Evening star., 1946-07-25
Military Men Fighting
Next War on Paper
Advocates of Air Power Seen
Overplayins Their Hands
BY Dapid Laurence

AuVOCdteS Oh fA1f rover seen
Overplayins Their Hands
By David Laurence
While the public may or may not
think of the next war as remote, mill
tary men are already fighting it on
paper.
Thus Gen. James H. Doolittle. re-
tired, who Is president of the Air Forces
Association, has come out into the open
in his disparagement OF the value of
the United States Navy. He not only
deprecates the battleship but calls the
aircraft carrier 'obsolescent"
After the last world war Billy Mitch
ell, who was general in the Air Forces,
began a crusade against the battleship
and went to such extremes that he
didn't help the cause of air power. As
a consequence, for long time Ameri-
can air power was neglected and the
United States paid the penalty at Pearl
Harbor.
Today the extremists who speak flip
PANTY Of the aircraft carrier-which
really was the jor influence in win
ming the war in the Pacific-are start
ing crusade that will again hurt the
true cause of air power
If Gen. Mitchells advice had been
taken and the battleships had been
scrapped, Hitler might have won the
war in Europe. For after the air forces
failed to compel the Nazi surrender
nd inv Ell nf
came necessary, the guns OF the bat
tleships protected the invading forces
on the Normandy coast for distance
of II miles inland. Time was Of the
essence, as evidence now shows slow
war might have been fatal
Landings in Pacific.
The firepower OF the battleships made
the landings successful in the Pacific.
too, where the air forces alone were
powerless to capture bases needed for
our big bombers.
Now Gen. Doolittle's advice Is to
scrap the aircraft carriers and to de-
pend only on long-range bombers and
to concentrate all command in the Air
Forces, thus reducing to a secondary
role both ground troops and the Navy.
Again the advocates of air power are
overplaying their hand.
The idea of a unified command is q
good one, and Congress would have
acted on the plan at this session If the
Air Forces had not destroyed all har-
mony between the military services by
insisting that land-based planes that
operate with ships should be removed
from the Nays control and by limiting
plainly that, ON the basis Of Air Forces
theory alone, the appropriations for
carriers and for amphibious forces
should be virtually eliminated from
major consideration.
The enthusiasm for air power is un-
the remarkable work done in the war
against both Japan and Germany by
sirplanes and by the intrepid air off,
GERS and enlisted men doesn't hesitate
to concede that air power is of primary
importance in any military establish
ment charged with the responsibilities
OF world wide operation But it is one
thing to give air power its due and quite
another to witness former officers OF
one service giving out press interviews
rejecting on another service. The gen.
eral public is likely to look askance at
such procedures and the cause of ade-
quate appropriation for all armed serv-
ices is bound to suffer.
Okinawa Lesson Cited.
The United States strategic bombing
survey report, made by IL distin-
guished civilians, was an attempt to
give due credit to all armed services.
but even in that report the prejudices
in favor Of air power went to the point
OF criticism of another armed service.
Thus in naval circles there is amaze
ment at the statement in the report
that the capture Of the Gilbert Islands
was not necessary or that Rabaul was
bombed unnecessarily. One wonders
what Gen. Macarthur thinks OF the
latter point, as it was vital that Rabaul
be neutralized before the northern ad-
vance of MacArthur's forces could be
carried on.
Any attempt to 60 directly to the
Marshalls without shore based aviation
would doubtless have met disaster at
a time when American forces were
initiating the push across the Pacific
which eventually brought them to
Okinawa.
Such discussions more than ever point
to the necessity of a comprehensive
inquiry of what happened in the Pa
citic and particularly study of those
points of criticism which the strategic
bombing survey significantly ignored as
to the failure of the Army Air Forces
to put out Of commission the bases from
which suicide planes were coming These
enemy planes were killing American
boys on the decks of naval vessels off
Okinawa and keeping the Marines and
infantrymen on shore from getting ths
assistance they needed in capturing
that island. 1t was the victory at
Okinawa, hard won though it was,
which was the real turning point of
the Pacific war, and the ground troops
of the Army and Marine Corps did that
job with the aid of the Navy and with
little help from the Army Air Forces.
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