Evening star., 1914-08-06
SAYS SEA FIGHTS
WILL DECIDE WAR
Rear Admiral Mahan, U. S. ~,
Retired, Discusses Proba-
biIities in Europe.
WARSHIPS
TO UNDERGO REAL TEST
Germany, England, Russia, France
and Other Powers Likely to Bat
tie in Mediterranean.

NEW YORK. August 6-"Ths most
decisive strokes in the general European
warfare will be delivered in my belief.
upon the sea, rather than upon the
land" declared Rear Admiral Alfred T.
Mahan. retired. in an interview with a
reporter at his home near Quogue, l.. I.
Il look for an all-around naval conflict
which should teach many things about
sea-fghting craft. about guns and about
armament"
What will happen" he was asked.
when dreadnought meets dreadnought.
when the tremendously powerful modern
super-battleships, with their fourteen
inch guns and their thousand or more
men to the ship. get together? VIII the
problem Of their worth, their effective
ness, be settled"
"A. B. g." Problem Discussed.
"The proNvem of the A. B. G. for all
big gum ship is highly interesting
one.' Admiral Mahan replied. ''and we
may learn through this war of its worth.
But the lesson will not be shown in any
ship-for-ship fight; dreadnought against
dreadnought will be no different than
one old frigate against another old frig-
ate in the days gone by.
"The really interesting and instructive
combat would be between, say. dozen
dreadnoughts and a dozen and half
smaller vessels, for instance. of ordinary
battleship size. We might then see
whether or not the twelve and fourteen
inch gun Is of so great importance as
has lately been assumed
The admiral intimated that from what
data he had been able to obtain it was
likely that the very big gun might prove
to be a much overrated weapon.
I'm the Russo-Japanese war. l believe
and many other naval officers agree
with me-that the bulk of the damage
was done by the eight and ten-inch
guns" he said. In that conflict I
think it was shown that the volume of
fire, the number of hits. was much more
important than the single shots from
great guns. and 1 believe this war will
prove the same thing.
Institutes a Comparison.
For example, imagine a single shot
from a fourteen-inch gun hitting an
enemy's ship. 1t does tremendous dam
age. certainly. But, one might almost
say. it does too much damage That is,
it exerts more power than is necessary
from eight-inch guns would be much
more effective in battle than one four
teen-inch shot.
Il cannot say that I agree with the
idea of the A-B-G ships England, of
course, originated the dreadnought. and
cackled like a chicken that had laid an
egg, and got every one else building
A-B-G's. But think all the navies are
coming around to what we call the
mixed battery ship. and that is as it
should be.
THE original dreadnought idea was
ship with all big guns OF twelve or
fourteen-inch caliber. and a few small
guns. say three or four-inch caliber.
for use against torpedo boats. But
the size Of the lesser battery has been
creeping up year by year. until our new
est ships have siX-inch guns with the
fourteens. and. i understand, some ves-
sells have eight-inch guns. which are
pretty stable weapons for any use.
II believe this war will show that a
well distributed fire by the medium
sized guns will do much more damake
than the slower single shots of the big
fellows"
May this possibly mean return to
the use of smaller-caliber guns?" Admi-
raj Mahan was asked.
THE results of the naval battles will
tell. That cannot be said now he re-
piled.
The admiral declined to comment upon
the comparative fighting ability or gun
merry of the nations involved or to be in
volved. Nor would he advance any the
ories as to the damage likely to he in
ficted upon the extremely large fighting
craft by submarines or by air craft.
THE submarine question and the air
ship question-neither eve. tested out
thoroughly-will doubtless receive con-
siderable elucidation in the conflicts to
come" he said. There would be no use
predicting what effect either of those at
tack methods may have. We shall prob
ably learn much about them in a short
inns