ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS

Evening Star, Issue 23864, 19 April 1941, Page 10

ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS

SHORTAGE IN AMERICA MILITARY EXPERT'S SURVEY NEW YORK, April 18. The military expert of the ‘ New York Times,’ after making a survey, telegraphs from Washington that the_ country’s shortage of modem anti-aircraft guns is still serious almost a year after the German blitzkrieg began. The navy has not sufficient guns of the desired types to equip all its combatant ships, much less its merchantmen,_ while the army has not enough equipment to protect half the principal cities on the eastern seaboard or the field armies. If the navy should be ordered in the near future to undertake convoy duties, the shortage, particularly of guns roughly equivalent to the British pompoms, would probably handicap efficient protection of such convoys. This urgent need had been recognised with growing force in the past few months, and nearly •all the possible sources were now being tapped. One thousand guns should be ordered The problem of building up the United States anti-aircraft strength is complicated by the fact that the same weapons are being produced for Britain, which needs every such gun that can be spared. The Chief of the Army Staff, General G. C. Marshall, announced that 500,000 civilians were being enrolled as volunteer observers in the national network to warn against aerial invaders