San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-09-06

all the approaches with these death
dealing engines.
"If the surface vessels ever got
| through these, the whole Pacific Ocean
would be districted off into squares
and to each of these districts subma-
rincs would be assigned for the pur-
pose of tracking the surface ships and
attacking them.
These ships would be under con-
| slant attack by gun fire from the
submarines, that can carry any size
cannon and use projectiles containing
gas, high explosives or armor piercing,
they use underwater torpedoes winch
not only will hit the side of the ships
but will hit their bottoms, and can
produce gas clouds which will COM
pletely enveIop any fleet.
IF any vessels of the fleet survived
| the submarine attacks, crossed the sea
and came within hundreds of miles of
the hostile coast, they would be sent
to the bottom forthwith, by aircraft.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.
"If the Pacific maneuyer showed
anything conclusively, it was that air
craft acting from land bases can de
stroy any surface fleet, coming within
its radius of operations. This al
ready had been amply proved by our
bombardment tests in 1921.
"As far as Honolulu is concerned,
it is not position of decisive influence
in the control of the Pacific. Its
value consists in being an excellent
submarine base TO act against hostile
surface seacraft and submarines. The
control position of the Pacific is our
own territory of Alaska and the pen
insula of Kamchatka, opposite. 1t is
reported that from fifty million to
eighty million dollars has been spent
Just for this Pacific parade of our
nayy-more properly, the vessels be-
longing to the United States, because,
in fact, it is not navy in the mod
ern conception of the term. What
would this amount. applied to the de-
velopment of airplanes and submarines
have meant?
"Next, to get publicity and make
a noise about what it was doing with
aircraft, this so-called Hawaiian flight
was arranged for. Even if it had been
made successfully to Honolulu, it
would have meant little, either COM
mercially or strategically, compared to
what q flight to Europe or Asia
would. Three airplanes were built 70
participate in it. These showed moth
ing novel in design and were untried
for this kind of work. One never got
away from the Pacific coast, another
flew few miles out and was forced
to land in the water. and one was
lost ON account of being out Of gas
somewhere on the high seas.
EXPERIMENTAL PLANES.
Patrol vessels were stationed every
200 miles, a distance entirely too far
apart for an experimental flight of
this kind, with such primitive flying
machines as the PN.9s are. Double
or triple this number of vessels should
have been there. In fact, the whole
Pacific fleet should have been employed
there, instead of joy-riding around the
Antipodes. As it was, when these
slow-moving airplanes, going about
I5 miles an hour, were first sighted
from the destroyers, the destroyers
should have steamed out full speed in
the direction the airplane was going.
This would not only indicate the prop
or course to the plane but would place
the destroyer closer to it in case of
accident. As the airplanes were only
moving at about 70 miles an hour,
destroyer could have been speeded
up to within 80 miles Of that sped.
s"Why, If they expected to run short
of fuel. as indeed they might, did they
not make arrangements for refueling
the airplane while it was in the air,
by another airplane, as we have re-
peatedly donep Why did they carry
crew of five, when the weight OF
two men in fuel might have carried
the ship through?
GREAT NUMBERING BOAT.
what happened toSthis really good.
for-nothing. big, numbering flying boat,
when its brave navigators began to
run short of gas. over a heavy sea
The probability is that they held her
up as long as they could. As they
neared the water, caught by a sudden
gust, she might have been thrown into
stall and spun down and gone
straight under the waves. We hope
that some passing fisherman may have
picked them up as our Lieutenant
Wade WIS picked Up in the North Sea.
Our navy did not find him either, all
they did was to smash his plane when
il was turned over - them by the fish
erman. After all, tie Hawaiian Islands
are not a vital area with our present
methods Of national deefnse.
Then. tho disaster to the Shenan-
doah--killing Captain Lansdowne, the
last of our really experienced airship
captains. q splendid man, with his
companions. following in the wake OF
Captain Mabry and Captain Maxfield,
our airship commanders who have
havo gone before,
IT do not lnow exactly what hap
pened to the poor Shenandoah. She
was an experimental ship, built in
this country. i believe she was about
30 per cent overweight in her struc-
ture. She had broken away from her
mooring mast--an inefficient way OF
handling airships, anyway-last spring
and her whole structure was badly
strained. ! believe tlat the number of
valves in the gas bags containing the
helium had been diminished so as to
save helium gas. which is expensive in
money. but which made the ship more
dangerous to the crew. The Shenan-
doah was going west on a propaganda
mission for the Navy Department to
offset the adverse publicity caused BY
the failures in the Pacific and the
Arctic. Note: Propaganda and not
service Is the keynote in these under
takings.
"what business has the navy over
the mountains, anyway? Their mission