The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1944-06-15

WAtAL blAC CAHIO-
sives going into shells, bombs and
depth charges. The TINT of the last
war was thought to be the ultimate
as a force of destruction, but 1t has
already been surpassed. 1t Is still
highly restricted subject for discus
sion. The British have permitted
some mention Of their "R. D. X"
explosives, but the Americans have
something that is much more
stable equivalent: What 1t will do,
Of course. Is increase the range, vel
ocity and destructiveness of nearly
every type of thing that can be
thrown at an enemy. 1t Is only one
Of the new explosives under develop
ment.
Tests are being made with new
powders that are not only smoke
less, but conceal the flash at the
muzzle when big guns are fired
This is highly important develop
ment. In night action, the tell-tale
flash Of main battery is the worst
give-away Of ships position.
ROCKETS COME IN VARIOUS
SIZES AND SHAPES
Rockets, which have caught the
public fancy to such an amazing
degree, are now in production and
in use in a variety of shapes and
sizes and from special purpose
mounts. Recent Navy communicates
have revealed the use of rocket bar
RACES fired from landing craft in
the southwest Pacific, and in the
sinking of Nazi submarine in the
Atlantic by planes firing rockets.
Against submarines, the rocket
projectile is Of exceptional advant-
age in that the rocket gives the shell
head continued driving power under
water. Having all the destructive
force Of three and five-inch shells,
rockets can be fired without recoil.
Mounting five-inch gun on an air
plane is today unthinkable. Rockets
on planes, however, can be fired in
pairs or in salvo to give from two
to 10 times as much firepower as
could be obtained from a single
five-inch gun, and without the eX-
ira weight or strain.
Adding more guns and more rock
cts to aircraft and surface vessels
is only one Of the means Of increas-
ing the firepower which each plane
and ship can throw against an en-
envy. Every effort is being made to
increase efficiency and size Of each
weapon.
PROBLEMS OF FASTER FIRING
BEING SOLVED
The normal rate Of fire Of So
caliber machine gun, for instance, is
750 rounds minute. That Is II
rounds a second, but even so, air.
craft travelling 300 miles an hour,
five miles a minute, 400 feet Sec
ond, stand a good chance of missing
each other in the intervals of one
shot for every 80 feet or more OF
travel The problem. then, is one Of
making the machine guns fire fast
er and 1t is being solved.
The 20-mm. cannon likewise
seems destined to be stepped up in
efficiency-first by twin mounting,
second by installation as packaged
gun to be hung from the wing of
plane.
This is only the beginning of what
will probably be an era of auto
matte weapons of sizes that used to
be considered too big for destroyers,
for the tendency is to make every
weapon bigger, better, faster. Five
UNDERGROUND bombs are still ef-
fective, but the ratio of 4000-pound
bombs goes up and up and up. Adj
vances in control of all these new
weapons have kept pace with i'm
provements in the weapons them
selves. Here is where the real CAD
getry comes into play. There are
bombsights and computing gyrosco-
pic gunsights which do things the
original Norden and Sperry models
cannot do-complex thinking ma
chimes which solve mathematical
problems faster than mechanical
gunnery devices can execute the
answers. Details about these fantas-
tic things will probably not be re-
| vealed until after the war.