surrounded by ice extending for miles. During surface tests its periscope, bridge and guns and the exposed portion of its hull were coated with eight inches of ice. During an Arctic storm the British submarine rode out terrifying seas 100 feet from swell to crest while recharging its batteries and finally returned to port without accident and after completing its mission.

American submarine skippers have shown equal skill, although they have proceeded with caution, not wishing to imitate Verne’s imaginary Capt. Nemo of “Twenty Thou­sand Leagues Under the Sea,” whose under­sea craft, the Nautilus, on one occasion be­came trapped far beneath the polar ice pack and escaped with the greatest difficulty.

First Decision by New Court of Mili­tary Appeals

New York Times, November 9.—Wash- 'ⁿgton, Nov. 9.—The new Court of Mili­tary Appeals today upheld the court- roartial conviction of Pvt. Mickey McCrary °f the Air Force on a desertion charge. It was the court’s first decision. .

The court, composed of three civilian Jurists, ruled 2 to 1 that the facts supported a finding that McCrary deserted and was not merely away without leave.

McCrary was convicted at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., and sentenced to six months in prison and forfeiture of pay and allowances.

The appeals court was formed last May under the new military code of justice. Judges George W. Latimer and Paul W. Frosman held that because McCrary did not explain his absence, a “fair-minded person weighing the facts would not be unreasonable m concluding that the accused was seeking to avoid overseas shipment and that his intent m leaving was to escape permanently from any such fate.”

In his dissent, Chief Judge Robert E. Quinn said the evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction for desertion.

Navy Endorses Human Engineering Research

New York Times, October 22.—Rochester, N. Y., Oct. 21.—“Human engineering” re­search to improve design of equipment and mstrument control in military and industrial fields has been started by the psychology de­partment of the University of Rochester.

The United States Office of Naval Re­search Special Devices Center has made an initial grant of $60,000 for the project, of which Dr. S. D. Spragg, professor of psy­chology, is director. The problem is how to design complex machines and equipment so that they can be operated with maximum ease, efficiency and safety.

“Response characteristics of human be- mgs,” Dr. Spragg said, “are factors of pri­mary importance in equipment and instru­ment control design.” He said that up to now the method has been to design and build machines and then try to adapt human beings to the gadget, with the result that the opera­tors have often been overlooked by the de­signers.

“A full knowledge of the nature and range of human motor abilities,” he declared, “is necessary in order to make possible optimal efficiency and safety in the design and use of machines and equipment.”

In designing instruments of war, for exam­ple, he said, it is important that they be so designed that they can be used by a large number of operators, rather than by a few mechanical geniuses.

Performance characteristics would be analyzed in general laboratory situations rather than with highly specialized military or civilian machines and instruments, he said.

Apparatus and instruments would be de­vised for laboratory use in the Rochester studies, he added, and later the results could be tried out on tanks, submarines and a wide variety of military and industrial equipment.

Wind and Sea Versus Great Circle Course

New York Times, November 6.—Since steam power became a practical reality for ships, ocean navigators have concentrated on traversing the shortest distances between two points and are thereby overlooking great economies in vessel operation and the in­creased speed and safety that could be achieved by a return to the old sailing-ship methods.

This is the opinion of Louis P. Allen, staff oceanographer of the Undersea Warfare Branch of the Office of Naval Research, who believes that too little thought is given in modern navigation to the power of the sea and the forces which create it.

To improve the art and science of sea navigation, he said in an article written for the naval office’s magazine “Research Re­views,” more thorough studies of the power of the wind and waves, its variability of this power and the forces responsible for it, are in order.

During World War II, he said, some studies of the effect of wind on the seas were made and forecasts of sea and swell made from weather charts were essential to the landing operations at Normandy, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and were amazingly accurate.

“Because the mariner is no longer required to depend upon the wind systems, the tend­ency is to ignore this source of energy,” he wrote. “Yet if wind is the force that makes the sea a brutal bludgeon its importance can­not be casually dismissed.

“What are its effects upon ships? In con­sidering this question we must remember that the power of the wind varies as the cube of its speed; that is, doubling the wind ve­locity increases its power eightfold.

“For example, when a 4-knot wind rises to 16 knots, the wind power increases sixty-four times. This is not a far-fetched instance, for a true wind of 4 knots can easily become a 16- knot headwind along the deck of a moving ship. And, if a 30-knot headwind sweeps along the deck, ship performance is ma­terially reduced, and operating economy seriously impaired.”

Mr. Allen cited tests showing that wind over the stern of a ship increased the speed about 1 per cent, but headwind decreased the speed 3 per cent for fast passenger vessels, 4 per cent for slow passenger ships, 13 per cent for lightly laden freighters and 10 per cent for heavily-laden freighters.

Citing statistics, he said that in normal winds of up to 22 knots, navigating with them rather than against them produced, without an increase in fuel consumption, an increase in daily run from twenty-one to thirty-eight miles, depending on the type of ship.

“Consider a ship that makes a good 18 knots under normal head-wind conditions, and in adverse weather makes only 13 knots,” he went on.

“If, along a route that ordinarily requires seven days to accomplish, a strong headwind and high sea exist, a captain could deviate from his course 850 miles to gain normal weather, and yet make the trip in the same time that the original course would have re­quired. Other advantages would be easier handling of the ship, less strain on the crew and a vessel free from damage.”

Navy Rushes New Mine Sweepers

Christian Science Monitor, October 22.— New York.—One of the Navy’s major proj­ects is the construction of a large fleet of mine-sweeping vessels and the training of personnel to meet Russian proficiency in this phase of naval warfare.

This fact was disclosed by Rear Admiral Homer N. Wallin, chief of the Navy’s Bu­reau of Ships, at the annual American Merchant Marine Conference.

When interviewed regarding his statement that the Navy now is building 68 mine sweepers, Admiral Wallin asserted that the Russians are especially adept in the design and use of mines. They have, he said, devel­oped this type of warfare over a period of many years.

Despite the fact that the Navy built a large number of mine sweepers in World War II, he said that it now is necessary, pre­sumably because of Russian advances in the design of mines, as well as improved mine re­moval methods, to practically replace this important segment of the American fleet.

GREAT BRITAIN British Develop Atom Age Navy

Manchester Guardian, October 15.—The Hague, October 13.—Mr. Stanley Wright, Information Attache at the British Em­bassy, said in a broadcast on the Dutch wire­less to-night that the Royal Navy was to be­come “the embryonic navy of the atomic age.”

New types of warship, of which the first was the submarine Turpin, would soon ap­pear with unusual lines and powered by new and more powerful engines. They would be streamlined to minimize atomic blast effects. New anti-submarine frigates would give maximum protection to sailors normally ex­posed on the upper deck. In action very few men would be exposed to atomic effects. The destroyers “now on the way” would be more powerful than most pre-war light cruisers. But they might well be the last of the con­ventional destroyer “which has been so vital a part of the world’s navies for half a cen­tury.”

The aircraft carrier as it was known to-day would also become obsolete in ten years. “Guided missiles will have largely taken the place of flight decks. So the battleship may return. Instead of heavy guns there will be guided missiles, but the principle of the capital ship will remain.”—Reuter.

FRANCE

U. S. Air Force Planes Base in France

The Aeroplane, November 2.—First Unit of the U.S.A.F. is expected to arrive in France shortly; it is to be based, initially, at Merignac, near Bordeaux. The U.S.A.F. has given no details of the unit involved, other than that it will be equipped with tactical aircraft (possibly Republic F-84 Thunder- jets).

The establishment of U.S.A.F. contingents m France is a logical extension of existing arrangements for American support in European defence. Units of the U.S.A.F. have been based in the U. K., usually on a rotation basis, for the past three years.

• RUSSIA

Estimate of Soviet Naval Strength

New York Times, November 12.—Lon­don, Nov. 12.—Soviet submarine strength of 380 vessels, with at least 120 more under construction, is reported in Brassey’s, the Armed Forces Year Book, out tomorrow. This compares with a submarine strength of fifty that Nazi Germany had at the time of Pearl Harbor, according to United States naval sources.

Although the Soviet submarine fleet is described as a “formidable force” and the cause of considerable apprehension among naval powers, it is pointed out that it is very widely spread out, with 135 Soviet subma­rines believed to be in the Baltic, 110 in the Far East, forty in the Black Sea and thirty in the White Sea. Of the total, 100 are coastal submarines, it is stated.

Of the three new battleships that the Soviet Union was reported to have been building last year, one is now certainly fully operational, a second has been launched and a third is still on the stocks at Leningrad, ac­cording to Brassey’s, which adds that the Soviet Navy is still much of an enigma be­cause of the difficulty of obtaining reliable in­formation from the Soviet Union.

Peasants Revolt in Russia

Manchester Guardian, October 21.— Washington, Oct. 21.—The Voice of America said in an oversea broadcast to-day that Russia had recently what was probably her most serious uprising in 10 years—a peasant revolt in the central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan. It was said to have happened in mid-August, when collective farm peasants clashed with M.V.D. (formerly G.P.U.) troops who were carrying out compulsory requisitioning under a new farm policy. De­tails were said to have been supplied by a

Turkmenian national who was in Kazakh­stan at the time. He was quoted as saying that peasants in widely separated regions had resisted when M.V.D. squads tried to seize small individually owned gardening plots.

M.V.D. troops were said also to have requisitioned horses, sheep, and other pri­vately owned livestock.—Reuter.

An Estimate of Russian Intentions in Europe

Foreign Policy Bulletin, November 15.— By Saul K. Padover. Dr. Saul K. Padover, Dean of the School of Politics, New School of Social Research, was a combat intelligence officer in the Psychological Warfare Division, U. S. Army, in France and Germany. He visited Western Germany and Berlin during the past summer.

The American decision to rearm Germany, despite the extreme reluctance of our Euro­pean allies, is based on two main assump­tions. One is that the Kremlin is ready at any moment to hurl its armed forces into Western Germany and, therefore, we must help the Germans defend themselves. The other is that a rearmed, and consequently powerful, Germany would be our ally.

Neither of these assumptions is based on realities.

There are at least four main reasons why the first assumption is fallacious; why, in other words, a Red Army invasion of West­ern Germany (or Europe in general) is not in the cards.

First, the pattern of Russian aggression has been political and not military. In Czechoslovakia, Korea, China—to mention but a few recent examples—the Russians used native Communists and not their own troops to seize power. This, together with propaganda and subversion, is still Russia’s basic tactic for world conquest. Germany is no exception.

Second, the masters of the Kremlin are Marxists who believe that history is on their side and that sooner or later Europe and the rest of the world will inevitably go Com­munist. Hence they think they can afford to wait.

Third, there is evidence to show that the Kremlin is afraid to expose its troops to Western civilization. In the first months of the occupation of Germany thousands of

Soviet troops deserted when they discovered that the Communists had lied to them about “capitalistic misery.” Indeed, so great is the Kremlin’s fear of exposing Red soldiers to Western influence that today Soviet troops in Eastern Germany and Austria are kept in confinement to their barracks. Only top Russians are permitted to have contact with Germans and Austrians.

Finally, and this is of course decisive, Moscow knows that the moment Red troops cross the present line, World War III will start automatically. The United States has given the Soviet Union clear warning to that effect. It is reasonable to assume that Mos­cow is aware that in case of war the United States could and would atomize, paralyze and knock out Russia’s vital centers. This probably would end the Communist regime and certainly the lives of the present rulers. The bosses of the Soviet Union are hardly anxious to commit suicide. They have every­thing to lose and nothing to gain from another world war.

OTHER COUNTRIES Switzerland: Military Reorganization

Revue de Defense Nationale, October.— Switzerland is methodically reorganizing her army, taking into account the lessons of the last war, experiments carried out in foreign armies, and the peculiar nature of Helvetian territory and the military traditions of the people.

Swiss strategy is characterized by a strictly defensive aspect linked to the neutral character of its foreign policy. A first or­ganizational reform permitted the suppres­sion of units which were not absolutely in­dispensable to an army called upon to con­duct such a campaign. The crisis of man­power, resulting from a decrease in the birth­rate since 1930 (whose culmination will be reached in 1960-1961) and the increasing technical complexity of modern armies have induced the High Command to effect econo­mies in cadres and men in both the general staffs and in the various old specialties.

Sweden: Military Effort

Revue de Defense Nationale, October.— The development of the polar route between the United States and the Soviet Union has increased the strategic importance of the Scandinavian Peninsula. A certain anxiety exists on this score in Swedish military cir­cles. Under the title “Are We Prepared?” an anonymous author pointed out some time ago in the Nouvelle Revue Militaire the weak­nesses in his country’s defense: “Materiel wears out and grows obsolete. Its renewal, begun after the war, is going on very slowly. The training of military recruits is insuffi­cient and too theoretical; it rar.ely calls for practical exercises. The Swedes,” says the writer, “have too many illusions on the neutrality of their country in a new conflict. History does not always repeat itself.” In another article entitled, “A Fault in Our Preparation Against a Coup de Force,” an officer expresses concern over the weakness of the Swedish coastal defense in the event of a blitz attack. A prolonged cruise of the Soviet naval attache from Stockholm in for­bidden waters of the Swedish coastal archi­pelago aroused strong sentiment in the entire country. The Swedish press reproached the local military authorities for their lack of vigilance and raised the problem of coastal defense.

This alarm incited Sweden to move for amelioration of its military organization. The 1951 military budget amounts to 1,200 mil­lion kroner (83 billion francs). The grouping of terrestrial forces has been modified to take account of climate, difficult terrain, and the sparsity of routes. The famous Swedish arms manufacturer that produced the Bofors 40 mm. AA gun has begun to put out an AA 120 mm. cannon which can fire 70 shots a minute with a vertical range of 13,000 meters. The 57 mm. gun firing 120 shots a minute, now used by Swedish forces is a con­siderable improvement over the 40 mm. gun. The gravity of the international situation has compelled the Swedish government to mod­ernize its partly obsolete military equipment.

Sovietization of Latvia

Die Deutsche Soldaten Zeitung, October 25.—With the forcible collectivization of Latvian agriculture in the Kolkhozes, the pressure of Soviet Russian authorities on the Latvian intelligentsia has been increasing. Through rigorous measures against all “bourgeois nationalism,” the suspicious ele-

ments will be denied a free choice of schools ^at the higher level. Such persons will be distributed among universities in the Rus­sian Socialized Federative Soviet Republic or to Central Asiatic institutes. In- this manner, pf the thousand or so students matriculated m Riga University, two hundred will be sent to Moscow and Leningrad, and some dozen more to Karaganda, Semipalatinsk, and Stalingrad.

Attention Focused on Submarines in Par East

Christian Science Monitor, October 24.— Recent visit to the Far East theater by Rear Admiral Charles B. Momsen, commander of America’s submarine fleet in the Pacific, has focused new attention on the potential ability of the Chinese Communists to expand the Korean war to include use of submarines.

Three things make consideration of sub­marine warfare an important adjunct to any planning for the Korean hostilities.

1.     The obvious fact that United Nations supply lines to Korea would make a vulner­able target for any effort at underwater war­fare.

2.     The fact that for some time Soviet sub­marine experts have been training Chinese Communist crews at such ports as Dairen and Tsingtao.

3.     Numerous submarine “contacts”—de­tection without action—have been reported in waters around Korea ever since the war began.

Command of the sea is vital to the United Nations forces in Korea. Except for limited transport of special needs by airplane, all re­quirements of the land, sea and air forces must come by ship.

In addition to a steady stream of tran .ports and cargo vessels supplying the needs of United Nations forces, a sizable naval force is maintained in Korean waters. Submarine attacks skillfully delivered on these vessels would pose a grave problem to meet.

Admiral William M. Fechteler, Chief of Naval Operations, says the Navy has antici­pated the possibility of “former” Russian submarines appearing in Korean waters and has adequate antisubmarine forces in the area. He also states that the United States Navy has made marked progress in antisub­marine warfare, and that the balance is turning in favor of the antisubmarine forces.

Nevertheless, the launching of submarine attacks by well-handled underwater craft could impose a vital strain on the personnel of the United Nations naval forces, and would make it necessary to extend antisub­marine protection to the sea lanes used by transports and freighters.

Russia is estimated to have some 120 sub­marines in the Far East, and about 350 in all. It has let it be known that it is with this weapon that it proposes to challenge the con­trol of the seas now held by the United States and Great Britain.

At the end of World War II, the Soviets obtained perhaps 10 complete modern Ger­man submarines and parts for a large num­ber of others. But what was of even more im­portance was the acquisition of plans, build­ing facilities, and German technicians and operators.

With all this, the question is, How effec­tive are Soviet submarines? The submarine is a tricky type of vessel to handle. A false move by only one man can spell disaster for craft and crew.

Ability to handle a submarine safely is only one phase of making it a successful ves­sel whose mission is to damage enemy craft.

Damage can be inflicted only if the target is brought within torpedo range and a hit is made. All of which is an art in itself. Further­more, the upkeep of a submarine is a specialty requiring an abundant supply of spare parts and workmen skilled in many trades.

It takes more than ships to make an effi­cient navy, as the Japanese, Germans, Rus­sians, and Italians have learned. There is the need for the feel of the sea, traditions and the will to fight. Russia has never been a navy- minded nation, and under the tsars its navy was a failure, eventually being crushed by the Japanese in 1904.

In both World Wars there were Russian submarines in the Baltic. They had a negligible record of success, despite the sur­passing opportunities afforded for making at­tacks on enemy ships.

The Soviets have been advertising a new deal in their Navy, but it remains to be seen how advanced notices are lived up to. Dur­ing the past few years there have been nu­merous reports of unknown submarines being sighted in various oceans, giving reason to believe that Russian submarines have been doing considerable cruising far from home waters. Perhaps it has been the intent of the Soviets to let this fact be surmised.

Conceded that Soviet submarines have attained a considerable degree of proficiency, that fact will not alter conditions in Korean waters unless Russian-manned submarines enter the fray openly or disguised as sub­marines taken over by North Koreans or Chinese.

Should such transfers be made, there is the matter of providing trained crews of the new nationalities. And if the trainees turn out to be no better than the trainers are held to be, the submarines under new management should have little success.

Japanese Develop F-1 Lens

Christian Science Monitor, October 24.— Tokyo.—The Tokyo Optical Company says it has perfected a camera lens that will revolutionize movie, television, and still photography.

The company, one of the leaders of Ja­pan’s fast-growing camera industry, claimed its new Simlar f.o.7 lens will permit pictures to be taken successfully under the light of a full moon at a shutter speed of one-fifth of a second.

According to the announcement, the lens has much greater light gathering power than the best now in commercial use, reported to be f 1.4.

The new Simlar product actually consists of eight lenses, and is too large for present commercial cameras. The Tokyo Optical Company is designing a new camera for it.

Company officials said they hope to begin commercial production next year and turn out 300 Simlar lenses and cameras monthly. The price of the lens alone, they estimate, will be $278.

AVIATION

Helicopters and Naval Fighters in Ko­rea

New York Times, November 3.—By Han­son W. Baldwin. Recent operations in Korea have reaffirmed the utility of some of the old and tested instruments of warfare and have proved new methods, techniques and equip­ment.

The most important new tactic has been the Marines’ use of helicopters—the first use of these craft as combat transports—to land troops on the peaks of the rugged Korean hills. Such an operation, when fully de­veloped, may revolutionize ground war tac­tics, particularly in broken terrain as in Korea, by enabling vertical envelopment of the enemy’s positions. Careful selection of positions to be seized and routes to be flown by the helicopters, and virtual air domina­tion are essential, since the helicopter is ex­ceedingly vulnerable to enemy fire.

The development of the helicopter for battlefield, or tactical, use means in effect that the ground commander has another source of transportation and concentration. He can put units, particularly in mountain country, into the front lines fresh and strong and not exhausted by miles of hiking and climbing.

As a front-line transportation unit the helicopter still requires much development— namely, more payload, speed, ceiling, re­liability. But potentially it possesses a mo­bility and versatility unequaled by parachute troops, glider-borne infantrymen, air-landed soldiers, or troops carried by surface trans­port.

Another development of major importance in Korea, especially in view of the increasing effectiveness of the enemy’s interception of our medium bombers, has been the utiliza­tion of Navy fighters, flown from carrier decks, to provide protection for B-29’s bombing targets remote from fighter bases on land. Advancement of this technique, and actual exercises to perfect it, had been urged long before the Korean war started, but no joint maneuvers of this type were held.

Some time ago, however, when Rashin, near the Soviet frontier in extreme north­eastern Korea, was bombed for the second time in the war, Navy carrier jet fighters cruising near by in the Sea .of Japan were the only fighters that could be used to protect the B-29’s. The nearest land bases were too far away to allow the safe use of land-based fighters, unless air refueling techniques, which are difficult at best and dangerous in a war zone, could have been employed.

The precedent set in the Rashin raid should be followed up in joint maneuvers, for

is clear that if war comes, daylight bomb­ing of Russia with subsonic bombers, un­accompanied by fighters, may entail pro­hibitive losses. Also there are Eurasian tar­gets that cannot be reached, without refuel- ^lng, by fighters from any available land bases.

The utility of naval aviation and the large role it is playing in Korea have been demon­strated further by recent figures. For the second quarter of 1951, 40 per cent of the combat sorties flown by United States air­craft in Korea (exclusive of B-29’s and trans­port aircraft) was flown by naval and Marine planes. In July, Navy-Marine combat sorties reached 6,000, or more than 45 per cent of the total sorties flown by United States fighters and light bombers. The percentage has increased since. In other words, Navy- Marine planes have been doing almost half of the combat flying in the fighter and light- bomber categories.

These figures must be qualified, however, for they include combat air patrol sorties as protection over carriers, and patrol missions around the Korean coasts. The Navy says that about 15 per cent of its total sorties represents patrol sorties. Because of the hazards of carrier operations, naval air operational accidents also are bound to be higher than for land-based planes.

New Navy Fighters

The Aeroplane, October 19.—Following the successful first flights last month of the McDonnell F3H-1 Demon jet fighter for the U. S. Navy, large production orders for the type have been placed. In addition to being built by McDonnell at their St. Louis plant, the Demon will also be constructed under license by Goodyear Aircraft Corp., hitherto primarily sub-contractors.

The Demon is a swept-wing single-seat fighter powered by a single Westinghouse J-40 engine of about 7,500 lb. s.t. without after-burning. An unusual feature is the use of a chin-type air intake in the underside of the forward fuselage—an arrangement which permits location of the armament in the finely pointed nose.

A new version of the Grumman Panther is reported to be under construction. Desig­nated the F9F-6, it reputedly has swept- back wings, which, combined with the Pratt and Whitney J-48 (Tay) engine, are ex­pected to give a maximum speed of about 700 m.p.h.

U. S. Air Force Flights to North Pole

[Summarized from notes in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 28, No. 7, 1947, p. 329; Arc­tic Circular, Vol. 1, No. 5, 1948, p. 46-48; and Popular Mechanics Magazine, Vol. 90, No. 5, 1948, p. 97-101, 262 and 264. It has not yet been possible to obtain of­ficial information on these important flights.]

Occasional weather reconnaissance flights by United States aircraft to the North Pole began early in 1946. The usual route, known as “Ptarmigan,” was from Ladd Field, near Fairbanks, direct to the North Pole by way of Point Barrow and return. In March 1947, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, commanded by Brigadier-General D. N. Yates, Chief of the Air Weather Section of the United States Army Air Force, covered the 3,200 mile route in 16j hours. In the summer of 1947 regular flights were made by weather reconnaissance aircraft every few days. Towards the end of 1947, after the establishment of the joint Canadian-United States weather stations known as Eureka, Resolute, Isachsen and Mould Bay, the “Ptarmigan” route was changed in favor of “Ptarmigan B,” from Ladd Field to the North Pole, either via Point Barrow or via Aklavik and Mould Bay (Prince Patrick Island), and return, the route being followed in a clockwise or anti­clockwise direction according to the weather. Since 1948 flights have been made on alter­nate days by aircraft of “A” Flight, No. 375 Reconnaissance Squadron (V.L.R.) Weather, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Karl T. Rauk, U.S.A.F.

The type of aircraft used is the Boeing B-29, stripped of armament and turrets and fitted with additional fuel tanks to carry some 8000 gallons of gasoline. The round trip of 3600 statute miles is usually covered in about 17 hours. A height of 10,000 ft. is maintained over the whole route. In addition to the normal crew of a B-29, consisting of a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, wireless operator, flight engineer and flight mechanics, it is usual to carry on these flights one or more radar operators. In addition, one or even two extra navigators are carried, because al­though radar equipment is useful for navi­gating along part of the route, frequent astronomical observations are necessary for checking the course and obtaining fixes over the polar pack.

The meteorologist, in the nose of the air­craft, makes observations of temperature, humidity, pressure, amount and type of cloud formation, turbulence, precipitation and visibility. The navigator provides the latitude and longitude references for each set of readings, and observes wind velocity. Ob­servations are made every 30 minutes during the flight and are at once transmitted in in­ternational code to Ladd Field or an inter­mediate station, and distributed from there by teletype to weather stations throughout the world.

Russian Interceptors Effective Against B-29s

New York Times, November 5.—By Han­son W. Baldwin. The danger of the jet inter­ceptor to the subsonic bomber has become more and more apparent as the air war in Korea has increased in intensity.

The dramatic clashes between the jets, and the unfortunate journalistic habit, encour­aged by the Air Force communiques, of lumping claims of enemy losses—destroyed, “probably destroyed,” and “damaged”— into one total have obscured the most im­portant lesson of the air clashes. That lesson is clear: that the enemy jets have been mak­ing more and more progress, as their num­bers and the skill of their pilots have in­creased, in attaining their fundamental mis­sion of intercepting and destroying or dam­aging the B-29’s.

In one recent raid by nine B-29’s against a target in northwestern Korea near the enemy’s “sanctuary” air bases in Man­churia, the Russian-built MiG’s shot down three—or one-third—of the B-29’s involved and damaged virtually every one of the rest. One United States jet fighter also was lost in the series of swirling air battles the raid caused. The Air Force claimed eight enemy jets as definitely destroyed, and others as damaged; yet this action, which was a defi­nite defeat for the United Nations forces,

was generally hailed as an air victory.

The MIG-15, designed and utilized pri­marily as an interceptor, is, in other words, achieving its mission in Korea. Its heavy guns—23- and 37-mm.—do havoc against a B-29, and its threat to such subsonic bomb­ers, even on the shallow penetrations United Nations air power is making in North Korea, is now a major one—so major that the United Nations forces have been forced, whenever using B-29’s to attack targets in extreme northwestern Korea, to raid by night—bombing by radar—or, if raids are made by day, to accompany the bombers with an overwhelming force of fighters. Re­cently, for instance, eight B-29’s were pro­tected by 112 fighters—a relative concentra­tion of fighter to bomber strength that once would have been thought unjustifiable, ex­cept for atomic-bomb carriers.

Still another element of the air war in Korea that is not clearly understood is that the United States has lost—despite the edge in the jet versus jet battles—far more planes than the enemy. Yet these losses have by no means halted the world-wide build-up of United States air strength. The Red losses, which are probably considerably less than United States claims would indicate (just as enemy losses were smaller than United States day-to-day claims in World War II), are in no sense crippling; like the United States, the enemy’s air power has increased in strength in Korea and throughout the world.

The United States is losing more planes than the enemy for several reasons: (1) it is on the offensive, the enemy on the defensive; (2) it is utilizing more planes and flying far more sorties than the enemy is doing; (3) it is providing close ground support for United Nations troops; the enemy is not; (4) the enemy’s principal air bases are in Man­churia, invulnerable to attack; (5) enemy anti-aircraft, which has increased greatly in effectiveness particularly against low-flying close-support planes, and operational losses or accidents, account for the major share of United States losses.

Here is the most recent approximate breakdown available of relative aircraft losses from the war’s beginning to Oct. 1 for the Navy, Oct. 23 for the Air Force:

* Estimated.

These figures are indicative rather than exact. There is some slight duplication in the admitted losses, and the estimate of land- based operational losses is merely that; the Air Force has never released its exact losses because of accidents. The United Nations Forces do not know the enemy’s operational losses, which would add perhaps another 100 to 300 planes to his losses. Neither table in­cludes damaged planes.

In addition to the air lessons learned in Korea, the fighting has re-emphasized em­phatically the absolute necessity of sea power in modern war. Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball recently revealed that the Military Sea Transportation Service, oper­ated by the Navy, has carried to the Far East since the Korean war started 11,000,000 measurement tons of dry cargo, 7,000,000 long tons of petroleum products and 500,000 troops. The Navy’s supply vessels and oilers have carried additional amounts for the use of the Fleet. The war in Korea could not have been fought without ships, which are, and will remain, the backbone of military logis­tics.

British Launch Huge Flying Boat

Christian Science Monitor, November 2.— Cowes, England.—Britain’s largest flying boat, the 140-ton Saunders-Roe Princess, costing more than $8,400,000, was taken out of its hangar here recently for the final stages of construction The 105-passenger plane— the first of three being built for the Royal Air Force coastal command—is expected to make its first flight in a few months’ time.

New Carriers Handle Heavier Planes

Washington Post, November 13.—The substantial increase in naval air strength recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff will include not only more but bigger, harder- hitting planes flying off the decks of new or modernized carriers.

This picture emerged yesterday out of a discussion with naval airmen about the Navy’s project to build an ultra-modern, flush-deck carrier and the planes that will be ready for her when she is finished in late 1953 or 1954.

Meanwhile, the continued program of re­building flight decks, elevators, hangar fa­cilities and other topside equipment of exist­ing carriers will make them ready for using heavier attack aircraft and the longer-range jet fighters even before new carriers are in the fleet.

The carrier, the U.S.S. Forrestal, which will cost 218 million dollars, is to be a proto­type carrier for an entirely new family of flattops.

Although actual construction can’t be started until sometime next year, orders for an initial supply of several thousand tons of steel have been placed.

The Forrestal will be a 59,900-ton ship, 1040 feet long, with a flight deck as wide as 252 feet at one point. A multiple system of catapults will allow simultaneous launching of four planes—a feature vitally needed when sudden action is demanded. She will have aboard more men than any fighting ship in the world—3500. This compares with about 2700 for the 45,000-ton Midway class carriers.

Because the Forrestal will have a flight deck unobstructed by the conventional island, she will be able to launch and land bombers of range far greater than those now used in regular carrier operations.

Reds Struggle for Airfields in Korea

Christian Science Monitor, November 13.— A grim race is under way in northwest Korea

between United Nations bombers and Com­munist airport builders.

The Communists are striving to move their jet bases, now in the sanctuary of Man­churia, some 50 miles nearer the zone of ground operations. But to do so their must be new airfields. These have now been under constant construction and constant attack for sometime. The outcome is not yet certain, but Pentagon sources leave no doubt that this threat is regarded as very serious.

A 50-mile advance for jet air bases may not seem worth the effort, especially since these bases, near Sinanju, would be outside the Manchurian sanctuary. But a base 50 miles nearer the combat zone in a tight operational area such as North Korea can mean a great difference to jet aircraft, with their limited fuel capacity.

Moreover, the new fields already are being guarded by radar-controlled anti-aircraft batteries whose fire is reported uncomfort­ably accurate. Once made operational, with defense squadrons as well as flak, it is be­lieved the bases could be so maintained.

MERCHANT MARINE

Ships Powered by Gas Turbines Planned

Herald Tribune, November 16.—A gas- turbine propulsion engine will be installed aboard a C-3 cargo vessel in the next three years, it was predicted yesterday at the fifty- ninth annual meeting of the Naval Archi­tects and Marine Engineers held at the Waldorf-Astoria.

The prediction was made by Comdr. John J. McMullen, U.S.N., in a paper entitled “A Gas-Turbine Plant with Reference to a Cargo Vessel.” Comdr. McMullen reported that “extensive gas-turbine development during the last ten years has demonstrated a value of this type of propulsion for marine use.”

“There are- several plants specifically de­signed for marine propulsion which will be installed in the next three years,” he said. “The simplicity of operation, reduced weight, space and maintenance, good efficiency and the ever increasing dependability which is being attained through the perfection of high-tempered materials will insure its suc­cess in ship propulsion.”

Comdr. McMullen’s prediction was the first general announcement that work is pro­gressing in this country on development of gas-propulsion as the next great advance in ship power plants since a Maritime Com­mission experiment to install a gas-turbine aboard a collier was abandoned five years ago.

The gas-turbine was also the subject of a paper by Comdr. W. T. Sawyer, of the Navy Bureau of Ships. Comdr. Sawyer reported that four gas-turbine engines have seen serv­ice afloat to date in six installations. Most were adaptations of airplane turbines, “but of greatest general significance, a 1,200 horse­power British long-life recuperative engine has just been installed as part of the propul­sion plant, of the British tanker Amis where it will provide first extensive experience afloat for merchant ship type plants,” he said.

Comdr. McMullen said the “possibilities and arrangements for gas-turbine units are practically infinite, and it is necessary to limit these possibilities to one specific pur­pose.” He added that the C-3 type vessel “has been selected” because the operational demands and space requirements are not as strenuous as in a naval vessel.

“The vessel will be a single screw and the normal shaft horsepower shall be adequate to maintain a sea speed of at least sixteen and a half knots when loaded to a mean draft of 27.3 feet,” he noted.

Gas-turbine plants weigh only 30 per cent of that of a comparable steam plant and take up 25 per cent less space than a steam plant.

Vice-Adm. Edward L. Cochrane, head of the Federal Maritime Board, who attended the meeting, said that the Navy has not yet approached his board for a C-3 type vessel for the experiment. He added that he ex­pected a request for such a vessel would probably be made although the Navy could use a C-3 attack cargo ship for the project.

SCIENCE

Expedition Finds Larvae of Sea Ser­pents

Christian Science Monitor, November 19.— Monster eels, up to 100 feet long, may be swimming in the deepest ocean waters, ac­cording to Hakon Mielche, a writer attached

to the Danish round-the-world deep sea expedition.

He said the expedition had found six-feet- long larvae of eels at great depths off the Philippines. “This means that monster deep- sea eels could exist,” he said.

The 14 natural scientists aboard the spe­cially-equipped Danish Navy frigate Gala- thea also found fish at 22,000 feet, the great­est depth at which fish have been found. Most of them had no eyes.

They also found good-eating shrimp at 5,000 feet, each weighing one pound.

A New Design for Engineering Re­search

Herald, Tribune, November 13.—A great vision that in its reality could bring to this nation and to all free peoples lasting benefits beyond present imagination was unfolded at last night’s dinner given at the Waldorf- Astoria by the Columbia University Engi­neering Center Development Fund. It is the vision of a new kind of gathering place for study and research by men whose efforts to advance the frontiers of knowledge have for their ultimate aim “the advancement of so­ciety and the health, welfare and comfort of all the people” Columbia University’s pro­jected $22,150,000 engineering center—-for which a fund drive is now launched—would bring together from all over the world leaders in every branch of the engineering sciences. These men would have at the center freedom and facilities to do engineering research that would merge not only with pure science but with the social and political sciences. Here, to paraphrase a concept of the vision given by Dr. John R. Dunning, dean of the uni­versity’s School of Engineering, would be at work a force which by advancing the stand­ard of living for the world’s growing popula­tion would help to fulfill man’s fundamental needs. And by removing that basic cause of international strife, this would be, indeed, a force for lasting peace.

But just as importantly in this present period of threatened security, the center would help to bulwark the nation’s defense effort by overcoming the dangerous shortage of engineers trained in the many technologies upon which national security rests. Here, also, would be a research clinic for the engi­neering problems of industry and of all the complex mechanisms that support the world’s greatest system of free enterprise. Practi­cally, the center would permit the univer­sity’s School of Engineering to expand and increase its effectiveness in all directions, and most of all through two new, powerful teach­ing arms—an International Institute for Ad­vanced Engineering Science and a Division of Co-operative Engineering Research.

Advances Made in Long Range Pho­tography

New York Times, October 25.—Chicago, Oct. 24.—Telescopic optical systems that photograph missiles in flight on motion pic­ture cameras at a distance of three miles and beyond were described here today at the meeting of the Optical Society of America.

The report was presented by A. G. de Bell, E. P. Martz and C. M. Arney, staff physi­cists at the United States Naval Ordnance Test Station in Inyokern, at China Lake, Calif.

The optical society is one of the five com­ponent units of the American Institute of Physics meeting here jointly this week on the twentieth anniversary of the institute.

The photographs were of missiles being tested on the great Mojave Desert ranges of the Navy’s test station, the area of which is equivalent to the size of Rhode Island.

The scale of the photographs taken by these astronomical-type instruments is so great that at a distance of three miles a fighter plane completely fills a standard mo­tion picture frame.

Navy Strikes Oil in Alaska

Christian Science Monitor, November 17.—• Umiat, Alaska.—The United States Navy has confirmed the finding here of an oil field containing an estimated 30 to 151 million barrels.

The discovery is of sufficient importance to warrant continuation of exploration, be­gun in 1944, for more oil in this and adjacent regions, said the Navy’s petroleum advisory committee in Denver.

The Umiat field lies in a long, shallow structure covering about 80 square miles on the northern slope—the Arctic side—of the

Brooks mountains about 350 miles north­west of Fairbanks.

It is possible that other and more exten­sive fields exist in the same general region, which is known as Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4, embracing 37,000 square miles be­tween here and Barrow, Alaska, on the Arctic Ocean.

Navy Perfects Underwater Television

Herald Tribune, November 12.—The Navy last night announced the development, after three years’ research, of an underwater television process which will protect as well as aid human divers.

“Television cameras can explore undersea areas to help divers spot and prepare for dangerous situations,” said Rear Admiral Homer N. Wallin, chief of the Bureau of Ships. “In addition, they may be used to ob­serve the work of divers, making possible shipboard coordination of underwater ac­tivities.”

INTERNATIONAL Navy Privateers at Malta

The Aeroplane, October.—In her World­wide network of air bases, the United States has hitherto had few facilities in the Central Mediterranean area, but this state of affairs is now being rectified. Following the estab­lishment of large U.S.A.F. bases in North­west Africa, it has been announced that a patrol squadron of Convair PB4Y Privateer aircraft of the U. S. Navy will be based at Luqa, Malta, to strengthen allied Mediter­ranean air defence.

In all, about 300 U. S. personnel will be in­volved. The Privateers will operate along­side the squadron of maritime reconnaissance Lancasters which have been operating from Luqa for some considerable time.

Withdrawal of U. S. Ground Forces Speculated Upon

Manchester Guardian, October 16.—Paris, October 15.—A senior official at S.H.A.P.E. (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers) said to-day that the United States planned to be­gin withdrawing all its ground forces from Europe within the next two and a half years. The official asserted that the United States contribution to the defence of Europe would thereafter consist principally of strategic air- power bases on “friendly” European terri­tory, plus the striking power available from aircraft-carriers in the Atlantic and Mediter­ranean.

The import of this official’s remarks was that the three United States divisions al­ready in Germany and the fourth on the way—the 43rd—can probably hope to be home by Christmas, 1954. United States officers are basing their planning on the as­sumption that the next twelve months offer an aggressor a golden opportunity to strike in the West. They assume that Northern Germany would be the logical route of at­tack, but are prepared for assaults on any other sector.

The United States Congressional contro­versy over whether four, six, or how many di­visions should be committed to the West European front appears slightly academic to military planners in Europe. They are confi­dent that the West European nations will build up sufficient ground forces to effect a “delaying action” if Russia should strike within the next two years. But they are wor­ried about their airpower. Their chief con­cern is how to get enough fixed bases for the fighter squadrons they want to have avail­able to put into the air.—British United Press.

Air Force Speeds African Bases

New York Times, October 21.—Rabat, French Morocco, Oct. 21.—The United States Air Force, pressed to expand its facili­ties in North Africa quickly, has planes operating today out of two new strategic bases of enormous size. Negotiations between the French and United States Governments regarding a third base have been concluded. In addition, at least two more strategic bases will be built in French Morocco.

The new bases are intended for the use of the longest-range bombers, heaviest trans­ports and the “hottest” jet fighters. From them the bombers will be able to strike at targets spread over half the globe and the transports will be able to supply installations thousands of miles away.

Six months ago the bases were being planned. A few months later their construc­tion was begun, and now they are opera-