New-York tribune., 1921-02-07
Bombing Battleships
British Authority Cited to Prove
Present Armament Obsolete
70 the Editor OF The Tribune.

resent armament Obsolete
70 the Editor OF The Tribune.
Sir; The startling and important
testimony of Brigadier General Will
liam Mitchell before the Appropria-
tons Committee of the House TO the
effect that properly developed air
service could bomb or torpedo the big
battieships Of an enemy has seemed a
new doctrine to the general public.
The idea is not new, however, and has
been slowly taking root and developing
in the minds of informed persons since
the end Of the war.
To-day s letter dated January IA.
1921, was received in this country from
9. G. Grey, the foremost English aero
nautical writer and editor of The Aero
plane, of London. The following ex-
cerpts from this letter show that this
British authority is convinced that air.
craft, if given the opportunity, can
make present naval armament obso-
lete:
II am glad to see that you are inter
ested in the subject of aircraft versus
capital ships. Briefly, my opinion ia
that the capital ship Of the future will
be very big, high-speed aircraft car
"ier which will use torpedo aeroplanes
instead of long-range guns, and other
wise will be equipped with what is now
considered secondary armament for
net
against submarines. She also will have
to carry fighting aeroplanes to repel
torpedo droppers."
Mr.. Grey thinks that the dropping of
torpedoes by torpedo planes, according
to the present development OF the art,
is far more accurate and destructive
than the dropping of bombs from air
craft. In this connection he states:
"A torpedo dropper has not
to worry about anything save line. The
torpedo itself looks. after its altitude
In relation to the surface of the water.
The speed of the aeroplane hardly mat
;ers in the least, so the only thing the
pilot has to think about is the speed
of the vessel which he is going to tor
pedo and the distance she will cover in
the time his torpedo will take to reach
her. And, as he probably has 800 feet
OF ship for target he has a pretty
wide margin for error. Big guns on
ships now find their range limited not
by the gun but by the human eye, by
the curve of the earth (i. e., the hori.
zon) and by the atmospheric visibility
prevailing at the moment"
After continuing discussion re-
garding the almost total lack of knowl-
edge on the part of the navy of the
completely new science of aerial gun
merry as developed by British anti-air-
craft gunners in the London air de-
~Fense area during the war, Mr.. Grey
states "the sooner the navy's guns are
taken away from it and replhced By
aeroplanes the better for the
navy" Y
Mr.. Grey concludes his letter by q
reference to sham battle between the
Grand Fleet and the Royal Air Force,
as follows:
Finally, apropos naval aviation, did
you see the statement that in an at
tack by, think, eight aeroplanes
carrying torpedoss, on the British fleet
anchored in Portland Roads, the aero
planes scored six direct hits, each of
which would certainly have sunk it's
ship, or, at any rate, would have put
it completely out of action. The aero
planes came over from Gosport, near
Portsmouth, preceded by two bombers
which few at about 10000 feet, where.
OF course, the snilorman had neither
heard nor seen them. Instead of drop
ping bombs, the bombers dropped
string Of smoke bombs about a mile
to the wtndward of the fleet. Before
the smoke cleared away and before the
deet had chance to use 8 gun the
'orpedo machines came through the
smoke down wind at about 1870 miles an
hour, SO low down and so fast that no
earthly naval gun would have had
chance of hitting any of them. 1t is
practically certain that, given an ade
quate force of torpedo aircraft, no hos
tile feet could come within one hun
dred miles of any coast SO defended"
BY all means give General Mitchell
m opportunity to show what can be
done y the aeroplanes that we have
developed under the meager appropria-
tions that have been available for con-
struction of aircraft; AVIATION.
New York, Feb. 2, 1921.
The Subway Skunk