Evening star., 1925-03-25
BATTLESHIP VS.. AIRPLANE
BY COMDR. HERBERT S. HOWARD
Construction Corps, L. :. y.

often made is that OF the bombing Of
the New Jersey and Virginia. In 1928
the Army requested some obsolete
ships for bombing practice, so the
New Jersey and Virginia. completely
out Of date and stripped of water
tight doors and fittings at the Boston
navy yard for use on ships in com
mission, were turned over to them.
The ships, hulks only, were towed
down the coast and anchored off
Hatteras. There they were bombed
and sunk quite as expected. Some
what the same fate befell the Ala
bama, an even older ship, bombed by
the Army aircraft TO test smoke and
gas bombs in special experiments.
The last test and the one of most in
terest was that of the Washington, car
ried out in November. 1924 This ship,
scheduled for scrapping under the
limitation OF naval armament treaty
represented the latest construction in
battleships in our Navy, and from
these tests it was intended to find
out in as accurate manner as pos
sible the effect of the explosion of uu-
derwater charge representing large
bombs upon the structure Of the ship
and her machinery, which had been
partly installed For these reasons
it was decided not to drop the bombs
from airpianeS, but TO place them in
certain exact positions with relation
to the ship by means OF booms and
rigging. If dropped from planes, the
exact location of the explosions reIa-
tive to the ship would never be
known, while in the way selected the
actual danger space around the shin
could be determined.
Three tests were carried out with
charges representing 2,0OO-pound
bombs, and after each one we went
aboard and made a thorough exami-
nation of the ship and the machinery.
certain amount Of damage was
done and the leakage caused, yet,
though each explosion was well in
side the distance from the ship held
by the extreme advocates of the air
plane bomb necessary to disable her
completely, the effect was in no way
such that it would have put the ship
out of action, nor were the con-
densers, which all agree are the parts
of the machinery most liable to dam
age, injured in any way. In addition
to these tests, two charges represent
ing torpedoes were exploded against
the side of the ship.
Following the underwater explo-
sive tests, the next event on the pro-
gram was to be the dropping of un-
loaded deck-piercing bombs from air
planes. Unloaded bombs were chosen,
as it was particularly desired to OBJ
tain information as to the penetrating
effect on the armored deck.
The tests were set for Saturday
morning and the time was left to the
planes. However, the weather was
bad, with strong winds blowing, and
all day we waited for the planes TO
come out. On Sunday morning 1t was
clear, with a 40-mile breeze offshore,
and again we waited, the wind being
too strong for the planes TO venture
the 40 miles or so TO sea. By after
noon, however, two came out. ana
after one had passed over the target
three times and the other eight times
to get their bearings they dropped
their bombs. Fortunately, one was a
hit, so an inspection was made, and
it was found that the bomb had
struck the deck, as hoped for. While
it had not penetrated, the effect was
such as to indicate that heavier decks
would be desirable to meet the men
ace of airplane bombers
The next day the weather con-
tinued bad, and as it was decided
that all the information sought for
from bombs had been obtained, the
ship was sunk by gunfire.
1t must be realized that these
bombing tests covered but one special
a navy in war, namely, the actual
combat after the meeting of opposing
forces. Long before the opposing
forces meet the fleet may have to
steam thousands of miles to find the
enemy. Airplanes alone cannot do
this, for these tests off the Canes Of
the Chesapeake showed that so miles
at sea was not a. trip to be lightly
undertaken by airplanes. CONSEQUENT
ly, for distant operations there must
be carriers. To be completely inde-
pendent of seacraft these carriers
should be airships, and it has been
suggested, apparently seriously, that
such carriers would fill the bill.
However, the largest airship built,
the Los Angeles, of 100000 cubic
feet capacity when filled with helium.
can carry a useful load, including
fuel, of about 80 tons. The 5000 900
cubic feet ship now being visualized
would similarly carry so tons. A sin
gle bombing plane weighs tons, so
that, with no allowance for fuel, the
most these airships could do would
be to lift and 16 bombing planes.
respectively. If the bombers were
needed 1000 miles away, 40 tons Of
fuel would be needed for the big air
ship to go this distance and back,
and consequently this airship, twice
the size of the Los Angeles, could
transport but eight bombing planes
this moderate distance, and that with
out any allowance for food or other
supplies except for the trip to the
designated place and back.
(The second and concluding chapter Of
this article tofL appear IN tomoyToW,s
edition of The stGr.)