ARMADA’S SILENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1935, Page 7

ARMADA’S SILENCE

GREAT AMERICAN FLIGHT MIDWAY ISLAND THE AIM MAY" HAVE STOPPED SHORT STORMS REPORTED AHEAD By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 10 p.m. • Honolulu, May 10. The absence of reports of the progress of the mass flight of the American armada of 42 aeroplanes to Midway Island has led to the conjecture that the armada might have stopped short of its destination. Naval sources are silent because the operation is shrouded in secrecy. - . . In view of the storm conditions near Midway Island it was thought the flight might have stopped at the French Frigate Shoals, 500 miles from Honolulu, or the. Pearl and Herhes Reef, 100 miles this side of Midway Island. The Honolulu correspondent. of the United Press Association stated that aircraft became the major factor in America’s peace-time war games in the Pacific with the disclosure that 42 fighting planes were to attempt the. greatest mass flight in history as part of naval manoeuvres. The flight involves 200 officers and enlisted men. While it is learned that Admiral Reeves ordered- the flight, all the plans have been kept secret. The same secrecy has cloaked the movements of all units of the fleet which steamed into the Pacific from United States harbours and the Pearl Harbournaval base.