Evening star., 1921-05-15

the surprise to an unprepared world
which it was in this war
Probably the foremost and most able
| contender that the day of the dread
naught is at an end was Admiral
i Fisher. former first Sea lord of Great
Britain. who won renown for building g
the first great "all-big-g gun ship, and
who was the innovat0r behind many
important developments in the Brit
! iSh navy.
"Scrapped All the DrradaaughtS."
Shortly before his death-which oc-
Cured only a few months ago-I ord
| Fisher. who had retired from active
service, told the British public and
| as much of tn" world as cared to
| listen, that the submarine had scrap-
| pea the dreadnauShtS, just as the
dreadnaushtS drove all prior warcraft
! into the naval discard
! Sir Percy scott and other retired Of
! iicers in Great Britain ard America
| agree with the late Lord Fisher. Cen.
Mitchell has advised Congress to
spend all the money at its disposal
! on big heht ships of ihe air
| But n" r"srons.hl" naval officers
charged with maintaining naval eff
! cheney. have shared these extreme
I views
! An important question which must
! b" answered before there can be y
final settlement Of the dispute con-
! Germs the probabl effectiveness Of
the alrShlp in attack upon a dread
naught? What chance has Il dread
! uaUght of being sunk bv bombs drop-
! ped from above? on this point as yet
: we haE" no reliable data
Fail to Sink BattIeship.
| Last year the Navy tried some ex-
pcriments in order to test the effect
! of bombs upon battleship. We used
! the Indiana. an antiquated craft with
I ,.y
! onstration purpose. Bombs were drop
! ped upon her from an airplant. They
| were loaded with heavy explosives,
! and they did. in some cases. pretty
serious damage. But they did not sink
! her. She took the punishment and
remained afloat until other bombs,
placed under water, exploded with
such force that several seams in the
ships bottom We're ripped loose.
| This. however. was no test Of what
! would actually happen in a fight be-
tween an airpIane and a dreAdnaught.
! The Indiana was anchored. and had
! no anti-aircraft guns. She made
neither an attempt to escape nor to
return the fire of her attackers. She
merely lay there while aviators cir
cled above her and practfced dropping
bombs on her at their leisure.
In actual warfare the dreadnaught
would be steaming full speed. with
probably a ZiS-zag course. She would
| be turning antl-alrcraft guns on the
attacking plane. 1t is open to ques-
| tion whether the bomb drOpners would
| make many hits--Or any. Even in the
case of the stationary and non-resist-
! ing Indiana the percentage Of hits
was small
Result May BE Startling.
/ 1t is this point of what would hap
! pen in actual warfare that will be
! tried out at Hampton roads some time
| before July. 1t may prove to be an
epoch making event. and Hampton
| roads may establish certain facts
which will revolutioniZe naval war
fare as the fight of the Monitor and
! the Merrimac on that same stretch of
! water revolutioniZed it in 1862.
One of my last acts as Secretary of
! the Navy was to direct that certain
! of the German ships which were
/ turned over to US and which. under
the agreed terms. must be destroyed,
should be used in series of expert
ments in which airmen should at
! tempt to destroy them.
The Secretary of War Joined me in
asking the joint board Of the Army
, and Navy to work out plans by which
the experiment should be conducted
in a way to truly test whether the
! aeroplane has put the dreadnaught
| out of business. The plans We're per
fected and the test will be made.
| When / had given the order for this
test the newspaper men asked me if