Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-02-05

1.-THE United States is 7leU-
conner to rocket warfare, but
American scientists are not TAX
ing bdckseat to any one. In
stead OF ainless terror depices
like the We, they're developing
powerful and accurate tDeapons.
Here is the first of series OF
fDe stories on the Development
and use OF ,Odr rockets.)
BY FRANK CAREY,
Associated Press Science Writer.
Every day Is the Fourth Of July
on the road to Berlin and Tokyo
The Yanks and their Allies are
raising hob, with rockets-the Sun
day punch" weapon of the war.
With rockets a lone foot-soldier
can stand up to a mighty tank.
A fighter plane packs the wallop
of destroyer salvo. -.
Certain landing craft carry po-
tential firepower more than twice
that Of battleship-that is, In 4
given period of time these landing
craft can fire projectiles weighing
more than twice as much as those
a battleship can fire in the same
time. The length of time they can
sustain their fire is secret.
Both Army and Navy strategists
are counting upon them for a large
part Of the Knockout sock against
the Nazis and the Japs.
Mkhty Mosaic IL sWarfafA. - .
Up to now, their spectacular rec
ord has been unfolded only in frag-
ments. Pieced together with such
new information as can be given
by Washington rocket experts with
in the limits of security, the frag-
ments form mighty mosaic Of
warfare.
Rocket antiaircraft weaponsI
helped the British outwit the Luft-
daffe during the blitz of 1901. It
was rocket fire that helped the Rus
slams turn the tide at Moscow and
Stalingrad. At Ell Alemein and Kas-
serine Pass the whoosh OF the rock
cts rose to a mighty symphony of
terror. During the Sicilian and
Normandy landings, rockets made
the beaches "a dancing floor of
fire"
In the Pacific, rocket-shooting
Yankee fliers who call themselves |
"Rockettes" are whamming out de-
structton. And with each successive
landing on Pacific islands, the hell
fire of thousands of rockets shot |
from many types of landing craft
Is erasing the memory of costly
landings like Tarawa.
Know-How Of Launching.
1t is only within the past year that
we have developed, the means and
the know-how to launch three
step rocket attack for invasion:
l. Rockets shot from low-flying
planes against armored concentra-
lions, rail lines, pillboxes and artil-
lery placements.
Q. Rockets shot in great salvos
from landing craft to drive the en-
envy from the beaches.
3. Rockets for the walking artil-
lery" - one-man rocket guns that
enable troops to do the job of artil-
lery before the big guns can be
brought ashore.
These transporting projectiles bv
no means replace naval lgunfire
They probably never will. But they
do terrific job between the time
the big naval guns stop firing and
the time the men hit the beaches.
That is the time which Rear Adj
miral Daniel E. Barley calls the
sweat inspiring, stomach sinking
moment"
Says Capt. G. D. Linke, chief Of
the Navy's Armor and Projectile
Section:
'Tt is at this critical moment that
the rockets do their vital Job. They
furnish deadly umbrella of fire to
protect our men at the time they are
the most vulnerable to enemy NOR
tars and machine guns"
We had one-man rocket guns as
early as the African invasion-the
famed 'bazooka," with which a
doughboy can knock out a tank, and
early in January of last year, two
Avenger torpedo pompers attacked
a German submarine with rocket
lprojectiles.
But the plane technique was first
used by the Russians as early as
1941, and the British furnished the
special rocket landing craft for the
Sicilian landings.
We didn't have our own rocket
landing craft until the Cape Glou-
cester invasion In December, 1913,
so we're comparative novices. But
we're now using more rockets than
any other combatant.
Responsibility Of Navy.
The Navy has the responsibility
of procuring most Of the rockets
for all our forces. It will step up
production more than 800 per cent
in the next few months. BY spring.
time, the Navy will be spending
approximately 500, 900 900 month
on rocket ammunition alone ~ rs
much as IS now being spent for al
TYPES Of naval ammunition.
The Army. which produces some