Arizona republican., 1921-07-05
U. s. Officer Says Next Big NnraI BnffIe WiH
 Begin With Air Fight
BY HERBERT COREY

WASHINGTON, July 4.-"The next naval battle-if there is another naval battle-will begin by a fight in the air.
 An officer high on the lists of the united States navy made that state ment after watching the bombing of the ex-German Uboat. IF of Cape Hatteras. He does not believe the capital ship is doomed. He did not lndicate even that the type of capital ship need be changed to accommodate battleship defenses to the new weapon.
 We must fight airmen in the air said he. That is in Keeping with the history of naval deveIopmcnt. As eacn new weapon is perfected a de- fense against 1t is worked out. The opvious defense against the man in tne ar must be found in the air" How Battle Would Be Fouqht
 IT ne IS right then, when the Chit ed states battle fleet next goes to sea to light it will. if it Is permittea to prepare its defenses ir, advance De accompanied by huge and fast alrplane carriers. The fight over tha I snips VIII be conducted precisely as an ar light over a land fort. First the iittie combat planes will swoop uo~n. They are one-man affairs. last as streak of light. and each armed with machine gun and a fevl
 isnt bombs Their job is to destroy the morale of the ships crews. They would, 1T not interfered with tear off l the lighting tops with their little bombs and sweep the decks. Then would come a division of lisbter
 oombers. with bombs of 100 pounds
 Weight upward, to complete the de
 moiition or the upper works and fur
 .ner snake the nerves of the crew.
 men the slow. heavy winged big
 bombs of from 1000 to 2o0o pounds
 Ihey might not sink the shin. but
 ehey would assuredly put her out of
 action. VI
 Mortality of Pliers
 Such an attack could not be resist :
 eu rom the deck of a ship. in the
 opinion of many of the naval officers
 who watched the bombing of the U- !, boat. Barrages are a painfully weak
 defense against aircraft. It is hard
 10 mt ship in the air. There is nc : oackground against which misses and olstances may be measured. There
 are fhers alive and well who flew , through barrages daily in the pursu. : ance of their work during the Euro- ] pean war Now and then the gunfirs [ was accurate enough to rattle then ? or force them to change course. But
 they were not brought down. Ther, 1 are no reliable figures showing tn. mortality occasioned by gunfir, Q among fliers.
 ,, Naval men claim that there are fig
 ures showing that one plane wa. brought down during the war to eacl shots 2 accurate. then to obliterate an attack
 ing squadron of 25 combat plane Q the ship attacked must fire 90 OO F shots from her archies in the brie r time which elapses between tn F sighting of an enemy in the air an, n its arrival over decks. This is an alb |, surdity. of course. At 20 shots to tn II minute per gun-which is the best ac :, tual service record of the F'rencl . 75s-and assuming that the tim available to effective defense is 1 : minutes, 450 guns must be mounte on the upper works of a ship. Thi 2 becomes ridiculous.
 Must Have Air Defense
 Yet we must have a defens
 against the air weapon admitte e the officer quoted, and we canno n defend ourselves from the deck W v must have guns in the air"
 if It is doubtful if anything wa T. learned as result of the bombing c
 the ex-U- boat off Hatteras Ever l. one knew who cared to know that tn = detonation of a bomb on the decks c If immediately alongside so frail a con Y struetion as a submarine must resu
 in the destruction of the target. Ever le one who cared to know also knew ths n the fliers have learned accuracy i IF bombing. It is true that the bombin
 sight is no more than 50 per cent ef ficient but that 50 per cent seem = sufficient for the moment. Perhar u the chief result of the bombing test v was to arouse some of the navy's of 'e ficers to recognition of the fact ths l. a transition period has arrived in th l. navy. The olds attleship-magnifi cent weapon as that ship has been IF is no longer sufficient to hersel }? Either the battleship of the futul
 must be invulnerably protecte r. against the air -weapon-which CT e tails weight of arnfor which seen le to make protection impossible-or 1t, must rely on speed and maneuvel
 fCnntinued on Page Two)