Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-06

now since a British warship was sunk in the
North Sea by a submarine? Where were
the U-boats on the day of the Dogger Bank
action? Where, above all, were they at
Jutland, when the entire British Grand
Fleet approached within fifty miles or so
of Helgoland, and remained on the scene of
the action until noon the next day, alto
gether more than twenty-ono hours, eleven
Of those hours being broad daylight? Where
were they when British warshps slowly
and painfully towed their battered and
crippled sisters all the way home again
across the North Sea after that action?
And if il is possible to take the fleet
safely as far as Jutland and home again,
it is possible to take it within rife range
OF Ilelgoland.
No, the fundamentals of our strategy re-
main those of Nelson's and Farragut's time
Despite all new inventions, the real enemy
now as then, remains the gun. And our
problem is thereby immensely smplihed.
The only real novelty, aside from the
gradual increase in range and power of
guns and resisting powers of armor both
on ship and on shore, that has been intro
duced in artillery practice since the Civil
War, is the development of indirect and
high-angle fire for use against moving
ships.
High-Angle Fire Overrated
Battleships are built primarily to fight
other battleships, and inasmuch as no one
as yet has even seriously attempted high
angle fire from the unstable platform of
ships deck. battleship designers have
put most of the limited amount of armor
at their disposal along the sides, where,
in fight with other ships, II would do
the most good. Consequently, if you can
succeed in dropping a big shell vertically
upon battleship's deck, you will hit her
at her most vulnerable point Moreover,
by using high-angle fire you can put your
own guns behind a hill or down in a pit
where the ships guns cannot possibly reach
them,
But even if high-angle fire were all that
its advocates claim for it, this would not
mean that our navy would give up all hone
of applying Farragut's strategy to Helgo-
land and rest content with the qualified
success which, Nelson's has so far won
for the British. If Yankee brains gave
Germany her most powerful weapon, Yam
kee brains must find the answer to 1t.
But as a matter of fact, very MANY off,
GERS in our service refuse fatty to concede
to hgh-angle fire all the virtues claimed
for it. On the contrary, they point out to
you that the coast-defense mortar as a
weapon also has its obvious limitations
The first of these is its blindness. You
cannot hit gun behind hill, but neither
can the gun see TO hit you.
The second limitation of the mortar is
inferiority of range.
Finally, the great accuracy Of the NOR
tar has its strict limitations To drop a
shell out of the sSyNupGn a moving ships
deck requires a much more accurate knowl-
edge of the range than Is needed 10 hit
that ship with hgh-veloeity, fiat-trajec-
tory shell.
But we do not know in detail the nature
Of the defense of Helgoland. 1t is reason
able to assume that mortars form an i'm
portant part Of II but It is not likely that
they form the only or even, perhaps the
principal part.
Airplane Decisive Factor
There is no need to let the Imagination
run riot. The one established fact of this
war Is that the Germans are neither in
ventoTs nor originators in the very field
they claim for their own. In the defenses
Of Helgoland we may reasonably expect 10
find every known and standard variety of
weapon, mounted and protected with Ten.
tonic care and thoroughness but we need
not add TO our task. already great enough
by wasting time in anticipating horrible
but extremely improbable surprises.
SO far as the disappearing gun Is con-
cerned, 1t Is perfectly obvious that II h
blind as a mortar, and while superior 10 the
mortar In range and hitting power ana
less easy to dodge, 1t is no different from,
any other gun In that or In any other re-
spect. The whole problem comes down
once and for all, 10 the world-old nrohisn,
Of guns on shore against guns on sbins
But II that is the case wherein is our
problem different from Farraguts problem ,
There Is one development of the present
war that has resulted in increasing the
range, accuracy and effectiveness OF artil-
-iery fire far beyond anything that students
IN the past believed possible
Il Is the airpane that can tell us tbs
exact location ~ The eyes of avery mortar
ana disappearing sun un delgolaud
once "a nf comWand tue ar ai,o.s l..i.l.
lend caq n1'ee|ana Nh 10 ours