Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-12-10
u. S. Must
Learn Tactics
Of Surprise
Modern Type Fighting
Needed for Alertness
BY PAUL MALLON ,

sumner WeIleS, the state
under-secretary, wanted TO bet
an associate 10 10 ! few days
before the Jap attack. that there
would be war.
The vital Fourteenth Street
Bridge (only rail connection
east of the mountain between
the north and SOUTH was sud-
denly fitted with electric lights
under its piers for protection
against sabotage the day before
war broke.
An unusual war-like confer
ence between the fighting serv-
ice leaders, Knox and Stimson,
was held with State Secretary
Hull a few hours before the
declaration of war came from
Toxic.
Other evidence. equally en-
phatic, can be found in the pub
lie utterances of Navy Secretary
Knox the past few weeks that
war with Japan was expected
by this government. The only
surprise then. was in the way
the Japs did it. The only shock
was the successful attack upon
the American Navy, snoozing in
the remote safety of Hawaii.
Thus, the most important Of
all possible questions has been
raised at the outset of this war.
Are we going to learn alertness
the hard way. the way the Brit
ish learned it?
Are we going to get efficiency
eventually from the blood and
whitewash of defeats, or are we
going to get it the right way
by insisting upon the modern
kind of fighting direction which
will surprise the other fellow
instead Of letting us be sur
prised?
THIS warning complaint is
l. wholly impersonal. The
same inquiry arose in many
congressional and official mind
at the first break of the in
credible news.
In many quarters, you could
hear talk like this:
"Of course i do not like to
suggest such things at a time
like this, but some one should
be court-martialed for permitting
the Japs to get bombers over
our feet base"
Court-martialing will do no
good. We had courts-martial
galore after the first Bull Run.
They always wind up six
months or a year after the
damage has been done, with
printed record full of alibis, and
a post-mortem report.
The time to act is before the
necessity for another court
martial may develop. What
ever corrective is needed, must
be supplied at once.
We already have the men and
the ships to do the job. OBJ
viously the only kind Of COR
receives called for are those
which will assure a take-noth-
ing-for-granted fighting imagi-
nation in management personnel.
We have more men of that
type than any nation in the
world. All we need to do is to
get them in the right positions.
The admiral who thinks the
"Japs will be a cinch for us"
will be no good to the navy.
The one who is thinking along
the line of how to plug them in
their weakest spot is the
admiral who will do the job.
EVEN the preliminary facts
~ available in this case show
that patrol bombers in large
quantities were dispatched to
Hawaii months ago for the pur-
pose of securing the seas every
minute. Their easy radius is
1000 miles from Honolulu.
Also we have an airplane
listening device so good that we
sent many to England along
with mechanics to operate them.
We had plenty of them at Pearl
Harbor.
An anchored fleet should not
be meat for bombers if the fleet
has planes in the air, and GER
tainly all ships at anchor are
ordinarily protected from tor
pedo attack by screens of
barges.
The only excuse commonly
mentioned at the outset here
was that the attack was UNI
expected upon Manila. and not
upon Honolulu-an excuse which
only makes matters worse.
ITO AIR much comments at
L trying time may appear TO
some persons (like the above
mentioned congressman to be
demoralizing. That attitude will
find special favor among timid
elderly ladies, politicians afraid
to express their opinions and a
few-very w-shortsighted
government officials who desire
10 save the government from all
criticism.
The time to talk is now in
order that pressure for correc-
tives may be fully furnished at
the earliest possible moment.
Censorship does not cover crit
,c;e,,, That 10 a yS,,ipt for uybicb