NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 124, 21 November 1942, Page 6

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

NAVIES IN PACIFIC

WHAT THE LISTS SHOW

Now that th^, Japanese navy has had another large bite taken out of it, the time is opportune to look at its strength in comparison with that of the United States, particularly in view of the impression still being given that. the balance of power in the Pacific is too even for safety.

The simplest way, perhaps, is to take the position as it is today, as nearly as can be judged, on the assumption that there have been no war losses, and .then to deduct the war losses as nearly as can be. done. The most powerful, known ships in the Japanese navy are two, built in 1920 and 1921, with eight 16in guns. Although five larger ships, with 16in guns, are listed as under construction, there has been no evidence whatever that any of them are completed, and there is some doubt as to whether some of them exist at all. The rest of the battleship fleet as shown in the records consists of eight ships, completed at various dates from 1913 to i 1918. These ships are .all armed with j 14in guns, and they have . nearly all reached the age at which naval authorities think replacement is due, or> overdue. The speeds of these ships run, on paper, from 22 to 26 knots. America's Battle Fleet. The United States battle fleet also consists of 14in gun ships and larger ships with 16in guns. Neglecting an; losses, the lists show eleven" ships with 14in guns, the oldest completed in 1912, arid the youngest in. 1920. The weak point in the. comparison of these ships with their Japanese counterparts is their lower speed—about 21 knots. At the time when Japan built the two 16ingun ships, America built three equallyarmed ships, which were completed in 1921 and 1923. . • „...., There followed a period of inactivity in naval building, and the. United States laid down no more ships until 1937, when the first of a class 'of six ships of 35,000 tons, carrying nine 16m guns, was laid down. These orders had been inspired by the threatening world situation, and the outbreak of war caused pressure to be brought upon the builders to speed up the construction of the ships. The; result is that the normal time from start to finish of a battleship, four years, has been drastically reduced, and at least four, and perhaps more, of/ these modern ships are in service today. They have a speed of 30 knots. This makes at least seven 16iri-gun ships, with two more in early prospect. ■ ■ ■ - . ~ Adding the 14in-gun ships, there.is a total of eighteen ships, from which losses have to be subtracted. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour accounted for two old battleships. One, the Arizona, was totally destroyed. The other capsized and must be written off for the time being. There is no record of any other American battleship being lost, but others have ;been damaged. At a very conservative estimate, the United States has twelve intact battleships, seven of them with 16-inch guns. Japanese Losses. Very early in the Pacific war the Japanese battleship Haruna was reported to have been sunk by a bomb, but this loss has been questioned. There is also some doubt about the number lost in the Solomons fighting, but this action seems to have accounted for at least three battleships, sunk; or damaged. Six others have been reported damaged in earlier aptions. It is clearly impossible to do more than guess at the number of ships left, but such losses make a terrible hole in an original fleet of ten. > The outstanding point is that the United States battle fleet is not only numerically much stronger-than the Japanese; it, has seven 16in-gun ships, four of them brand new, against Japan's two old ones. It. is an enormous advantage of hitting* power. The foregoing comparison takes no note of two more battleships which are in course of construction and,may be nearing completion in American shipyards; no news of their . progress has been issued recently, and none need be expected; or of a group of still later ships, some of which are in hand. , Other Categories. In cruisers the two navies were originally even in numbers, 37, but the American are all ships from 7000 to 10,000 tons, while the Japanese include, about 20 light cruisers. On the published figures the Japanese have had something approaching three-quarters of their cruisers sunk or put out of action, including several of the heavier ships. The Japanese losses certainly exceed the American, serious though these have been; but on the other hand the United States has a most impressive list of cruisers under construction, numbering over 50, and a number of these are believed to have been completed. It is in aircraft-carriers that the relative positions are least satisfactory. The United States navy has so few left that the outlook would be really comfortable if Japan had none at all. The fact that the Japanese used no carriers in the last Solomons battle while the Americans did suggests that the enemy feel the urgency of keeping these valuable, vulnerable units out of harm's way as much as possible. The Geographical Factdr.

A mere count of ships tells only part of the story. . Japan's best naval ally is geography. It fights for Japan on the sea as it does for Germany on the land. The Japanese navy need run no risks; it is extremely difficult to force it into battle. The ocean where it operates is full of cover and bolt-holes, and: it has several bases close enough together to give mutual support, whereas American bases are great distances apart and most of them far from the Japanese area. In addition, American naval strategy is not concentrated; on the South-west Pacific. It stretches up into the Arctic* and its ultimate target is not Guadalcanal or.Truk, but Tokio; and there are duties in the Atlantic as well. At the same time, it is a fight for a few square miles of an inconsiderable island that has cost the Japanese navy its heaviest losses, and loaded the naval scales still more heavily against them. . When authoritative people declare thai Japan is still

dangerously strong at sea it is not only in: terms of ships and guns by number that-they are thinking, but of the way the ships are available. The position today is very much better than it was, arid it-will improve.