Evening star., 1950-02-02
BattIeship Essential
In Aerial Warfare,
Writer Points Out
Russia Is Building Three
To Use in Launching
OF Guided Missiles
By David Layrence

commission anyway in these days
Of aerial warfare? This very ques-
ton has been raised by Chairman
Carl Vinson, Democrat, of the
House Armed Services Committee,
who would rather put the battle
ship Missouri in "mothballs" with
the other battleships and use the
same amount of money to put
into commission one of the air.
craft carriers now laid up.
But inside the Navy they would
like to have both-and, strangely
enough, the reasons they advance
for wanting at least one battle
ship kept in commission are di-
rectly related to aerial warfare.
1t is contended that our battle
ships have the sturdiest decks
from which the guided missiles of
the future will be launched and
that reliance on guided missiles
is the main reason why Russia
is building three 45,o00-ton battle
ships.
Biggest Training Ship.
There's an. entirely different
reason. however, for keeping one
battleship in operation. 1t is the
biggest training ship in the United
States Navy. A larger number
of crews can be assembled at one
time on its huge deck and taught
gunfire than anywhere else. In
addition to the big 16-inch guns,
a battleship carries all the types
of smaller gunS-anti-aircraft and
bombardment-which are to be
found on cruisers, destroyers, air.
craft carriers and armed mer-
chant ships.
II there are no battleships in
commission, all the technique
which is essential to the handling
Of large warships also will suffer,
according to the naval experts.
Many of them say privately that,
apart from the pride which the
President has in keeping in COM
mission the battleship named after
his home State. he has technical
reasons for maintaining the Mis-
souri, on active duty. !
Most people perhaps do not
realize the part which battleships
play in sconnection with large
scale landings of troops. 1t hap
pens that this very week Gen.
Eisenhower. in copyrighted in
terview in U. S. News g. World
Report, was asked how he used
British and American abattleships
IN the Normandy landings. He
said:
We knew we weren't going to
be able to search out and break
up all of the coastal batteries by
air-bombing attacks alone. The
Navy, all the way through the
war. had been gaining for itself
an increased respect for its gun
fire. With spotter planes, they
can do a lot. At. Gela, in Sicily,
Tor instance, they broke up tank
attack with their gunf1re. They're |
.good-they're very good. So we
had come. by the time of Nor
mandy, to depend very seriously
upon naval gunf1re in getting
ashore, so much so that I was
asking all the time for more than
they could give"
Foolish to Lose knowledge.
Gen. Eisenhower pointed out.
incidentally, that it would be
foolish today to allow to die in
our services the very great knowl-
edge we have of the amphibious
type of operation" In fact, he
made plea for harmony based
on the simple thought that all of
the three services have essential
functions to contribute and that
there is need for all kinds of
weapons because. when war comes.
'it is always going to happen
under circumstances, at places
and under conditions different
from those you expect or plan
for"
This represents a growing feel
ing on Capitol Hill, too, where
more and more there is a ten
dency nowadays to try to avoid
partisanship In behalf of any
service and to stress the idea of
O. unified team. Echoes of the re-
cent controversies between the
services still are heard, and there
is much interest in the forthcom-
ing report of the House Armed
Services Committee which is ex-
pected to make new recommended
tions as to how the Joint Chiefs
of Staff may function effectively
: in planning the Nations strategy
and yet keep from becoming alb
sorbed in inter service differences.
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