Evening star., 1925-03-20

shooting at anchored targets. A ship
In action is speeding and lodging.
She would be much harder to hit.
Again, the aviators were not harassed
by anti iaircraft fire. Some of the
hits were made from not more than
$500 feet, at which height the aero
plane would have been under fire even
of the machine guns. And you must
allow much.' said one of the admirals
to me. for the uncertain aim of men
in battle. A gun crew which makes
10 per cent of hits in target practice
cannot be counted on for more than
3 per cent in action"
However, one result of the blood
less battle off the capes looks rather
convincing to a civilian landsman. A
1,100pound bomb struck the quarter
deck of the old Virginia and there
exploded on contact. 1t did not dis
turb her gun emplacements. pho
tograph snapped Immediately after
ward shows even the great guns
of the after turret poking their
snouts through the wreckage, un-
, broken and unbent.
Damage Is Minimized.
But it reduced everything above the
turrets to tangled junk. 1t leveled
completely the skeleton masts and
the tunnels. Looks worse than ii
is,' an admiral commented to me.
YOU could still have turned the tur-
rets, our people found She could
have continued to navigate and TO
light with all her guns" But the
landsman still wonders. Speed. he
mas been told is important in battle
maneuver. How much would the loss
Or her tunnels have retarded her?
What about the complex and delicate
\, i.b
transmits orders. controls fire and
loads guns? Would not part of her
guns at least have gone out of action
| pending repairs to this indispensable
auxiliary?
Sure they would" say the airmen
She's be a cripple. And that was
only an 1.100pound bomb. What
| would our one-ton babies have done?'
And there you are again. The con-
| gressional committee proposed at one
time that the Delaware, which is
| marked for junking and has a mod
ern hull. should be sunk by air at.
| tack, with a committee of newspaper
| men and Congressman acting as ref
erees. Some of the influences at tn,
| back stairs of the investigation
| squelched this proposal The expert,
| could have weighed results just thu
| same, and we should have had, be.
| SIDES the views OF some fairly neu'
| trail persons, who. while not experts
| may at least be credited with com
| mon sense. The Delaware, by tn,
way, is about all we have left to ex
| pertinent with
Part In Coast Defense.
| The best any one can say, perhaps, i.
that the aerial bomb has proved itsel
| formidable new weapon agains
| surface craft. Whether it is NOR
| formidable than the submarine ma,
depend on circumstances. 1t is doubt
full II two fleets meeting on the higl
seas, even though armed with air
plane carriers, would be able to d.
| much bombing. But the submarine O
| the cruising type, with its radius o
| 5000 miles, fights as effectively oil
| the high seas as it does near land
While the warhead of the torped
contains only 800 pounds of explosiv
| to 1000 in the giant airbomb, il ex
| plodes at contact with the hull o
does not explode at all. Get the at
| tacking feet within 200 or 800 mile
| of Its enemy. coast and there is
| different story. The planes are thel
based on land. They could come, dis
charge. return: come, discharge. re