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Show CAN'T DESTROY 1 WARSHIP WITH AERIAL BOPS WASHINGTON. Jan. 20. Pomblng experiments conducted against the old battleship Indiana, demonstrated the "Improbability Ol a modern battleship being elth- ' er destroyed or completely put out of action.'' according to a report made public by thq navy department depart-ment today. The report was Irom Captain W t. Leahy, director of gunnery exercises. Th -. department has accurate Information regarding the number of hits that may be expected against a vessel by aerial bombs, the report said. In these experiments bombs of different design and weights-w weights-w re placed about the decks to determine de-termine the amount of damage to be expected from an aerial bomb, the statement said. Mummy bombs were dropped from aircraft to determine the percentage percent-age of hits. Naval officers were much exercised ex-ercised oyer the testimony of Brigadier Brig-adier General William Mitchell, director of training and operations of the army air service, before the house appropriations committee commit-tee that the airplane had made the navy virtually useless. Secretary Daniels said he knew of nothing that would justii such a conclusion. conclu-sion. General Mitchell used the Indiana In-diana experiment as an example to Illustrate his contention and drew from the navy department the statement that the Indiana data was referred to the war department de-partment as confidential and was not intended for such use as he had made of It. Navy oft leers mild tonight that previously tho nA.vy department had made repre-, repre-, aentatfons to Secretary Baker regarding re-garding statements of General Mitchell before Congressional committees. |