Evening star., 1949-12-27
Arnold Sees u. S. Facing Future
WithSmoN Ready Combat Force
(continued From First Page. >,

WIN CmOu KeQC
Continued From First Page)
which to build the numbers that
we need.
80 Highly technical units which
require many months to equip and
train. =.
When money becomes scarce
due to economy. the Joint Chiefs
of Staff will find out that many
of the problems which confronted
them prior to that time were very
elemental. The problems Incl
uental to providing properly bal
anced armed forces in q short
period Of time will be verging on
the impossible. and yet. 1t will be
expected.
These things make It almost
necessary to bring in a crystal ball
to- follow war developments
through to natural and logical
conclusion. For instance, one Of
the greatest problems confronting
commanders during World War II
was: How many Of our men and
how much Of our equipment must
we keep for seed? Large masses
Of trained men. properly equipped,
do not come from nothing. We
must save some out for training
commands.
Equation of Unknowns.
Hence, what Is the least num-
ber that we can send into combat
when the war starts? That in it
self may mean the difference be-
, tween having a strong, properly
balanced Army, Navy and Air
Force a year or so later, with a
small contingent available for the
war when it starts, or throwing
everything into the fight and
never having She foundation upon
which to build a large powerful
force. Hence, we find ourselves
confronted with an equation of
many unknowns before we can
even make our first prediction as
to how any war will be fought.
After the go-ahead is given. 1t
requires at least year to start
turning out pilots; two years be-
fore we get them in quantity. It
requires year to start the wheels
of industry moving for the pro-
duction of airplanes. and another
year before We hit real quantity
production if we start with ap-
proved, well-tested airplaneS. II
we want a new plane, anywhere
from an additional year to 18I
months will be required. We must
not allow ourselves to be blinded
with any ideas that an Air Force,
for instance. can be created in q
matter of months. The Air Force
with which we start the war and
will have for at least many
months, is just that Air. Force
that we have in peace time.
These same principles apply,
with some time variations, to
Army and Navy units.
Submarine Menace Remains.
Then there is another very seri-
Gus situation which confronted us
in both World Wars: The subma-
rine menace. With the subs rum
ming wild as they did during the
start of World War II. our con-
tributions to the Allied cause went
backward instead of forward for
some time. Not being a sumbarine
man, find it difficult to deter
mine just what may be expected,
but as the setup looks to me, we
will have several bad months of
shipping troubles with schnorkels
lying along our shipping lanes. If
such is the case, even though we
have reinforcements in men, and
reserves in equipment waiting at
our docks, it doesn't mean that
we will be able to send them over
seas just when we want to.
In my opinion, once more we
will have to take to the air for
most important Of our travelling
personnel and the highly critical
equipment. The transatlantic air
lines will be running at density
of 10 times that of World War II,
and we were running as many as
80 planes day each way across
the Atlantic in 1945. Our Air
Transport Command saved Mont
gomery when he was short OIL
fuses and ammunition and his
back was against the wall at Ell
Alamein. However, that will be
nothing compared with the de-
mands, requests and cries for help
we will receive in another war.
There will be urgent need for all
kinds of supplies, and ships will
not be available. To wait will be
disastrous. Airplanes to the res
cue; more and more airplanes!
A-bombs Could Cripple Ports.
From time to time we hear peo-
pie depreciate the effects Of the
atomic bomb. These people were
not at Hiroshima. It is rather
far-fetched to say that weapon
is futile when it kills 10000 people
in a flash. It makes no difference
whether the city is Hiroshima,
New York, San Francisco, Calais
or Moscow. II the atomic bomb
hits the city, the effects would be
catastrophe.
GONG 10 new York;