Evening star., 1942-10-26
Navy Planes Allowed to Fly From Army Air Fields
As Services Finally Scrap Old Agreement


| the Luzon land bases on those days
or If our Army P-40 planes had been
dispersed or put in the air as soon
as word reached the Philippines
about Pearl Harbor the Japs' south
ward invasion could have been held
up many more months than it was.
May Have Been Personalities.
Perhaps there were "indiscernible"
reason, such as the personalities of
Admiral Hart and Gen. Macarthur,
or an Army belief that our sea and
land power were adequate to defend
the Philippines. Perhaps the agree
ment was only the ostensible reason
given for the refusal. In these days
OF rigorous censorship of Army and
Navy officers, 1t is impossible to OBJ
tain an official explanation.
More than 18 months before the
attack on the Philippines, Repre-
sentative Mas recognized the dan
ger of the Army-Navy agreement.
Speaking in the House on May %,
1910, in support of a naval expan-
sion bill, the Minnesota Representa-
tive, now a colonel in the marines,
said:
Another recognition in this bill
is that the Navy has come to the
conclusion in conjunction with the
Army that the Navy will have to
provide for its own protection for
Its own shore base facilities. Hereto
fore the theory and plan has been
that the Navy operated far out at
sea and the Army defended all land
bases whether Army or Navy, but in
view of the fact that the Army may
have to concentrate its entire force
suddenly in certain area and the
Army air force in sudden effort
may be required in an entirely diff
ferent theater of operation from
fixed shore bases, it has become ap-
parent that the Navy, in addition to
planes necessary for fighting and
patrol with the fleet, has to have
complement to protect its own
shore facilities.
This bill in providing 10000
planes recognizes that. and will pro-
vide the pilots and the planes nee
essary for complete feet operations,
with expanded bases for the in
crease in patrol planes. This bill also
provides training planes necessary,
and the minimum requirements for
air protection of the continental
shore base naval activity as well as
their outlying bases"
Was Expressing Hope.
Representative Mas said yester-
day that when he told the House
more than two years ago that the
Army and Navy had agreed to dis
card its old agreement, he was ex-
pressing a hope rather than a
reality.
II had been fighting that agree
ment for years. Representative
Mas said. II hoped that the Navy
would take the hint, build land-type
planes and protect their own shore
facilities. I am glad to hear that
Secretary Knox has come around to
expansion of the landbased activi-
ties"
Naval officials say that while the
old agreement against Navy use of
aerodromes no longer holds, there
is no program for building purely
land-based fighter planes The Navy
has two large bomber-type land
based planes, the Pho and the B-24,
or Liberator.
The officials point out that the
uninformed reader may be misled by
the Hart articles. Carrier-tvpe
planes, they declare, can and do use
land aerodromes. The only type
which they will concede as having
any difficulty with rough land fields
is the Grumman fighter, with its
narrow wheel tread. But even this
plane, they insist, Is safer than some
land-based fighters because it has a
slower landing speed.
Army Had Planes Available.
Under the present arrangement of
single commands in the various
theaters of operations, these officials
explain, the carrier type planes are
based on land fields whenever ad-
visable. One reason given for the
use of Army land-based planes in
the Solomons is that the Navy has
only so many planes in that region
and the Army had some available in
Australia.
Admiral Hart advocated the adop-
ton of the Japanese tactics of using
Navy planes from land bases. The
Japanese Zeros are carrier type
planes, and Capt. Lovette pointed
out that Japan is an island empire,
which permitted the Japanese Navy
to construct airplane and submarine
bases along the so-called Guam
Bonin line and in the inundated
islands.
These islands," Capt. Loyette
said, with their aerodromes gave
the Japs series of stepping stones
southwark and eastward for their
fighter planes. For the longer jumps,
they used carriers.
II am not defending the old agree
ment, but one must realize that we
are q continental power. with thou
sands Of miles of coastline and our
island bases are few and far be-
tween"
Personalities" Blamed Again.
Army and Navy officials will not
concede that the old agreement was
directly responsible last June for
the failure of the Army command
In Alaska to act Immediately on in
formation supplied by the Navy
that Japanese aircraft carrier was
operating near the Army base. They
lay part Of the blame on faulty
communications and personalities" ~
The Army's failure to attack was