Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-04-18
Naval Carriers Seen
Still Needed DESPITE
Experts Statements
Writer Hits Inaccurate
Views, Says Fleet Con
Deliver Atomic Bomb
By David Laurence

By David Laurence
As long as a few Air Force en-
thusiasts say it, there Is ne dan
ger, but when the chairman OF
the House Appropriations Com
mittee declares that the United
States doesn't need naval carriers
any more and that they cannot
deliver the atom bomb. 1t becomes
important to present certain facts
that show how inaccurate such
statements can be.
In the first place, the Navy can
deliver the atom bomb from GER
tain vantage points from a carrier
fleet. This has already been Of
ficially revealed by the Navy.
In the second place, the Navy
doesn't send out carriers alone
but protects them with light cruis-
ers and destroyers equipped with
anti-aircraft weapons so effective
that In the last war no suicide
planes sank a carrier.
In the third place. Representa-
tive Cannon says: With the sign
ing Of the Atlantic treaty, we've
got the bases" But who will as
sure that those bases will remain
always in allied hands?
Constant Hazards. "
If q Communist government
some day infiltrates the Scandi-
navian countries and seizes the
bases, the United States will be
lucky to have a big carrier fleet
handy to retaliate and to protect
the landing of our troops in at
tempting to recover those bases.
AS long as the safety of the
United States Is dependent on the
political ups-and-downs Of certain
countries in Europe. there will be
hazards.
Conceivably also. as long as the
On ed States has no other way
of protecting itself in waters ad-
jacent to the European continent,
the American Government will be
constantly importuned to furnish
more and more protection and
perhaps more and more economic
aid lest Communism sweep those
countries.
The fact that a carrier fleet will
be available to send out naval
air power is the best assurance
against mishandling of this ques-
ton of land bases by European
politicians.
Representative Cannon's views
are not novel. They have been
expressed by others who have no
real knowledge of the sustained
bombing that can be done from
the decks Of carriers. It will cost
the United States only about So
600, 900 next year to carry on GER
tain work on the new super
carrier. Inasmuch as vessels OF
this kind cannot be built over
night, the carrying forward over
the next three or four years of
Super-carrier construction is prob
ably the cheapest form of insur-
ance America can take out against
the possibility of losing land bases.
There is a school of thought,
moreover, which believes that If
rockets are developed as predicted,
England may not, be a safe base
for American land planes. Hence
1t is not good strategy to rule out
any important means of hitting
at a potential enemy. The carrier
fleets, Of course. are vulnerable
but so are land-based planes, which
can be and have been intercepted
by enemy planes.
Difficult Targets.
1t Is not likely that the enemy
would risk the dropping of ex-
pensive atom bombs while looking
around the North Atlantic Ocean
to find a carrier fleet. The very
fact that naval ships can disperse
makes them difficult targets for
plane attacks. especially since the
proximity fuse and other inven-
tons have made it possible to ward
off attack from the air and from
submarines.
In the war with Japan. the car
riers fought land-based planes of
the Philippines and from the main
land of Japan and neither the
submarines nor the japanese
planes sank any American carriers.
Air power launched from car
riers Is still air power, and there
Is nothing old-fashioned about
using the lessons that won the war
in 1945, especially when there Is
no certainty that in the next five
years the United States will be
able to carry out precision bomb
ing with planes starting from this
continent.
II the bases to be obtained from
the countries signing the North
Atlantic Pact could be absolutely
guaranteed-as If anything can
be these days-and II they could
be held against seizure by the
largest land army in the world,
there would be less need for the
added protection of carriers. But
in warfare, 1t is always best to
have as much insurance against
possible contingencies as can be
obtained.
The win-the-war- in 30-days ex-
ponents could be wrong. and then
all the weapons Of land, sea and
air would be needed to intercept
the enemy's atom bombs as they
were flown toward American cities.
It wouldn't console the American
people to learn that the air forces.
using land-based planes, could hit
70 targets In Russia while New
York or Boston or some other sea-
coast cities were devastated by
atom bombs carried by planes that
got through without being inter-
cepted on their way across the
ocean.
Reproduction Rights Reserved.)
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