| Show americans will salute their mighty sea force spearhead of the attack on navy day october 11 21 tonnage of warships and auxiliaries Is doubled since 1940 by ELLIOTT PINE so by e newspaper union this year as every year for the c past twenty two the nation pauses ue briefly to salute I 1 th the navy the marine corps or s and the coast guard on navy day october 27 for that is the birthrate birth date of theodore roosevelt who sired the beginnings of our modern navy and d i it was the late president I 1 wh who b backed a k a d up his word by donating part of his nobel peace award to the navy league and its program the navy league is now a nationwide organization with a vice president for every state in the union dent and nd the district of columbia its new honorary president is governor charles edison former secretary of the navy its president is commodore sheldon clark chicago b business asli man under a directive issued by frank knox secretary of the navy all commands of the navy d department part ment are directed to I 1 operate cooperate co o oper sto with the navy league in this annual observance on october 27 thus navy day while having the official sanction of the navy department is actually a civilian endeavor a civilian salute to our III far film flung g fleet and shore establishments ansi and the men and women who make them function this is exactly what theodore roosevelt had in mind when he declared in that letter 40 years ago for far the building and hairls maintaining mg in proper shape of the acle american an navy we e must est st rely up upon no nothing thing but I 1 the e b broad d I 1 far r sigh sighted eted patriotism of our fica people as a whole hole im and it is in of great importance th that at there should be some means by which this patriotism can find an effective utterance your society seemly often offers lust the means needed T the he navy league is thus seen also IS as a nut at of the character of just another emergency organization or var or baby designed to function only under the duress of conflict it is a per permanent manan gathering of citizens dumall all a ho pay homage not alons alone to the dead he heroes let but to t the b a T and growing organization of ships and planes and men of the united unit states s navy its purpose is one me of patriotic education and its ita membership fees f are nominal for far it I 1 is a non profit organization 1 9 this year the official slogan of the lea league ue on the a occasion casion e of navy day is in your navy spearhead of if victory this is in an contrast to the old traditional slogan of first line of defense A ard d it is a also 1 in contrast with the 1942 slogan which read your navy first fast line of attack I 1 I 1 sis commodore sheldon clark president of navy league these sharply contrasting slogans tell she a changing h urging story of a navy under derc changing urging conditions and the final a slogan 1 ogan suggests the promise of victory the question us is rallied raised does the league a and d its patriotic membership ease cease to be a robust booster tor far the navy at the ce cessation imn I 1 of hostilities offic officials als of the league say no that that is when the real work of the league must begin anew perhaps the peace slogan on a N navy day yet to come will 11 be at once a g grim ri rin r reminder molder e I 1 and a solemn warning t that hat the men and implements of the navy must most not of again go S be a relegated to the shelves a of f complacency ency over our n national security in that event the slogan may well ell I 1 read your navy co comes first in war and in peace spearhead curb ad I 1 Is I 1 big and ad sharp 11 but at this year in the midst of the greatest war ever to sweep I 1 this hl is troubled earth the slogan spent spearhead of victory is eminently fit t ting ing and what a spearhead 1 I the mightiest only navy of all 11 turre time be being no g I 1 created bated already it is immens ironi eose a b beyond the dreams of any nation even the united states slates until three years ago still it grows day by day week by week more ships more planes plane more 1 me men the roey navy demanded and tim the american people have responded without stint in a report boldly baldly te beg it details previously considered tight secrets the united states navy flaunts flau rits I 1 its strength anath to the axis and part partick icil barly Y to japan in three ye years a the report states the total tonnage a of all navy craft has risen from 1875 1 bin tons in n july 7 1940 1111 to more than f tons in july 1943 the navy measurements we armaint arm ailt are or on in displacement not deadweight tonnage which latter figure is more than twice as great as the displacement warships meaning battleships light b and heavy cruisers destroyers d destroyer uy u escorts submarines and carriers have been increased from in 1940 to in the july 1943 report ard new ships are being dein hered ered every month some new combatant ships havo hava been added in three years totaling 1117 dis placement tons and coating more than three billion dollars of the original ships over have been transferred to other nations or converted to non combatant uses other naval vessels have been increased from 1 to 14 the great rise being accounted for principally cipal lir by 12 landing craft other new ships were 1 1274 mine laya and patrol craft y yard albary and district S vessels and auxiliary se vessels such as oil tankers repair ships etc indicating ne the emphasis on air powei powe ithe the n navy y has multiplied ed at its planes from tom 1 1744 in 1940 to 18 2 last july and more are being put into action aatlo daily the importance I 1 of air strength both for offensive an and defensive mora operations tims is so momentous that the traditions traditional I 1 definition 0 of sea power has been changed to sea air IT power the ability to build this huge naval val force and to continue to build at the present rat rate is a one of the foundation stones of I 1 our m military h mary strategy a says yx the navy navys iare report p ft it unde underlies ra lea our amphibious attacks to eles in the pacific the atlantic and an d th the e mediterranean goes on the statement it protects protect our long exterior supply routes running across thousands of miles of oceans most important it makes feasible a strategy of attack with all 11 the risks it implies ability to build or if necessary to rebuild on this scale is one of the basic advantages which the american navy holds over fi fleets fits ts of other nations so great is this construction capacity in fact that the navy hi has as b been can able to sustain severe losses without serious loss of strength fifty eight warships have been auak suak or damaged so as to be considered useless of these one was a battleship nine were creamia cruis eis four few aircraft carriers 32 de destroyers stroye a and 12 submarines by transfer to ahe the navies of our allies or by conversion to rom non combat P purposes the U S navy ties has lost chops ships many of them classed as over age the ultimate measure of a shipbuilding pro program 9 rams s success is the array army of new vessels completed and ready to fight which it turns out the navy to report port comments by this ya yardstick T I 1 S warship construction passes the test with flying colors ships are a being b built faster and fasti mr er and being fi delivered c riveted complete need armed and supplied for combat on the high seas the rise in naval ship completions is without parallel goes on the report the number of vessels completed in the single month ol of june 1943 for example ap prost mates the number be completed I 1 in the first 18 months of the defense program combatant ships battleships aircraft carriers crin cruias sers destroyers st destroyer escorts and a sub b marin marines make up the largest p part or t of if the navy program and the a step too P up in their production has been especially sharp the e tonnage or of f combatant ships completed in the first sue am months of 1943 is s more than 20 times the tonnage com completed plated it during the first a six mouth months of the defense program to make th this is astonishing output more graphic the report states that in july of 1940 the navy received five newly finished vessels while in june junca 1941 the number bar was almost in 1200 1 of various classes an even more remarkable multiplication ph thou has taken place in airplanes from 25 aircraft delivered in june 1940 the figure leaped to 2 2000 by juric june of 94 a the th report part states that airplane product production im tor for naval use has grown faster than any other branch of the aircraft industry in the 36 month period the report say the navy has obtained 15 expansion of navy in three year period july 1940 warship Wars vv hios s july Jul 1943 3 other naval vessels july 1940 july 1943 1076 july 1943 july duio 1940 planes 1744 loba 11 planes built under its own contracts and in addition about planes constructed under army cognizance of these army planes 7 were trainers and utility planes and combat aircraft the pre program grain is concentrated on combat planes continues the report recent emphasis is 19 on bo bombers arm of its new fighter planes based op on carriers sell rs the navy proudly beclar declares es they are capable of latchm matching performance for mance with the world a best bes tj sold land based fighters they fire in one minute five times the weight eight of pro pm lec tiles tales that their 1940 predecessors predecessor a fired filed old ordnance to department all H combat robat ships h p and planes plane d depend pad upon pa th their e it g guns I 1 for or both offense and defense it is in the business of it the union ordnance cc department to arm these many new fighters and to P provide replacements the navy is highly sati satisfied fled with the work of I 1 its to ordnance department according to the report contracts contract 1 for T gurz guns of 1 every caliber and type and mountings gs and ammunition have been successfully sute cess fully fill filled ed b by y do dozens ot 11 private manufacture manufacturing of companies in an addition idi to the navy a own manu manufacturing fact meeting exact exacting mil at standards d the rate of production in ordnance has increased teased 24 times over the 1940 rate more than 66 of the four main types of naval guns and mounts have been turned out mt since july 1940 shore share installations during the three yen years mentioned the navy has to constructed docks clock buildings and shore facilities cost costing mg 6 aa billion dollars this program is being continued too to keep pace wit with h overa overall over a all I 1 I 1 expansion a ion contracts for almost two billion dollars worth of work is in process of completion therole the whole h construction program totaling talin 8 is approximately 81 per cent completed on j july I 1 of this vast sum 3 00 0 he has been allotted to shipbuilding and repair ordnance and aircraft f facilities h one third of the 4 0 appropriated for nind n ind estrial bases has gone into naval babes the remainder has been devoted to advance van I 1 a base bases s sto storage I 1 age fleet facilities etc only the advance base program was 1 less ess than 15 per cent finished on th the e first of july this great navy will be manned by a for force of more than three million n atil men th the navy a goal for the a en end d of the year is 3 including some WAVES so the two ocean no navy vy long I 1 g considered an impractical dream am is becoming a reality long the world a best navy the united states navy is now to be the world s biggest also |
