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Show backbone of the fleet should be battleships supported by aircrait carriers loaded with fast fighter planes. Enemy torpedo tor-pedo planes and bombers will be easy prey for these fast fighters. I That a naval revolution has tak- j en place is self-evident; the question ques-tion which now arises is how will that revolution affect the building of the various naval units, especially espe-cially the battleships, in the future? I I i i I I I I t I I I I I I t I t I I I I I FORWARD MARCH By II. S. Sims, Jr. iiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii WILL THE U. S. STOP BUILDING BATTLESHIPS? Aircraft sank the U. S. battleship battle-ship Arizona and seriously damag- ed the Oklahoma; aircraft sank the new British battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Repulse; aircraft sank a Japanese battleship off the Philippine Islands. Is-lands. The startling fact that aircraft air-craft have sunk about a quarter of a billion dollars worth of battleships battle-ships in the new war, while no ship has been responsible for the sinking of any other battleship, testifies to the fact that naval warfare war-fare has been completely revolutionized. revolu-tionized. The sinking of the British Prince of Wales and the Repulse Re-pulse by a determined air torpedo tor-pedo attack reverberated all over the world the necessity of protecting capital ships with supporting air arms. The air arm has proved itself an effective weapon against naval craft, in fact, it has proved itself it-self superior to naval forces if they do not have formidable air support. The world began awakening to this new revolution when the Germans Ger-mans successfully invaded Norway under protection of aircraft which forced the British navy to retire. At the beginning of the Norwegian invasion, Winston Churchill said that Hitler's campaign in Norway woud be disastrous because of the vastly superior British naval forces. for-ces. His certainty that the navy could precent a successful German invasion of Norway is convincing evidence that aircraft have become effective fighting forces against i naval units. . The Italian fleet, a year later, suffered a glaring defeat at the hands of the British fleet, supported by airplanes. The Italians had no aircraft. Another time that naval and air forces clashed was in the Battle of Crete. Here the British fleet was successful in preventing large scale sea landings, but sea losses were appalling. It should also be remembered remember-ed that British aerial torpedoes tor-pedoes were responsible for crippling the German Bismarck, Bis-marck, the world's most powerful pow-erful battleship. Thus, it appears that airplanes, in themselves, are effective fighting fight-ing forces, whether used on land or sea. It also appears true that large naval vessels are unable to fight off aerial attacks; they must have airplanes because airplanes are their only protection against airplanes. air-planes. The question now is whether the day of the battleship Is past. Congress has begun the debate on air versus sea power; pow-er; they are trying to determine deter-mine whether we should continue con-tinue constructing battleships or whether our attention should be focused on airplanes and aircraft carriers. Air successes in the Pacific have divided American people and congress con-gress into two groups of thought. The radicals believe that battleships battle-ships are no longer needed as an integral part of the United States navy. They believe that aircraft carriers, and not battleships, should be the backbone of the fleet. They argue that $70,000,-000 $70,000,-000 is too much to put into one vessel that can be sunk by daring dar-ing Japanese airmen. They point out that the big 16-inch guns on battleships are made obsolete by enemy aircraft because be-cause enemy aircraft will never ne-ver allow the battleships to get within range. The main aim of this group is to convince the United States to suspend sus-pend building heavy battleships, except those already under actual construction. They believe- that priority in naval construction should be given to naval aircraft and aircraft carriers and that next, cruisers and destroyers should be given priority because they are so necessary to the protection of aircraft air-craft carriers. The conservatives, on the other hand, firmly believe that the battleship remains the backbone of the IT. S. fleet. They point out that the British Bri-tish still have in active operation opera-tion about fourteen battleships despite the fact that they have been at war with Germany for over two years. Germany, undoubtedly, un-doubtedly, has the world's strongest air force! This group of thinkers do not minimize the importance of the airplane and the war in the Pacific Pa-cific has convinced them of the necessity ne-cessity of gaining air supremacy. They believe that the airplane, like the submarine, will not make battleships obsolete, but that it will prove an indispensable weapon wea-pon of the fleet. They make this point: The |