MORE CARRIERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24303, 18 June 1942, Page 3

MORE CARRIERS

AIRCRAFT IN WAR ' UNITED STATES DECISION BATTLESHIPS SECONDARY Washington, June u; Senator Allen J. Ellender (Democrat—Homna), and Senator Ralph 0. Brewster (Republican—Dexter), members of the Naval Affairs Committee of the Senate, told the Press that the Navy had decided to abandon the construction of five huge battleships. Cruisers now under way were being converted to air-craft-carriers. r J lie new decision will not interfere with the completion of several battleships to be launched in tho next few months. The loss of the British battlecruiser Repulse and the battleship Prince of Wales off the coast of Malaya, coupled with the results of the Coral Sea and Midway battles, has proved a turning point for battleships to aircraft. Some 23,000 workmen have already built another Lexington in place of the big aircraft-carrier lost in the battle of the Coral Sea. This will he the fifth United States ship to bear the name. Capital Ships Omitted The Naval Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives has approved an 8,550,000,000-dollar ship construction measure in which increasing emphasis is laid on aircraft-carriers. There is a pointed omission of battleships. The measure provides for 1400 ships of various types, including 400 of the carrier, cruiser and destroyer categories. The chairman of the committee, Mr. Carl Vinson, said the construction of tho carriers would begin immediately and the remainder of the ships would he undertaken next year. Work would be deferred temporarily on live battleships in order to concentrate on carriers. He emphasised that the navy had not suspended or abandoned battleship building, but the events of the war demonstrated conclusively that the aircraft-carrier was the backbone of a fleet. The United States would need battleships as long as other nations had them. The bill authorised the construction of 500.000 tons each of carriers and cruisers and 900.000 tons of destroyers and escort vessels.

Time Propitious lor Offensive No navy could withstand Japan's Pacific losses without being forced to curtail operations, says the naval correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor, who adds a warning that Japan's present strength cannot bo estimated, since no exact information is available about her initial strength on December 7 last. Speculating on the cause of Japan's infrequent exposure of her battleships, the correspondent says this could be due either to her lack of faith in their usefulness or to her desire to husband her meagre store for an ultimate allout attempt for the mastery of the Pacific. Now is the propitious moment for the United States Navy to start a drive that will push back the Japanese to their islands. The Washington correspondent of the Times believes the Aleutian islands victory, although smaller, may he fully comparable with Midway, ami that the Japanese have now been driven beyond the Aleutians - Wake island - HawaiiPanama line that marks the American sphere, and adds that with this line secure the air and naval forces would be free to organise the offensive type of operations necessary to carry the war to Japan, either from Australia, or west from Hawaii, by attempts to roll up the scattered Japanese bases and forces planted in the mandated territories.

SECOND FRONT FEAR MAGINOT LINE REVERSED (Heed. 7.;?r> p.m.) LONDON, June 17 Gorman nervousness over the possibility oi an Allied offensive in the west is betrayed by present feverish activities in France, details ot which have reached Free French Headquarters in Loudon. The Marmot Line is being reversed, and a large number of workers are engaged in turning the guns westward, while new lortilications are being built on the .Rbine. The German High Command has ordered the establishment of special anti-coinmando units, whose personnel are equipped for hand-to-hand lighting. They arc stationed at various big ports, including St. Na/.aire. At the same time, Laval's policy ot gradually imposing at least semi-mili-tary collaboration with the Nazis on the I'Yench people has borne its first fruits. The Vichy Government has been authorised by the Armistice Commission to anti-aircraft defences throughout the unoccupied zone, also to put up a barrage balloon round \ ichy itself. The scheme's one drawback is that Vichy has no balloons.

TORPEDOED SHIPS ACTION SEEN FROM SHORE (Kecd. 5.H5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 10 A message from Norfolk, Virginia, says that a submarine torpedoed two large United States merchantmen within view of thousands of persons oti a Virginia beach resort, who watched bombers and navy blimps and half a dozen surface vessels attack the submarine. One merchantman sank and the other was iowed to port. The fale of the submarine was not announced. One man was killed by a torpedo explosion and 197 survivors have landed safely. The Navy Department announced that a medium-sized United States merchantman was torpedoed in the Gulf of Mexico on Juno J2. Four of the ship's gun crew and II seamen were killed. Thirty seamen were rescued after swimming for eight hours clinging to bits of wreckage.

MANPOWER FOR WAR 'WASHINGTON, June 10 The United States Manpower Commission has set its goal as 10,000,000 men for the armed forces. It estimates that wa.r production and transportation will require 20.000,000 workers and agriculture 12.000.000.