Evening star., 1937-07-24

war and other factors of recent his
tory
Even the older battleships are still
considered worth while when they are
reJuVenated by the monkey glands OF
m0dernization. Uncle Sam recently
modernized the battleships Idaho,
| Mississippi and New Mexico Japan
and Great Britain, as we'll, have ex-
pended large sums in modernizng
, their older battleships.
4 IRCRAFT costing a quarter of a
million dollars can be brought
down by high explosive shells, costing
| comparatively few dollars the battle
ship sailors assert. Then, aircraft are
fair weather craft'-as are smaller
ships, they point out. for in storms. in
fog, when hurricanes sweep the oceans,
they are useless The recent search
for Amelia Earhart brought that out,
the officials say, for plane which
took off from Pearl Harbor. Hawaii, to
pioneer the search by air had to turn
back, but the big battleship Colorado
ploughed through waves and bad
weather and reached her appointed
destination without trouble.
Bases and tenders are vital for air
craft and when they bomb an area,
ships and troops are necessary to hold
1t from military viewpoint, declare
the pro-battleship men
Aircraft cannot supplant battle
ships or other naval craft any more
than they can supplant the infantry
or the artillery of an army" they
emphasize.
Looking at it from knock down.
drag-out fight" angle the battleship
advocates see it thus
"A bombing plane is a ship that
carries a projectile, which. when it
has launched that projectie, must
return to its flying field and re-arm
and refuel, If we assume that
modern battleship mounts nine l6-
inch guns, firing a 2,100-pound pro-
lectile, and that she carries 100 projec-
tiles for each gun, and that the guns
can fire one shot minute. the battle
ship can discharge 900 shots in an
hour and 40 minutes. 1t would re-
quire 900 bombing planes to drop the
same number of 2O00-pound bombs.
Since We have had IS battleships
in our battle line. they could deliver
1900 shots in the same time. and it
would require l3,500 planes to deliver
rf H. l.
same amount of time. The life. of a
battleship is 26 years and the life of
a plane about six years"
Then, they go on to argue about the
relative costs. contending that the
cost of these planes in IS years would
be l47s billion dollars, while the
Is battleships at $50 900 900 each
would cost three-quarters of
billion dollars.
SO long as other powers maintain
battleships We must have battleships,"
asserts the Navy Department. and
even if other forces did not have bat
tleships our problem Of defense would
be made easier if we did have bat
tleships'
WHAT, then, is the situation abroad?
Great Britain is constructing
the 35000-ton battleships King George
and Prince of Wales. France has CEN
tered her talents on these new battle
ships: Dunkerque, Strasbourg, Rich
elleu and Jean-Bart. Italy is con-
structing the Littorio and the Wit
torlo Veneto, Germany is building
the battleships Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau, each 26,00O tons displace-
ment, and two others, each of $4,000
tons displacement.
IhuS not single major power has
discarded the battleship. All are
building more. Japan does not ap-
pear IN the latest availa bic Navy De-
partment compilation as now building
any new battleships, but still retains
ner nine battleships-the Mutsu. Ma
cato, Hyuea. Lse, Yamashiro, Fuse.
hir!Shlma, Haruna and Kongo.
AS the international score now
stands, the United States has IS cap
ltal ships. although the New York
Texas and Arkansas are being utilized
Tor training purposes now; Great Brit
ain has IS. including the battle
cruisers Hood. Repulse and Renown:
France has 9, Italy has 4 battleships
and Germany has 6 battleships.
The American battleShips in fun
active service are the PENNSYLVANIA,
fagship Of the fleet; the Colorado.
West Virginia, Maryland, California,
Tennessee, Idaho, New Mexico, Mis-
SlSSlppl, Arizona, Oklahoma and Ne
yada.
While the battleship is still the
major capital ship, it bears little re-
semblance to the battleships of an
other day Like women's hats. STYLES
in battleShips change. The old cage
masts are giving way to stubby tripod
masts that look ike a mere stick.
Iooay lhe oattleShlp embodieS a super
noatlng fortress, capable of meeting
attack, not only from other members
OF Its kind, but from the foemen who
/ Ny the ar, SOW the dragons teeth
OF mines in the furrowed sea and who
ride beneath the waves in sealed sub
marines.
Because Of the seyen-leagued boots
OF science and invention in these lat
ter years, 1t requires much more
alert mind now to operate the COM
pieX machine that is battleship
Ihe ea&y-going seaman Of the days Of
sail would be lost today in the hum
OF the dynamos, the roar of the forced
orait, the ear-Splitting crescendo of
the firing Of the giant guns and the
llFlng power visible within the rim
OF steel that is modern man Of war.
trained men--and every man at his
post--must be the order of the day
IN the American Navy now. SO that
each one knows Just exactly what is
! expected Of him and the whole COM
/ pllcated machine may operate har-
monlously-fromt the gold-Striped cap-
tam on the bridge to the smudgy boy
in the bilge keels.
ON THE eve Of the World War in
Europe American battleships gen.