SEA-AIR FORCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25047, 10 November 1944, Page 3

SEA-AIR FORCE

MIGHTY AMERICAN NAVY BALANCED WAR MACHINE The United States, by the end of this year, will have nearly 100 aircraft carriers of all descriptions in commission against the Japanese. She had over 50 operating at the end of 1943, with scores more building as a first priority in the navy's programme, writes the naval correspondent of the London Observer Yet at the beginning of that year the hard fighting in the Pacific had reduced her to a carrier strength of three —the Saratoga, Enterprise and Hanger—and our own 23,000 tons Victorious served with the Pacific fleet for months to tide over difficulties. I his spectacular change in one year was the result ol recognising from the first the lesson of Pearl Harbour—that in the wide reaches ot the Pacific battleships are not enough. There must be a large fleet ot aircraft carriers as well, 11 an unrivalled combat team, capable of sweeping the seas, is wanted. It is interesting to note how the United States achieved her carrier strength, while at the same time maintaining other construction, which gives her not merely the biggest navy in the world, but the best balanced one also Battle Carriers At the time of Pearl Harbour she had projected five super-battleships, known as the Montana class, credited with a standard displacement of 58,000 tons. In spite of the crippling blow in capital ships which she received at Pearl Harbour, work on these giants was entirely suspended in 1912 and tonnage allocated to them, as well as building facilities at Philadelphia, New York and Norfolk- navy yards, was turned over to the construction of 12 or more 'J/,000-ton fleet carriers of the Essex class. All 12 should be in commission by the end ol the year, as well as nine light carriers, which represent conversions of the 10,000 tons Cleveland class of cruiser. I hose constitute the short-term answer to the lessons of the Pacific. In the long-term category are three "battle-carriers" of 45.000 tons, about which few details have been released apart from the fact that the keels of two were laid down late in 1913. One at least may be rushed into service in the first half of next year. These carriers incorporate many new ideas, being the largest in naval history, faster than any now in service, and able to take a lot of punishment above and below the water-line. Intake of Aircraft They are projected as "a base of operations for planes larger than any that have heretofore been operated from the decks of aircraft carriers." Perhaps more remarkable still, in comparison with our own naval development, are the number and variety of aircralt of which the United States Nayv has taken delivery. Numbers recently reached an average of well over 2000 a month, while Mr James V- Forrestal, United States Secretary of the Navy, prophesies an intake in the next 12 months of 30,000 machines, 93 per cent of which will be of the com- { bat class. _ 111 this marriage of sen and air the f nited States has gone far ahead of Britain, though the post-war problems of defence facing both nations are of much the same character. SAVING WOUNDED EVACUATION BY GLIDER MIRACLE OF JUNGLE WAR SYDNEY, Nov. 7 It is now possible to tell the story of another miracle of jungle warfare—the use of gliders flown by American pilots to evacuate British. Indian and African wounded from some of the roughest country in Burma, says T. L. Goodman, Sydney Morning Herald war correspondent, in a despatch from the Burma front. In a couple of hours wounded men are evacuated and delivered to hospital. They are saved the fortnight's toil and suffering that would be inseparable from ambulance transport over long stretches of dreadful country, and handling by various subsidiary medical units. The gliders belong to an air commando unit operating under Eastern Air Command. This is the unit which flew the late Major-General Wingate's second Chindit expedition into northern Burma. The machines are equipped to carry four stretcher cases and four other wounded. During one recent five-day period 300 men were evacuated to a big air base, from where they were quickly transported to hospital. One day's total was 70. Getting the gliders and their helpless human cargoes into the air is an extraordinary font, known as "snatching." A glider is pushed around until it is between two posts, from which is suspended a loop which is attached to the glider. The tow plane lias a cable attached to a drum, and there is a hook on the end of the cable. The drum can be adjusted to regulate pressure (like a big fishing reel); this reduces the strain on the glider when the flying hook engages the stationary loop. For normal glider operations the cable extends 1.50 feet from the glider, but for this "life and death" snatching process the length is 300 feet. The transport plane, often almost brushing the jungle, flies in low, the hook on the cable catches the loop above the glider, and the glider is whisked into the air. The men in the glider have the breath-taking experience of being stationary, and then, in fraction of a second, being lifted through space at 100 miles an hour. Those wounded men who are capable of doing so brace themselves on their stretchers against the shock of "taking oil." All have survived the ordeal. DREAM GARDEN VEGETABLES FOR TROOPS PRODUCTION ON GUADALCANAR WASHINGTON. Nov. 7 The United States Foreign Economic Administration has issued its first annual report, containing a long list of its extraordinary netiutics, including the establishment of an 1800-acre vegetable garden on Guadalcanal' This produces 150.000 tons of vegetables annually, worth 11,(MX),000 dollars, for military personnel in the ■smith-west Pacific. This garden, one of the greatest vegetable farms in the world, is in a jungle over which the tide of battle flowed only a season or two ago. It is an agriculturist's dream. With few exceptions everything grows all the year round, and seed dropped into the ground is certain to sprout —one acre there produces 13 tons of radishes. Under the supervision of experts this vegetable farm has splendid equipment. There is one machine that picks up 10,000 seedlings and automatically transplants them. LOYAL TO HITLER LONDON. Nov. ? rile 200,000 th German captured by the Jnitcd States First Army believes that Hitler "had the right idea in ,tarting the war for living space," but admits that the Fuehrer hasn't done much else for Germany. This 30-year-old German was captured during the fighting for Schmidt, a village east of Aachen Because ofaJiis unique position in. the prison cage, hp was interviewed bv war correspondents "War criminals'should he punished," he said, through an interpreter. *"Lf 1 were vou I would make them pay.' But in his list of war criminals lie did not include Hitler or the other Nazi celebrities.