The Washington times., 1925-04-09
NAVY WAR GAME
REV|VES OLD
AIR ROW
Hawaiian Maneuvers Fixed"
to Discredit Army Planes,
It Is Said
By LLOYD LEHRBAS.

by LLO1D LEHHbASs
The air service controversy,
which has been smouldering since
the demotion of Colonel William
Mitchell, flared up anew today.
The immediate cause is the joint
army-navy war game to be held
in Hawaiian waters next week.
Aircraft will play a minor role
GERS asserted today. There are.
not enough army planes stationed
in Hawaii, they said, to make even
sham battle interesting for the
strong battle fleet and the navy
airplanes that the enemy will.
send against them.
Hines Is CRITICIZED.
Officers Of the Mitchell faction,
who would not allow their names
| to be used for fear OF discipline,
vigorously criticized the statement
of Major General John Il. Hines,
chief OF staff, that one OF the
prime purposes OF the maneuvers
was to determine whether the de-
tending planes could cripple the
attacking fleet.
with the present air forces in
Hawaii, one of them said, there
is no chance we will be able to do
anything to the enemy, fleet
Consequently, we will be licked
and then there will be another
barrage of bunk about the battle
ship still being mightier than the
Iairplane."
Army Far Out Numbered.
| Unpublished and hitherto secret
| figures secured by international
News Service show there are only
Ithirty-nine airplanes in commission
| in Hawaii, while the navy at
tacking force has 118 fighting ma
chimes, bombers and observation
planes, on board the fleet.
The army has sixteen NIB
(Thomas-Morsel pursuit planes at
Luke Field, near Honolulu: seven
Martin bombers and sixteen De-
Hayiland reconnaissance and spotting
planes which can be used in the
war games, and eighty.six pilots
available for duty. The only other
aircraft in the islands are the four
teen navy bombing and observation
planes at Pearl Harbor, and sixty
seven army planes In storage, which
cannot be flown.
The pursuit planes are Of the type
used before the present PW-S
| lCurtisl pursuit planes and have
speed of las miles an hour. While
they are slightly faster than any
o1 the navy machines they are obso-
lete In comparison with the PW778
| planes, or the ''Nieuport 29. type
With which the japanese are now
eq6ipped.
Some Machines Obsolete.
The Martin bombers can carry
1000 pounds of bombs and make
LOO miles per hour. The De Hav-
Hands are war-built and now con-
sfdered obsolete,
On board the vessels of the fleet,
considered the enemy" in the war
games, are planes enough to out
number the army's planes in Hawaii.
to /. In addition to the two
sduadrons Of "a rs fighting ma
chimes the navy has 18 scouting
machines, making a total of AZ
Planes it can send into the air to
fight the army's Is planes.
Once the enemy" has attained
mastery of the air by superiority
in number of fighting craft each of
the twelve battleships and each of
the nine cruisers can send up two
observation planes to spot land bat
teries and radio back firing data
Guided by such "eyes" the battle
fleet can demolish the land batteries
and theoretically capture the islands.
Each vessel carries two 10 planes.
At the same time the battle fleet
can launch q squadron OF bombing
planes which can make short work
of reducing Honolulu to tintype
view of after the earthquake" The
bombers and observation planes will
meet with little resistance once SUI
periority of the air has been es-
tablished as there is only one anti
aircraft battery on the islands.
Even the anti-aircraft guns, upon
which considerable doubt has been
cast, will not get a respectable test
as the enemy" planes will wear
no sleeves" at which the guns
might fire.
OF the navy's planes sixty-six
can be cared for on board the first
vessels, but forty-two must be
based on land as there are no ia
cilities for catapaulting them into
the air. If they are made part of
the defensive forces 1t will, accord
ing to air service officers, be a
violation of the war games agree
ment that the present defensive
forces of the islands would be
tested.
The United States has theoreti-
cally lost the islands before the
games begin, the flying officers as
sert, as the mastery Of the air is
concededly with the enemy and
the n1aneuvers will not, therefore,
show what may or may not be done
under war conditions despite War
Department announcements to the
contrary.