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Edited by Commander William G. Holman, U. S. Navy
United States............................................................................................................................. 916
Defense Department Policy on Pay Raise Switched—Seizure of U. S. Ship by Panama Fought—Cathodic Protection for Reserve Fleet—U. S. Ship Conversion in Japanese Yards—-New Navy Boats Ride on Wings—First Atomic Shell Fired—Court Guards Military Justice
u.s.s.r.......................................................................................... :................................................... 920
Russia Seen Catching up with West’s Industrial Production—Engineers Warned of Russian Threat—Soviet’s Iron Ore and Coal Worsen—Lowered Standards of Living within Soviet Sphere—- Slovak Says Soviet Set Oil Field Fires—Lord Montgomery States Russia Changing Tactics not Policy ■
Other Countries....................................................................................................................... 924
German Analysis of Soviet Combat Strength—British Unveil Design for 131 Passenger Jet—Turkey Willing to Discuss Straits—- Gas Turbine to Power British Tanker
Science........................................................................................................................................... 927
A.E.C. Chairman Discloses New Supply of Atomic Materials—U. S.
Has Begun Program to Make Hydrogen Bombs—Atom, Gas-Turbine Team Would Be Hottest Unit Yet—Underwater TV Camera May Solve “Phantom Layer” Secret
UNITED STATES
Defense Department Policy on Pay Raise Switched
Naval Affairs, June 1953.—Probably as a result of so many complaints received by the Womble Committee, which was set up by Secretary of Defense Wilson to study the future of the military services as a career that will attract capable personnel, it is evident that Secretary Wilson has concluded that there is a necessity of tying in the cost of living to pay and has sent a pay raise proposal to the Bureau of the Budget.
In the May issue of Naval Affairs it was pointed out that President Eisenhower had cause for concern as to why the Armed Forces no longer attracts capable men to make the Services their careers.
The Womble Committee, headed by Rear Admiral J. P. Womble, Jr., USN, was established to ascertain the cause for dissatisfaction. A committee has made a report to the Admiral and although the contents thereof has not been made available, it has been learned that the many letters—both critical and constructive—had been received and indicated that duty stabilization, responsibility and prestige were the main three categories that needed correction.
With regard to stabilization, men complain that they are not able to develop a satisfactory family life because of too frequent transfers between assignments within the U. S. Navy men in particular find it difficult to keep the family happy because of long tours of sea duty or transfers to overseas bases.
As to responsibility, a great many criticisms were heard, particularly from NCO’s petty officers and junior officers (0-3 and below) who claim they are not given either the authority or responsibility of which they are capable. These men believe that they should exercise leadership. Enlisted men of the top four grades maintain they have very little authority, respect or responsibility. The junior officers feel that their right to make decisions, etc., has been usurped by their seniors.
The senior officers complain that they have lost prestige and respect due them because of assignments inconsistent with their higher rank. Loss of privileges and prestige, particularly where compensation is not as attractive as in civilian life, has taken much of the shine from military careers.
To offset the foregoing complaints and to make the Services a career, the Department of Defense has called upon the Bureau of the Budget to indicate the Administration’s official attitude toward a pay adjustment for members of the Uniformed Services. It has also been learned that the Bureau of the Budget has been studying a bill—H. R. 1437—introduced by Congressman Jimmie Van Zandt, (Republican from Pennsylvania, and a Captain in the Naval Reserve), which would tie military pay to the Cost-of- Living-Index. As a precedent for support for a raise in pay by the Bureau of the Budget, it is to be noted that the Bureau of the Budget has stated that the policemen and firemen of the District of Columbia are justified a pay raise up to 8 per cent to cover increases in the cost of living. The District policemen and firemen received a 10% boost in October 1951, in comparison to the average 5% boost for service personnel in May 1952.
From present indications here in Washington, the firemen and policemen will get their boost in pay.
Because of the lack of interest in the personnel of the Armed Forces by the Congress, and their many disparaging remarks at various times, it is evident that the Department of Defense has seen fit to inform the people of the country as to the needs of stopping disparaging remarks, and bringing the people’s attention to the necessity of raising service pay commensurate with that in civilian life. On May 5, Secretary of the Army Robert T. Stevens delivered an address at Milledgeville, Ga., the home city of Congressman Carl Vinson, minority leader of the House Armed Forces Committee, on the problem of the decreasing prestige and benefits of the military service and warned to provide one or more annuities, payable after his death, to his widow or children. To clarify and improve certain features of the proposed legislation, it was necessary to prepare a new draft and on May 20, Congressman Cole introduced H. R. 5304. Several high ranking officers and organizations testified on H. R. 5304 and highly recommended
its enactment. The bill has been favorably reported by the House Armed Forces Committee.
All categories of Service personnel would be eligible to participate—officers, warrant officers, enlisted, etc.—and the plan would apply to both regulars and reserve. Participation, unlike the provisions of former bills, would be voluntary. The amounts that would be deducted from the retired pay and the monthly pay to be given to the survivors are not set forth in the bill, but would be based on actuarial tables. However, the bill provides that personnel may elect one or more of the following annuities, payable under the Act, in such amount, expressed as a percentage of the reduced amount of the retired pay, as the individual might specify at the time of election, in amounts equal to one- half, one-quarter or one-eighth of the reduced amount of the individual’s retired pay. The annuities offered are:
(a) An annuity payable to his widow;
(b) An annuity payable to his surviving child or children;
(c) An annuity payable to his widow and surviving children;
(NOTE: In each of the above instances the annuity stops at specified times—death or remarriage of widow, child reaches 18 years of age, etc.)
(d)An annuity payable under the same provisions as above but with the additional provision that no further reductions be made from the retired pay if the beneficiary dies or becomes ineligible before the death of the principal.
Unlike previous survivor bills, H. R. 5304 has the support of the insurance companies.
Seizure of U. S. Ship by Panama Fought
New York Times, 15 June.—Attorneys for the United States tuna clipper Star Crest have asked Efrain Correa, Captain of the Port (equivalent to Collector of Customs), to reconsider his order confiscating the vessel for alleged violation of Panamanian laws. They contend he lacked jurisdiction because the ship never was within the three-mile limit.
The Star Crest, valued at $350,000 and owned by the Star and Crescent Boat Company of San Diego, Calif., was seized May 20 off the Pacific coast of Panama by National Police disguised as fishermen. They had intercepted a launch fishing for live bait (sardines) in Panamanian waters without a permit.
The craft was fined $3,000 for violation of fishing license regulations and this conviction has not been contested and the fine has been paid. However, that did not satisfy the authorities of Panama.
Now the vessel has been fined an additional $2,500 and ordered confiscated. The master was fined $1,000 for having entered a port that is not authorized to receive ships and to which the Afar Crest was not destined, and $1,000 for not having had documents required for entry. A fine of $500 was imposed for permitting members of his crew to talk to persons from shore before the vessel had officially entered.
Cathodic Protection for U. S.
Reserve Fleet
The Log, May 1953.-—The program for controlling hull corrosion by the cathodic system at the reserve fleet anchorages at Wilmington, N. C.; James River, Va.; and Hudson River, New York continues. At James River the program is about 80% complete and all ships are scheduled to be under cathodic protection within a month. At this site magnesium anodes are suspended at varying depths over the side of the ship to provide the necessary electrical current. At the Wilmington anchorage, the method used is known as the “impressed current system, using carbon anodes buried along the shore line with the anodes being charged by external current from a separate source. The contracts for the installation of the necessary apparatus at this anchorage have been let and the work is expected to be completed and all ships under protection by Sept. 1. The Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army, is in charge of the work.
At the Hudson River, where current is already available adjacent to the reserve fleet anchorage, all necessary equipment has been purchased and completion of delivery will be made during the early summer. It is anticipated that all ships in the Hudson River anchorage will be under cathodic pro-
tection by Sept. 1. Because of the existing facilities there the work of installing the cathodic system is greatly simplified and Maritime Administration reserve fleet personnel are making the entire installation.
No work is being done at the Gulf or West Coast reserve fleet anchorages at present. Current planning calls for the installation of cathodic protection at these sites during the next fiscal year.
U. S. Ship Conversion Going to Japanese Yards
New York Herald Tribune.—The multi- million-dollar job of converting three American Hawaiian Steamship Co. C-4 freighters into combination tanker-ore carriers has been lost to United States shipyards and awarded to Japanese yards because Congress refused to appropriate ship construction subsidy funds, it was learned yesterday.
E. P. Farley, American Hawaiian president, said the construction work is scheduled to begin in Japan before the end of the year. One Japanese yard offered to do the work for $1,600,000 a ship while the lowest American bidder was the Maryland Drydock Co., of Baltimore, which would have done the same job for $3,173,100 a ship. Most of the work will be free of customs duties.
Mr. Farley was reluctant to discuss company plans, other than to say that the three ships were destined to carry ore from Labrador and that the Hollinger-Hanna-Republic Steel group was interested in the new type vessels. He said they would be operated under the American flag with American crews.
Had No Choice
Mr. Farley stated that while his company would have accepted a subsidy that would have equalized United States construction costs with those in foreign yards—to keep the work in this country, there was no other choice but to have it done at the lowest cost.
The three ships scheduled for conversion were once part of American Hawaiian’s intercoastal fleet, and are now chartered to the Navy’s Military Sea Transportation Service. The company discontinued intercoastal operation last February.
New Navy Boats Ride On “ Wings”
New York Herald Tribune, 1 June 1953.— The United States Navy announced tonight it is testing two types of hydrofoil boats— small craft with “underwater wings” which have attained speeds of fifty knots.
Hydrofoils, attached to the hull of a boat, can support the craft in water in the same fashion as wings support planes in the air. When a hydrofoil boat attains sufficient speed—and because of the “wings” more power is needed at low speed—its hull lifts from the water and the craft is entirely supported by the hydrofoil.
Devices Described
Describing the devices, the Navy said:
“Surfaces of hydrofoils are similar in design to an aircraft wing. They produce lift in the water in the same manner that an airplane wing moving through air generates lift. When the hull is out of water and the boat is riding on the hydrofoils, less water friction results and higher speeds can be attained.
“Because of water resistance to hydrofoils before lifting speed is reached, boats of this type require greater power at slow speeds than conventional types.
“Hydrofoils are expected to be applicable to various boats and small craft. A Swedish ferry using hydrofoils has a speed of approximately 35 knots. A German hydrofoil boat constructed during the war attained speeds of approximately 50 knots.”
First Atomic Shell Fired From a Gun Opens Still Another Phase of Military Tactics
New York Times, 1 June 1953.—The firing of the first atomic shell from a 280-millimeter gun on the proving ground in Nevada was of historical importance. There is no doubt that the weapon will have some effect on our military policy and that of Soviet Russia, which has the largest standing army in the world. The first group of atomic artillery battalions will be sent to Europe toward the end of this year or the beginning of next.
In 1945 when two atomic bombs were dropped in Japan no one dreamed that it
would ever be possible to make a plutonium bomb small enough to be fired from a 12-inch gun. The bombs that reduced Hiroshima and Nagasaki were so large and heavy that they could be carried only by B-29’s. Each bomb must have weighed nearly ten tons. The 11 or 12 inch shell that was fired in Nevada probably weighed no more than a ton.
Back of the shell’s achievement lies a bitter controversy between the Air Force and the Navy. Because the first A-bombs were so big and heavy that they could be carried and dropped only by the largest planes, we thought of uranium and plutonium in terms of strategic bombing, that is, bombing of densely populated communities and industrial centers. Strategic bombing was naturally a task of the Air Force. When it was suggested that smaller “nuclear weapons,” as they were politely called, might be developed for tactical use—that is, for use on the battlefield against troops—the Air Force bristled in opposition. If small nuclear weapons—that is, small A-bombs—were to be used tactically, an aircraft carrier would be as good a base as any suitable field on land.
Impact on Policy
We now have a whole series of nuclear weapons that can be directed against enemy ground troops. That there will be some effect on Soviet military policy is certain. Gen. Omar Bradley testified before a Congressional committee that “if you did not oppose them, the Russians could walk across Europe at 100-yard intervals and walk all the way to the Channel, and you would never get an A-bomb target.” He meant that the A-bomb was a strategic weapon and would not be effective in a tactical situation. If he had to testify today on the European military situation, General Bradley would probably say • that the new tactical nuclear weapons strengthen the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and that the thin line of troops that now faces the Russians along the Eastern German border is therefore a little more formidable than it was a year ago.
The military worth of the atomic shell and other nuclear devices that have been developed is hard to appraise. One reason is that virtually nothing is known about the uses of the new weapons and the influence that they will have in battle. Military commanders are agreed that infantry, tanks and all the apparatus required to wage World War II are still indispensable. But how are the new weapons to be integrated with the old? As yet there is no sign of integration, which is not to be wondered at, considering the very recent emergence of tactical atomic shells, bombs and missiles.
Neu’ Court Guards Military Justice
New York Times, 14 June 1953.-—During the Civil War a son of Edwin M. Stanton, President Lincoln’s Secretary of War, was hanged for mutiny by the Navy almost immediately after his trial by court-martial. Even the son of a Cabinet member had no appeal from a death sentence imposed and swiftly executed under military law.
That could not happen now. A review of a court-martial death sentence by the United States Court of Military Appeals is mandatory under the new Uniform Code of Military Justice that went into effect May 31, 1951. The “baby” court of the Federal judicial system has judges appointed from civil life and is being called the “GI’s Supreme Court.”
Decisions oe Court Final
The new tribunal is the court of last appeal for all those convicted by court-martial. No machinery is provided for an appeal from its decisions to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Many jurists, including the Chief Justice of the United States, Fred M. Vinson, have explored in a preliminary way the question of whether such an appeal could be taken, but the point probably will not be decided until a test case is brought.
The chief function of the Court of Military Appeals is to equate civilian and military justice. Judge Robert E. Quinn, chief judge of the court, described it this way:
“The function of this court is to safeguard the rights of individuals which too often are ignored or violated by military organizations.”
The jurisdiction of the court, however,
extends only to questions of law. It does not go behind the facts as adduced at the military trial. It has no power of clemency.
Misconceptions have arisen, even during the short life of the court, concerning its power and functions. Service men discharged for bad conduct years ago have appealed to it to reverse their convictions. Families of soldiers and sailors sentenced by court- martial have asked it to reduce the sentences or give exoneration. These things the court cannot do, no matter how harsh it might deem the punishment involved.
Ratio of Reversals High
From the civilian point of view, at least, sentences imposed by military courts in the field are often pretty severe. These field sentences are reviewed, however, by the military authority that convened the court and by the military review boards and often are reduced before cases reach the Court of Military Appeals.
Nevertheless, the appeals court reverses the court-martial decisions in almost half of the cases it reviews. This is not because of the severity of the sentences but because of legal errors in the record.
Some high military officials and commanders in the field look with apprehension on the actions of the court, chiefly because of the effect they have on discipline. Discipline is more difficult to maintain, they assert, when those in the ranks know they can appeal to a civilian tribunal from the punishment meted out under military procedures.
When the Uniform Code was submitted to Congress it was opposed by many military officers on the grounds that military justice was equitable and adequate and that to set up a civilian tribunal as the apex of the military judicial system was not only unnecessary but bad policy.
According to Judge Latimer, however, there are already signs that the rules and judgments of the new court are serving to raise the standards of the military courts. Armed forces judges, he remarked, did not like to have their judgments reversed any more than did judges in civilian courts.
Under the new system, Judge Latimer asserted, the legal safeguards for those in service were greater than the safeguards for the civilian public.
U.S.S.R.
Russia Seen Catching up with West's Industrial Production
Christian Science Monitor, 6 June 1953.— A Russia well on the way to catch up with the industrial production of the western powers and even surpass it emerges from several well-documented studies of the Soviet economy.
According to these studies the Soviet Union has made adequate preparations to meet retaliation bombing and all-out aerial warfare. European experts believe that in case of a war, which they do not consider inevitable, both the United States and Russia could do each other immeasurable harm and that neither could work out a foolproof system of protection.
These are the views held, for instance, by Germany’s Dr. Walter Leimbach whose comprehensive volume on the Soviet Union’s economic geography is about to appear in a second edition. In a paper published in a leading geographical review he has presented what might be called the strategic quintessence of his findings. He brings out the following points:
1. The Russians have long reconciled themselves to the fact that in case of war their major cities would be bombed into empty husks. Their arsenals and essential installations have therefore long been hidden underground.
Wide Dispersal Avoided
2. Recognizing that distance from enemy bases is no longer a very important factor, because there is almost no limit to the range of modern bombers, they have found that more is lost than gained by too large dispersal of armament industries. Instead of dispersing their factories and mills in the endless steppes of Siberia, they have grouped them in “packages” around their principal power resources in the neighborhood of populated areas where manpower for finishing industries is available. Some of these “packages” are almost the size of France and Rritain.
3. The Soviet strategic master plan consists in building up a fighter plane capacity of at least 100,000 planes a year. As far as the effect of bombing is concerned, the Russians believe that it does not matter whether a city is destroyed in one minute by an atom bomb delivered by a single plane or in one hour by ordinary high explosives delivered by a large number of planes. They therefore concentrate upon their aviation industry rather than upon atom bombs.
As Dr. Leimbach sees it, Russia’s three essential strategic requirements are aluminum, power and oil. He believes that the Russians soon will have enough of each.
Soviet Aluminum Needs
According to his calculations, the Kremlin would need 240,000 tons of aluminum to build every year 94,000 planes of the fighter type. This is more aluminum than they today can afford to allocate to their aviation industry. Production of bauxite, the raw material from which aluminum is made, theoretically would allow Russia to equal the combined aluminum output of the United States and Canada in 1943—close to 1,300,000 tons. This would require 4,000,000 tons of bauxite of the Russian type, which was the target set in the fourth five- year plan. Geologically this target is realistic. If it has not been attained already, it probably will be attained shortly.
But there also is the problem of power. Dr. Leimbach figures that the roughly
250,0 tons of aluminum which the Soviets turn out today swallow up at least 5,000,000,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, or 4.8 per cent of the Soviet total for 1951. While this is not a very large share, Russia apparently does not have sufficient surplus power to match North America’s aluminum production peak, reached in 1943. A few years hence, however, enough power may be available in the Stalingrad and Kuibyshev power stations which are to have a capacity of
10,0, 000,000 kilowatt-hours each.
End or Fuel Problem Seen
By then the question of fuel also will be solved. On the basis of German wartime figures, Dr. Leimbach assumes that it takes
1.800.0 tons of kerosene to keep 20,000 rocket planes 33 hours in the air. These
1.800.0 tons, or 12,600,000 barrels, would be required for training purposes only. At the present rate of production it would be difficult for the Soviets to fuel the huge fighter fleet their factories are scheduled to turn out. Russian agriculture alone consumes 9,000,000 tons of petroleum fuel a year for its tractors and other mechanized equipment. Total oil production at present is less than 50,000,000 tons.
Dr. Leimbach and other German experts think, however, that the Soviets soon will break this bottleneck. They assume that by 1960, Russia will turn out, not only 60,000,000 tons of oil—the long-range target set by Stalin in 1946—but about 100,000,000 tons, or almost one-third of America’s 1951 output.
Allocations Compared
The strategic importance of Russia’s
100,0, 000 tons will be much larger than that of the same quantity in the United States, where more than one-third of the total production is consumed by automobiles. The Soviets, on the other hand, are hard at work to save oil through increased use of electrical machines in agriculture and new types of tractors such as the Diesel Kirov- yets 35, which will cut kerosene consumption by more than one-third.
The over-all picture, according to this estimate, is favorable for the Soviet Union. Although Dr. Leimbach avoids a general political appraisal, this patient and methodical fact finder intimates repeatedly that the time has long passed for superficial and complacent statistical comparisons. What matters first, in his opinion, are not the quantities of oil, steel, etc., produced in the West and by the Soviet bloc, but rather the strategic weight or significance of production items and their relation to domestic requirements, and the tempo of development. Seen in this perspective, he is inclined to attach much more real importance to Moscow’s percentage increase figures than they usually are given in this country.
Engineers Warned of Russian Threat
New York Times.—Members of the graduating class of the Stevens Institute of Technology were told today that they, as a part of the 19,000 graduates of engineering schools in the United States this year, would face the “long-distance” competition of the
50,0 engineers Russia will turn out this year.
The warning was given by Don G. Mitchell, chairman of the board of Sylvania Electric Products, Inc., who was the principal speaker at the eighty-first commencement of Stevens. The graduation was attended by 1,800 persons on the lawn of Castle Stevens here.
Mr. Mitchell, who received an honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering for his contributions to the packaging and electronics industries, cautioned that the achievements of Russia’s 50,000 engineering graduates this year would be directed against the world, rather than toward its betterment.
“The work you do,” he said, “will be influenced directly or indirectly by what your counterparts do in Russia. Yours will be a long-distance competition against enormous odds.”
Soviet's Iron Ore and Coal Worsen
New York Times, 8 June, 1953.—The Soviet Union’s iron and steel industry has been forced by depletion of its richest iron ore resources to turn to poorer quality ores, the leading Soviet metallurgist, Prof. I. P. Bardin, has revealed in Pravda.
The ore now being mined must go through expensive processing and enriching so that it can be used in blast furnaces. Previous techniques are often inadequate to turn out a satisfactory product.
The low quality of coking coal is also causing concern, Professor Bardin indicated, and much of the coal has an excessively high ash and sulphur content that are harmful and uneconomic in making pig iron.
Available coal supplies in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Eastern Siberia and the Far East must be extensively processed, he added. At the Amurstal plant in the Far East, for instance, expansion of blast furnace capacity is dependent upon improved coal quality, he said.
Professor Bardin said that while the present fifth Five Year Plan, for 1951 through 1955, provided for a 32 per cent increase in pig iron facilities, iron ore mining facilities must be tripled.
Lowered Standards of Living within Soviet Sphere
Manchester Guardian, 26 May, 1953.— The description of recent economic developments in the Soviet sphere in the latest issue of the “Economic Bulletin for Europe,” which was published here to-day by the secretariat of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, brings out not only the steady and ruthless trend towards increased industrial production but also the rampant inflation which has swept over that part of the world during recent months and the natural disasters which, by affecting the harvest, must have seriously embarrassed Communist planners and caused a deterioration in the already low living standards of the population.
After stating that in no East European country “did achievement diverge from target by more than 5 per cent,” the “Bulletin” said that E.C.E. economists had come to the conclusion that “in many industries reserves of industrial capacity have now been exhausted, so that further increases in production are more closely dependent upon the progress of investment.” This should explain why there was.a tendency for better fulfilment of target for light than for heavy industry, and, as production in heavy industry presses closely against capacity, the scope “for making up for temporary interruptions in production is limited, and any unexpected lacking in the progress of investment is reflected in shortfalls in output.”
Coal supplies continue to be a bottleneck in the whole of Eastern Europe. “In Czechoslovakia,” the E.C.E. reports, “generating capacity was under-utilized, while industry went short of electricity, because of lack of fuel.” Poland must have tried to come to the rescue, and this may be the explanation why Polish coal exports to Western Europe dropped from eleven million tons in 1951 to seven million in 1952.
In Hungary there was a fall in production of the most important food crops as a result of the great drought. In Eastern Germany the potato harvest is described as having been “disastrous,” because of drought and early frost. The poor fodder harvests of 1952 forced Czechoslovakia and Eastern Germany to increase food imports from the Soviet Union in order to maintain their flocks and herds.
The wage and price changes which accompanied the abolition of rationing in Poland “appeared to be intended, like those made in Hungary a year earlier, to bring about a considerable adjustment between incomes and available supplies at the expense of peasants rather than urban workers.”
Slovak Says Soviet Set Oil Field Fires
New York Times, 14 June, 1953.—In late February, 1951, newspapers here and in Europe published dispatches from Czechoslovakia reporting that fires had broken out in the Gbely oil fields, in the Bratislava area.
These fires were confirmed this week by Col. Jan Bukar, chief of the anti-Communist Slovakian underground forces, who has been visiting this country briefly. However, he added that the fires had been purposely set by Soviet authorities to detract any possible attention from the experimental launching of twenty-ton radio-guided missiles from an installation two miles northwest of Bratislava.
The Slovakian officer, who spent 1946 and 1947 in Moscow as a student in the Frunze Military Academy, said that the launching installation was located in a forest and contained thirty-four launching pits in an area of about thirty-six square miles. The area, he said, was heavily guarded, with the outer rim protected by a high electrically charged fence.
The firings in 1951, according to Colonel Bukar, were directed into the southern end of. the Ural Mountains, about 1,600 miles from the launching site. The installation was so placed, he said, that its missiles known as A-9 and A-10 could be directed at any target in Europe. An agent of the underground was present at the launchings, he said.
Large Stores of Missiles
At present, he said, there are large stores of these guided missiles in the small Carpathian Mountains. Most of the missiles, he said, were fabricated in Czechoslovakia, with parts furnished by the Soviet Union and its satellites.
Jan Bukar, the colonel explained, is a fictitious name. The officer was chosen by Soviet officials to attend the Frunze Academy after he had successfully commanded the First Division of the Slovak partisan army against the Nazis in eastern Slovakia in 1944.
He gave a detailed description of the school, and of his studies there, to the House Un-American Activities Committee here last month in executive sessions. The transcript of the hearings later were made public after the release had been approved by the State Department. The committee reported it had investigated Colonel Bukar before approving his testimony.
At the school, Colonel Bukar testified,
3,0 foreign and Russian officers studied tactical problems relating to the invasion of European countries and of China and Korea. They also studied geography and topography of Greenland, Alaska and the United States. They were told that continental United States was the “theatre of future operations,” he testified.
Lord Montgomery States Russia Changing Tactics not Policy
Christian Science Monitor, 14 May, 1953.
■—More than a hundred editors from 22 countries who gathered in Church House to-day for the second General Assembly of the International Press Institute heard Field-Marshal Lord Montgomery speak of recent utterances regarding Soviet policy as indicating “a change of tactics rather than of policy.”
There must be no relaxation on the part of the West, he said, and we could not afford to relax the efforts being made to build up defences in accordance with the shortterm aim of N.A.T.O.
Lord Montgomery said that the world background to the trouble of to-day was communism. The Communist East aimed to eliminate all rival power groups and to establish a world order of States under its own leadership. It had certain short-term aims which were positive and aggressive.
“It is not clear whether the East would resort to the hazards of world war to achieve its aims more quickly. But the tension today is such there is always a risk of war through miscalculation.”
The contest being waged to-day between East and West was world-wide, but its basic origins were in Germany and the contest was fundamentally a struggle for the soul of Germany which began before the war ended.
Division of West Germany
There were three main causes—all avoidable—for much of our trouble to-day and for the lack of unity and solidarity that began in 1945. The first concerned the splitting of Western Germany into three zones after it had become apparent—before the war ended—that it should be governed as one entity under one commander. “That one commander should have been General Eisenhower. The Eisenhower touch was needed in Europe in the first stages of peace; it was not there, and consequently the Allies began to drift slowly towards disunity.”
After the war Western Europe cried out for leadership. The British should have given it, but the post-war British Government withheld it. “The British Government of the day chose that moment, the moment of our greatest national exhaustion, to embark on internal social experiments of a far-reaching kind. They concentrated on those internal social matters to such an extent that they neglected their clear responsibilities in providing leadership in Europe.”
In 1948 the Commanders-in-Chief committee of Western Union asked Britain for an assurance that her armed forces then in Germany would be reinforced if war should break out. The British Government would not give it. Great harm was done: when the assurance was given later it was too late. The seeds of suspicion had been sown and disunity had infiltrated into the Allied ranks.
Lord Montgomery’s third point was that though the contest between East and West was global the Western Allies had never had an agreed political aim on a global basis since the war ended. There must be agreement about the future of Germany, for that future would be decisive for Europe and for the balance of power in the world. Besides a European policy which aimed at a united
Germany in a free Europe, there must be a close linking of interests, political and economic, between the nations of Western Europe, as a prelude to the bigger European system.
A nation could not have security unless it had preparedness, and could spring to arms quickly in the face of aggression. But military strength was an illusion unless it rested on a sound economic foundation. N.A.T.O. would not solve this difficult problem without a new approach, needing a definite reorganization of the N.A.T.O. structure. He suggested a careful study by a small and powerful group under N.A.T.O. instructions.
OTHER COUNTRIES
German Analysis of Soviet Combat Strength
London Times, 22 May, 1953.—The Official Bulletin of the Federal Government is publishing tomorrow an expert’s survey of the potential military resources of the eastern and the western world. The identity of the expert is not stated, but, subject to the reservation that strategic potential can never be estimated absolutely, it is claimed that the figures given may be regarded as essentially accurate. The importance and effect of atomic weapons, however are regarded as incalculable.
The effective establishment of the Soviet Union’s armed forces is put at about four million men—2 per cent of the population —their main strength being the Red Army, which in numbers and standard of training is the strongest land force in the world. The Red Army’s total defense is given as 2,800,000 men, distributed among six army groups. Of its 175 active divisions 40 are infantry, 20 tank, 15 cavalry, 15 artillery, 30 airborne, and there are 30 special and 25 mixed divisions in occupied territories and the Far East.
Tanks, it is stated, are still the backbone of the Red Army—the T34/76 (30 tons), the T34/85 (32 tons), and the improved J.S.III (50 tons). Britain has, however, in serial production an improved “Centurion” which in every respect is superior to the J.S.III. Tanks and self-propelled guns constitute the punch of the Red Army. With an annual production of 5,000, the number is estimated at
60,000.
A Salient Weakness
The combatant quality of the Red Army is in no way uniform, and there is, the survey says, an appreciable difference between the elite troops and the “armed masses.” In addition, a salient weakness is exposed by the intelligence service, road and railway transport, the dearth of motor spirit, and the question of reinforcements. The “armed masses” are entirely dependent on horse- drawn transport. Thus, the “infinite depth” of the Russian sphere could become a perilous disadvantage in the event of its falling under the mastery of an enemy enjoying air superiority.
The armies of the satellite States are given as: Poland, 450,000 men; Czechoslovakia, 240,000; Rumania, 300,000; Hungary, 150,000; Bulgaria, 280,000. The total strength of China is estimated at a million men capable of taking the field. No trustworthy details about organization and armaments are, however, to hand.
As for the Soviet Air Force, the survey says that estimates vary, and that they may be exaggerated for propaganda reasons. On the basis of the available material the maximum figures are 24,000 fighters and fighter- bombers, 6,000 bombers, and 12,000 transport aircraft. These figures probably include aircraft left over from the war. The strongest long-distance bomber, the TU4, could certainly reach every city in the United States but could not get back to its base.
300 Submarines
The survey then catalogues the Soviet Navy a feature of which is 300 submarines —40 of them with the German Schnorchel- Walther breathing device—in the Arctic, Pacific, and Baltic, and 55 in the Black Sea.
The potential of east and west is tabulated for comparison as below:
The expert regards it as out of the question that a scarcely mobile mass of 300 divisions could be transported from the Russian Asiatic sphere to the west and maintained there. A maximum of 150 divisions in a European theatre of war might be expected.
| Soviet Union, China and satellites | N. A merica and W. Europe {N.A.T.O.) |
Army | 6,438,000 | 3,175,000 |
Peace strength 60 days after mo- | 157 divisions | 90 divisions |
bilization | 300 divisions | 180 divisions |
Air Force | 30,000 aircraft | 40,000 aircraft |
Strategic bombers | 6 per cent | 47 per cent |
Tactical bombers | 4 per cent | 16 per cent |
Fighters | 8 per cent | 22 per cent |
Fighter-bombers | 74 per cent | 10 per cent |
Reconnaissance | 8 per cent | 5 per cent |
Navy | 500,000 tons | 6m. tons |
Merchant Marine | 1,600,000 tons | 60m. tons |
To the divisions that N.A.T.O. could have available were to be added the appreciable forces of Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and Yugoslavia.
Having described the overwhelming economic potential of the west, the survey says that although firm figures of atomic bomb production cannot be given it is estimated that Soviet Russia cannot have more than 100 atomic bombs, whereas the United States has an annual output of 500 atomic and hydrogen bombs.
“After the experiences of the two world wars,” it is added, “the issue in a future war in which there was equality of military strength would, in the long run, be decided by the economic potential. But atomic strategy would fundamentally change the aspects and the measure of the third world war.”
British Unveil Design for 131-Seat Jet Plane With Triangular Wings
Wall St. Journal, 13 June, 1953.—London. —The British have unveiled a design for a commercial jet airliner—with delta, or triangular shaped wings—capable of hauling as many as 131 passengers nonstop across the North Atlantic. The operating costs of the 600-mile-an-hour ship will be about as low as for a piston-engine plane, the builder claims.
The manufacturer, A. V. Roe & Co., Ltd., is offering the new plane for delivery in 1958. The company says this relatively early date is possible because the new craft, to be known as the Avro Atlantic, is based on the
Avro Vulcan delta-wing bomber already flying. Avro declares it will need orders for at least 20 Atlantics before it would be willing to start the program.
The delta wing is said to allow easier handling and also housing of the plane’s fuel supply, thus freeing more of the fuselage for passenger accommodations. The delta shape, according to aeronautical engineers, is especially efficient near the speed of sound—- 660 miles an hour at high altitude and 760 miles an hour at low altitude.
Turkey Is Willing to Discuss Straits
New York Times, 14 June, 1953.— Ankara, Turkey, June 13.—As the Turkish Government prepared to reply to the Soviet note renouncing territorial claims on Turkey and urging the reopening of the Turkish Strait question, Ankara was reported today to be ready to participate in a conference for revision of the Montreux Convention regulating the strategic waterway provided that all signatories and the United States were invited. The conference would be held early next year.
Under terms of the convention, signed in 1936 by Britain, France, the Soviet Union, Turkey, Greece, Japan, Bulgaria, Rumania and Yugoslavia, any signatory may request a conference to draw up a new straits regime two years before the Montreux Agreement is to expire in 1956.
The Turks do not believe that the revision conference could properly be convened this year because the convention prohibits consideration of proposed changes except at five-year intervals from the date the instrument entered into force, or two years before the expiration. The last such year was 1941.
The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union agreed at the Potsdam conference in July, 1945, that the Montreux Convention required modification and that subject should be disclosed in convention between each of the Big Three and Turkey. These negotiations broke down the following year before a conference, with other convention signatories, could be called. The principal reason for the stalemate was the Soviet demand for bases in the Straits area and its insistence that only the Soviet Union, its Bulgarian and Rumanian satellites and
Turkey should participate in drafting a new convention.
Official sources confirmed tonight that the United States position, supporting early revision of the Montreux Convention by all signatories and Washington, remained unchanged. The British view is known to be substantially the same.
Moscow’s Demand Renounced
It is considered unlikely here that the United States, Britain or Turkey will take the initiative in proposing a new Straits conference until the Soviet attitude is more clearly defined. The Soviet note, reported to have been delivered recently, renounces Moscow’s demand to fortify the Dardanelles and promises that the Soviet Union will observe the Montreux Convention.
Competent observers in Ankara interpret this to mean that the Soviet Union is now willing to recognize the interest of the nonBlack Sea powers in providing for regulation of the strategic waterway.
Reflecting the official attitude, the Turkish press almost unanimously pledged today this country’s continued solidarity with the United States and the other partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in face of what was termed merely the latest maneuver in Soviet efforts to disunite the West.
Gas Turbine to Power British Tanker
The Rangelight, May 1953.—“The first order ever to be given for a tanker propelled exclusively by gas turbines has been placed with Cammell Laird & Co., Ltd., Birkenhead, by the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co., Ltd. The single-screw 18,000 d.w. vessel, of 8,300 s.h.p., is scheduled to be completed in 1956.
“The machinery will comprise two gas turbo-alternator units driving the single propeller shaft through two electric motors and a two-pinion single reduction gearbox. Power for all auxiliary requirements at sea and in port will be drawn from the propulsion gas turbines, including that required for the
2,0 tons per hour cargo pumps. A diesel alternator will be provided to supply power for ship’s services when the gas turbine alternators are not in use.
“Operating on the open cycle, each unit will have two-stage compression with intercooling. The H.P. line will comprise turbine, compressor and geared auxiliary alternator with exciter set; the L.P. line will comprise turbine, compressor and propulsion alternator. Initial starting of the turbines will be effected by steam turbines of 150 h.p. each. Steam for cargo heating and tank cleaning will be obtained from a small oil-fired boiler in conjunction with waste heat boilers taking exhaust gas from the heat exchangers of the turbine.
“The propeller motors will be of the double-cage induction type. Astern running will be obtained by reversing contactors in the main electric circuit, and consequently with no change in the turbine direction of rotation and with full power available for astern running. Between 100 r.p.m. and approximately 55 r.p.m. the speed of the propeller will be controlled at the turbine. Lower propeller speeds will be obtained by reducing the voltage applied to the propeller induction motors, the controls being in the alternator exciter circuits.”
SCIENCE
A.E.C. Chairman Dean Discloses New Supply of Atomic Materials
Wall Street Journal, 6 June, 1953.—Atlantic City, N. J.—An additional supply of raw materials for the production of atomic energy has been achieved, it was disclosed here by Gordon Dean, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. He spoke at the closing session of the Edison Electric Institute’s annual convention.
This new source is the result of the proven success of the Experimental Breeder Reactor which the A.E.C. has had running at Arco, Idaho, since December, 1951. The purpose of this reactor is to “breed” more atomic fuel in the form of plutonium than the amount of fissionable uranium-235 consumed.
Last September it was announced that operation of the reactor indicated the method was “feasible.” This reactor also produces some electric power and is expected to be a prototype for some of the commercial atomic power plants when they are built.
“The significance of breeding is that it is now possible for mankind ultimately to utilize all of the uranium that can be extracted from the earth’s surface for atomic fuel,” Mr. Dean explained.
Until this development, Mr. Dean continued, the only atomic fuel that occurs in nature which could be used was uranium-235.
This “unfortunately constitutes less than 1% of normal, natural uranium,” Mr. Dean said. The earth’s reserves of natural uranium have been estimated at 25 million tons.
It has been known for a long time that the more abundant form of the metal could be turned into the fissionable form by burning U-235 in its presence. Scientists “also have known that they could change thorium, another relatively plentiful element, into atomic fuel by the same process,” Mr. Dean observed. The world’s thorium deposits that can be developed economically are estimated at around one million tons.
But the A.E.C. Chairman noted that until now it has never been known for sure whether this fuel production process could be done in such a way that as much more or more new fuel would be created as there was old fuel consumed. To discover the answer, the Argonne National Laboratory designed and built the reactor at Arco.
He added the reactor is working in such a way that it is burning up uranium-235 fuel and in the process is changing “non-fissionable material into fissionable plutonium at a rate that is at least equal to the rate at which the U-235 is being consumed.”
Discussing further implications of the achievement, Mr. Dean cautioned: “This news does not mean economic power from atomic fuels is here. It does not mean that overnight we have suddenly obtained all the fissionable material we want or need. It does not mean that uranium can now be regarded as a virtually costless fuel.” He added it is quite possible the breeding principle will not even be used in the first atomic power plants.
Further, he warned, the breeding process is slow, and “a reaction may have to operate for five years or longer before it succeeds in yielding as much new fuel as was initially invested in it.” He concluded the proof of the breeding process constitutes “mainly another encouraging and important factor in the many calculations being made to determine the best technical and economic approach to real, competitive atomic power.”
U. S. Has Begun Program to Make Hydrogen Bombs
New York Times, 8 June, 1953.—The Atomic Energy Commission has launched an all-out program to produce hydrogen bombs and is making atomic weapons so fast it needs more space to store them, it was revealed today.
Gordon Dean, chairman of the commission, told a House of Representative Appropriations subcommittee May 19 that parts of the vast Savannah River, S. C., facility, first plant built for large-scale production of hydrogen bomb materials, have started operations.
Mr. Dean said the Soviet Union had given the “highest priority” to its atomic program. “I think 1954 is going to be a very important year in our program, and 1 tremble to think that we might slacken off,” he said.
He noted the cost of producing fissionable materials and weapons would increase about 25 per cent, from $741,000,000 to $929,000,000 from fiscal 1953 to 1954, and “physical output will increase much more rapidly.’,
Some Facilities in Operation
In testimony released today, he said, “some of the facilities at Savannah River are now in operation and others will be starting up at frequent intervals from now on.”
It was the first announcement the $1,500,000,000 plant had started operations. It was designed to produce both atomic and hydrogen materials.
Supporting President Eisenhower’s request for $1,096,000,000 for the commission for the twelve months beginning July 1, Mr. Dean said more than $200,000,000 would go for projects “associated in one way or another with our thermonuclear [hydrogen] objectives.”
Brig. Gen. K. E. Fields, Director of the Commission’s Division of Military Application, said the request included more than $30,000,000 for new atomic weapons storage sites.
He said secret, underground storage sites built with previous funds already were being filled. General Fields’ description of these
sites and their locations was deleted for security reasons from his released testimony.
Atomic Plane Delayed
Mr. Dean confirmed earlier reports that the Defense Department and the commission had postponed plans to develop an atomic- powered airplane and an atomic-powered aircraft carrier. But he said plans to construct an atomic submarine would be pushed.
Atom, Gas-Turbine Team Would Be Hottest Unit Yet
Christian Science Monitor.—Chairman of the University of Wisconsin chemistry department and former board chairman of the Argonne National Laboratory, Dr. Daniels stated that, while progress was being made in the development of an atomic engine for a submarine, he believes another line of attack should be made emphasizing the gas turbine.
“Gas turbines are efficient only at very high temperatures,” he said, “but the atomic furnace is peculiarly suited to high temperatures. Nuclear fission is capable of operating at indefinitely high temperatures, though these temperatures are limited by the properties of the available materials of construction. Ordinary gas turbines, operated by the burning of fuel, have to be resistant to the oxygen used for chemical combustion of the fuel. An inert gas, such as nitrogen or helium, can be circulated through an atomic furnace and gas turbines using a closed cycle.
“Theoretically, it may be possible to find materials of construction which can go to higher temperatures than are now possible in gas turbines, providing these materials do not have to come in contact with oxygen.”
Dr. Daniels also suggested that to use very high temperatures “it will probably be necessary to eliminate the metallic enclosures of the atomic fuel which are now used to prevent radioactive materials from leaving the atomic furnace.”
This would be taking a “calculated risk,” he said, necessitating contamination of the turbine so that repairs would have to be made by remote control, but he believes the
problem can be solved and a turbine built that would be capable of operating for a long time without any attention or repairs.
Underwater TV Camera May Solve “Phantom Layer” Secret
New York Times, 6 June, 1953.—The development of a new and more sensitive underwater television camera in Britain may solve the perplexing problem of the “phantom layer” or deep scattering bone that has long mystified those who explore the depth of the sea with echo sounders.
British biologists now believe it will be possible to obtain a television picture of the “phantom” and suitable apparatus has been designed at the Scottish Marine Biological Station at Millport on the Firth of Clyde.
It consists of a watertight television camera equipped with six interchangeable lenses mounted in a movable turret and operated by remote control from the deck of a research ship. The focus and the irises or “stops” of the lenses can also be adjusted automatically. The camera is bolted to a lighting unit and lowered on a non-spin wire.
Initial tests in water of varying density have shown that most marine organisms from large fish to minute plankton are plainly visible on the two monitoring screens.
By means of this apparatus it has been possible to identify small twitching shrimplike crustaceans called euphausiids. They exist in vast shoals in the sea, providing many fish with food. Subsequent tests may prove that the euphausiid is the illusive phantom, higherto detectable in mass only on the bathygram of an echo sounder.
Layer First Observed in U. S.
The phantom layer has been the subject of much investigation in Britain since it was first noted at several laboratories in the United States, including the Scripps Oceanographical Institute at La Jolla, Calif, about 1939.
Biologists at La Jolla reported that “something” below a depth of 150 fathoms was interfering with the reflection of pulses from the echo sounders.
The “thing” gave the impression of being dense and flat and has frequently fooled fishermen who search for shoals of fish by sonic means and sometimes causes confusion among hydrographers.
Off Britain the phantom layer occurs in the shallow North Sea at a depth of approximately fifty feet and tends to rise at night and fall during the day. It has also been noted in the Polar seas.
At first it was believed to be due to physical causes, such as air bubbles, the unequal distribution of water of different temperatures, or different degrees of salinity in the sea.
However, today most scientists believe the phantom layer is composed of small marine organisms such as migratory shrimps, dense plankton, small squid or young fish whose air-filled swim bladders would tend to interfere with the transmissions of an echo sounder.
Unfortunately most of the organisms swim faster than the fine trawls can be dragged across suspected zones of sonic interference and correlations between trawl contents and phantom layers were difficult to obtain.