Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-02-07
May Make Actual
Test Relative Value
BattleShipS-PlaneS

Washington, Feb. 6-The contrO-
versy as to the relative superiority
of battleships and aircraft which
recently has stirred the navy ana
war departments and has bobbed up
in Congress, may be settled. through
actual tests, high naval officials said
tonight
Brigadier General William Mitch
ell, assistant chief of the air service.
who recently told a congressional.
committee that developments in air
craft had spelled the doom of the
present day dreadnaught, and 9TH
err air service officers are understood
to have issued a virtual challenge
to the navy department to permit
them to prove their contentious.
The navy department is a firm be-
lever in the superiority of the capt.
tai ship and. naval officers believe.
will accept the challenge in the hope
of settling the controversy, at least
for the time being.
There is a strong likelihood. naval
officers said today, that the old bat
tleship Iowa, already fitted with
speed of more than ten knots and of
being maneuvred with no one on
board, will be used as a target for
aerial bombs after experiments now
being conducted on the control de-
vice are completed.
Another suggestion going the
rounds Of the navy department is
that large lighters bestowed at high
speed behind destroyers o. cruisers
and used as targets. Many officers
believe that with no test of the
ability of aviators they could make
a hit on naval vessels unless the
target were moving at least 80
knots an hour, pointing out that all
modern cruisers, battlesh:ps and de-
stroyers and the proposed airplane
carriers have more speed than this.
If the lighters were used, it was
said, constructive area equal t.
that of capital surface ship would
be allowed the aviators around the
lighter in which all hits would be
counted.
No test event under these condi-
tons would be entirely conclusive,
many naval officers maintain, because
all Of the elements OF defense would
be lacking. including anti-aircraft
guns and protective aircraft. It was
generally conceded, however, that
such experiments would give good
idea of the ability of the aviators to
actually hit moving vessel.
II am SO confident" said one high
naval officer today, that neither
army nor navy aviators can hit the
Iowa when she is under way that I
would be perfectly willing to be on
board her when they bomb her, pro-
|Viding they were kept at the altitude
they would be compelled to maintain
in battle"
Army aviators maintain that any
surface vessel in existence today can
be destroyed by airplane attack, cit
ing the tests on the old battleship In
diana with dummy bombs as proof of
their ability to hit the target Navy
officers assert that it is one thing to
hit battleship anchored in bay and
another to hit the same ship moving
at 16 to 20 knots gn hour far out at
sea. officers of both services are ca
ger for a test. ..t,s
Chairman Butler and other mem
bers of the House naval committee
have repeatedly expressed desire
since the beginning of the battleship-
airplane controversy that actual tests
under conditions approximating as
closely as possible those of battles be
conducted as soon as possible. Sec
rotary Daniels has indicated that he
favors the idea.