The Washington herald., 1922-02-19
EXPERT DEFENDS
BATTLESHIP AS
S NAVy'SLEADER
Conquest by Airplane
Still Far OFF, Declares
Comdr. Cleary. )

bombing of the u. s. s. "ex-Iowa"
and the former German ships. in,
Guiding the ostfriesland. OF the
Virginia Capes. for the American
Society Of Mechanical Engineers.
defends the .batt1eship as still the
backbone of the navy.
Comdr. Cleary asserts that some
statements regarding the bombing
tests are susceptible of erroneous
conclusions, and that the fRith In
the battleship expressed BY the
Joint Army and Navy Board Is held
by a large majority of officers of
both the army and navy. The air
plane menace, he says, is being
dealt with in the same way that
other dangers to the supremacy of
the battleship have been dealt with.
Every new development In navaI
warfare has its advocates who have
predicted that the battieship was
doomed" declares Comdr. Cleary.
First. the small torpedo boat was
TO render the battleship obsolete;
next the fast destroyer, then the
submarine, and now the airplane-
each new challenge to the suprem-
acy Of the capital ship has been
met by the development Of the de-
tense and by adopting and adapt
ing the challenger as an eficient
auxiliary to the capital ship. and
the navy is dealing with the afr
plane in the same manner as !: has
successfully dealt with the tor
pedo boat. the destroyer and the
submarine.
weapon of onense.
The experiments demonstrated
that the airplane is a powerfui
weapon of offenss. capable under
favorable conditions Of placins
heavy charges of high explosive
sufficiently close to a capital snip
to sink her-ASentually. The air
piane menace TO the capital ship Is
commensurate with the destroyer
menace and the submarine menace.
The destroyer menace was met by
numerous watertight bulkheads'
rapid-hre guns and protecting de-
stroyers: the added submarine mem
ace was met by the added protec-
ton of listening devices depth
charges. speed and quick maneu-
y.rfnE; the added airplsne menace -
beInr met by the added protectlon
Of Csrst and most importantly fast
pursuit planes and anu-aircrai'
batteries
The problem of avoiding a bomb
Ing plane by maneuvering or OF
hitting a btmbing plane is mucn
,imnler than avoiding or hitting .
plane not bombing. according 10
Comdr. Cleary, for the reason that
the bombing plane must steady on
a course heading almost dirsctiy
toward the target for an appreci-
able period and the position Al
which the bomb must be released
can be forecast with fair accuracy.
az the Ostfriesland." he adds, mad
been underway at 20 knots or more
and ~ her anti-aircraft battery had
been in action. keeping the heaVy
Rambling planes at a safe altitude OF
5000 feet, 1t is reasonable to oeheVe
that the chance Of serious damage
would not have been very great from
the sixty-nine bombs which were
dropped at her during the two-day
attack. II, in addition. she had car
ried three of four fast-pursuit planes
with machine guns firing explosive
and incendiary bullets), as all capital
sbips now carry or will carry, these
fast planes would have outmanen-
yered and shot down a number OF the
bombing planes before they arrived
within bombing distance.
Guard Against Mines.
The navy has known for many
wears that any ship could be serious
Nv damaged. or sunk by -detonating
heavy charges OF high explosive I'M
der water against or very close 70
the body of the ship below armor.
such damage from mines or torpedoes
has been guarded against by numer-
us watertight bulkheads or by the
British blister until the latest capital
ships can survive direct hits from two
or three torpedoes or the explosion
of two or three heavy mines fairly
close aboard.
IF the explosion takes place beyond
a certain distance from the ship (de'
pending upon the weight of the ex'
plosive charge and its distance below
the surface) little or no damage viii
result. The distance within which a
charge Of high explosive must bt
placed to seriously damage the thin
plating below aFmor Is comparatively
very short: for instance. a $50 or
SOC pound bomb detonated under water
probably within Is or 20 feet Of the
hull OF the light cruiser Frankfort
without appreciabls effect.
The navy fully believed that very
heavy charges of high explosives
could be detonated on the upper decks
OF a modern capital ship with nc
damage to currents or other heavy 1T
tings, and while such heavy charge:
would probably penetrate the upper
decks. the heavy protective decks
would render the propelling ma
chinery. boilers. magazines and the
greater part Of the personnel immune
from overhead attack.
This knowledge and this belief
have been confirmed by the expert
ments on the ex-Iowa and the Ost-
friesland. and the navy faces the
same problem-to keep high explosive
charges from decorating under watel
within the comparatively short danger
space Of the underwater body below
armor.
Under the same conditions, /. e., 9
stationary target and immunity from
hostile fire, an attack by destroyers,
by submarines, or by another battle
ship would have resulted In sinkine
the Ostfriesland in a very short space
of time
The damage done to the ostfries-
land by the bombs was Identical with
the damage that would have been
caused by mines. according Il
Comdr. Cleary. who says that "our
latest capital ships are so Constructed
that the damage from these attacks
would have been very much less than
that inflicted on. the Ostfriesland. .