The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-14
DANIELS SAYS TARGET WORK OF EMPHASIZES
 IS GREATLY IMPROVED
Quotes Records and Testimony to Show Its Big Guns Lead'the World, Accuracy, Having Improved 40 Per
 Cent Secretary Disputes Figures Made in Printed VI Attackson Naval Craftsmanship

Washington, Aug. 14-Replying to a recent attack on, the navy entitled "A H1tless Navy Secretary Daniels is- sued a long statement yesterday de-
 nying assertions that the fleet could not hit a target with it's big guns.
 N Secretary Daniels insists that the atatistics given in t-e article and pur- pprting to represent the gunnery rec ord of six of the. battleships of the At lantic, Fleet in last springs battle practice were not correct. The scores
 made by these battleships. if plotted on a battleship target 500 feet long, said Secretary Daniels, represented a 'totalsof TOT hits.
 Mir. Daniels quotes extensively from ptatements made by Admiral Fletcher, until recently commander in chief of \ f1e Atlantic Fleet; Captain William s. 6lms. one of the leading gunnery au- thorities of the world, who was in
 charge of naval target practice during 0e Roosevelt administration; Admiral i 2enry TT. Mayo, commander in chief I'6 the Atlantic Fleet. and Captain .6harles5O Plunkett, director of target Xactice in the navy Captain Sims quoting as asserting that the marks
 anship of the fleet has increased 40 r cent. Admiral Fletcher tells of
 fssbeing made at 1S,00O yards, which 4artin excess of anything we have bort. of from abroad.". Admiral Ayoe is also quoted as saying that ere1 had been an increase of 40 per q nt., ands Captain Plunkett, who has large of naval target practice, says 16e records of the turret gun prac- ' ffce for the fall of 1915 indicates ItRat we Sare advancing by leaps and Daniels Gives Records.
 i, Becretary Daniels said: s.. " "The hgilres quoted purporting to be E llEe hitting record of six battleships D4de in the battleship practice in Bebruarysand March of thAs year are E1T5eorrect. The ships were firing in 1be February and March practice at screen targets 90 feet long and 30 feet
 hig1l The correct 5ccres of the ships |znentioned, plotted on battleship tar \ EEet 500 feet long, S5 feet beam, and 30 net freeboasrd, based on the results of me camera observations, were as fol- 1oWS:
 Nebraska, 22 hits; Louisiana, 15 bits: Kansas, 16 hits: Virginia, 26 hits; New Jersey, 20 hits, and Rhode LGland, hits.
 The firing was at long ranges, much longer than ever before, the \ Rhode Islands mean range being F from 1,500 to 1000 yards greater than 8 nat of the other vessels mentioned. This was due to errors in range finder reedings. Even at this greatly fn- 3ereased range, the Rhode Islands ehpts were punched. as shown by the
 GHcf that, on the battleship target she I rGcefve< eight hits
 Captain Sims one of our ablest
 omcers and probably our best author 6lky on target practice, stated before Inc House Naval Affairs Committee v that the marksmanship of the fleet had improved 40 per cent A great
 many clements enter into the prepa- F pation and training of the crew of a
 baftleship for the final determination
 e3 its efficiency battle practice. In < fnese the human element is the great
 eefs and as long as this is so there Will be. as in every other endeavor in
 ufe. varying degrees of accomplish
 ment. The practice of some ships V will be excellent. of others less good, and some will be poor, but it not in-' 1 Frequently occurs that ship that is poor this year is excellent next year,
 aad that a ship that is excellent this 1 year falls off badly next year. This ! D due chiefly to the human element.
 Quotes Admiral Fletcher. .N "Admira1 Fletcher, the commahd- !! er-in-chief of the Atlantic fleet, before {, the House Naval Committee, in March \ Of this year, stated: Our last ele- l mentary target practice was held in
 the fall. That practice was very sat-. ! tRactory. and was not only up to the l usual standard. but the percentage of ! hits on the target was about 40 per
 cent greater than they were the year z before, and greater than they were
 In any other target practice (elemen- < teFy practice) ever held at sea. This
 admentary practice is what is gen.
 sally known as the gun pointers con-
 est and that probably represents the
 emciency of our target practice, as far
 as straight shooting is concerned, bet ter than any other form of practice.'" '.s Referring to the long range or bat ! tie practice Admiral Fletcher said: 4 All this target practice has passed i Into what we may term a new phase, VI which has been brought about by this lI long range firing. Heretofore we \ have considered that when a gun is VI we'll aimed at bullseye it will strike I the largest, because the error of the gun is so small that any target of reasonable size at distance of a mile ! or two will catch all well-afrned shots. I But we are now going to such long
 ranges that the gun will no longer hit
 the target; it will no longer hit a bar-
 tIeship at range of 18,000 or 20,Oe0 1yards, no matter how well aimed CT
 how carefully the ballistics are calcu- I lated. The way hits are made is by Z means of what we call salvo: that is,
 by q firing of all the guns or a part 4 of the battery at the same time Due
 to inherent defects of the gun and bal iIigtics, we cannot count upon these
 four or five shots falling within 2 fepace, at present, of much less than
 400 yards. Now, if a target occupies
 a space of 100 yards, and you straddle X that target with this salvo, you will 4 rec that the probabilities or the
 chances of making a hit are about
 zb per cent. so that the best thing
 we can do today at target practice is & to bunch the salyo of five or ten guns z within a space of 300 or 400 yards
 and then straddle the target with that { sAlvo and trust to the probability of < making hits.
 Beats All World Records.
 This method was so successfully