Evening star., 1940-12-31
U.S.. Army Doubled,
RI Warships Added
TO Fleet in 1910
Yeur-End Review Shows
4-u-Duy Tank Output;
Pilot Troinine Pushed
BY the Associated Press.


stoned by the holiday lull provided
ground today for grim satisfaction,
but not complacency, over the prog
ress made in a 12-month toward
putting the Nation in arms.
In the midst of world situation
Of terrible urgency" with its pleas
to speed up quickly the production
of warplanes and other munitions,
officials were able to summarize
\these definite advances realized
within a year toward the goal of
total defense:
The Army has more than doubled
Its manpower and is on the eve of
a second doubling. Approximately
$500 900 officers and men already are
Yin uniform, contrasted with 215 488-
all regulars-in service at the end
of 1889.
New tanks, rifles, motor vehicles
and other arms and supplies are ac-
tually being received now at rate
suggestive of the volume to come,
even though, like warplanes, they
lag far behind the combined re-
ouirements of the United States and
Great Britain.
Navy Now Numbers 250,O0O.
The Navy in year has expanded
in personnel in uniform from 158,-
814 last January to a present total
of nearly 250000 officers and men,
including the Marines and Reservists
called to active duty.
The feet has been reinforced by
81 new warships and several score
auXiliaries. Its commanders rats
it the worlds strongest, although
the transfer of so aging deStroyers
to Britain reduced the number OF
combat vessels to 321, and not for
four years is the projected two
ocean Navy expected to be ready.
In air strength, several hundred
new warplanes have been put into
service within the year, as a prelude
to the delivery of thousands "on
SeAder."
The Army counts about 500 as
! first line combat planes, aside from
several times as many training craft
and outmoded fighters and bomb
ers. Exact numbers are conflden-
tial. A year ago virtually none was
rated officially a match for new war
tested Nazi and British craft, be-
cause of lack of such equipment as
leak-proof fuel tanks and armor.
The Navy and Marine Corps air
forces numbered 2,145 planes in
service a year ago. Eleven months
later the total was up exactly 800.
Pilot Training Doubled.
Full twice as many youths are in
training as Army and Navy pilots as
were a year ago.
Production of planes has been al
most doubled, although tagging be-
hind schedules proven to have been
too optimistic for the overburdened
industry. The output will be about
TOO next month, by the estimate of
William S. Knudsen, arms produc-
ton chief, compared with 35l In
January, 1940 A year earlier the
= total was just 157.
Light tanks for the Army's new
armored divisions are rolling off as
lines now at the rate of four
or more a day. Less than year
ago the War Department acknow-
J ledged possession of just 10 of late
design, aside from obSoleScent
models. Mass production of 25-ton
medium tanks and heavy monsters
of S. tons or more is only in the
make-ready stage.
New camps and cantonments for
an Army of 100000, hardly thought
of a year ago as a peace-time pos
sibility, are three-quarters or more
completed.
New facilities for warship and
merchant shipping have been added
at almost every port. Actual work
is we'll along on the first of 81 ,oOo,-
100000 string of Government NUM-
tions plants.
Some Bases Under Construction.
Eight new Atlantic offshore bases
acquired from Britain have been
surveyed, some are under construc-
ton and troops have been ordered
to the base in Newfoundland.
With the selective service system
in actual operation, basis has been
laid to meet with minimum OF
delay and demands for man power.
q, Only in wartime 1917-18 could the
armed forces report such swift prog
ress in bolstering defenses to meet
any threat to American security in
a disordered world.
OvershadoWing this bright side OF
! the defense picture loom so many
deficiencies and discouraging delays,
however, that the men at the top
directly concerned with overcoming
them are unwilling to do more than
acknowledge the limited though sub
stantial progress made. The other
side of the picture, portraying the
Nation swinging into l941 still utter
" unprepared for total war, de-
mands their full attention.
Relatively, only preliminarieS have
been cleared away toward realizing
the national objective of attaining
maximum power in two years. 1t is
formidable undertaking, compar-
ing with the seven years taken by
Adolf Hitler's Germany, and the
four required by Great Britain, by
the estimate of Prime Minister
Winston Churchill.
Pre- -Blitzkrieg Preparations.
The 1910 advances were almost
entirely the result of steps to REIN
force defenses taken long before the
Nazi blitzkrieg and the collapse of
= France put a new face on the out
look for American safety in world
OF brute force.
OF the immediate appropriations
and long-term commitments made
by Congress for national defense
and neutrality enforcement during
, the year, aggregating $17,692, ,227,-
. 900, major portion became avail
able only in September.
This evidence of the country's
reluctance to undertake the vast
spending is the primary reason, In
the official view, why the defense