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Show Carriers vs. Planes The United States Navy's nummary of results in the battle bat-tle of Midway increases the impression that aircraft have become the decisive factor in sea (power. It is underscored by line bombing of Wake Island. The report on Midway shows that in a "sea" battle where surface sur-face ships never got within gun-.-hot of 'Eiach other, American plaine's sank four Japanese aircraft air-craft carriers, two cruisers and three destroyers 'besides damaging damag-ing ithree battleships, one severely. se-verely. This record coupled with' the story of the Coral Sea and -piled on top of growing evidence that ships arimied only with) guns cannot stand up ito airplanes, has had an influence in the decision de-cision to leave battleelhips out of the $8,000,000,000 naval program pro-gram just passed by Congress. That program's provision for many inew aircraft carriers has won toolta popular anid) expert approval. While some experts believe the battleship will continue con-tinue master of the seas far from shore or in bad weather, ithere is more and more doubt 'whether it can stay afloat anywhere any-where at air.ytiirfe without air protection. This means ithat warships of all kinds imust either carry planes, enjoy the (protection' of a land-based "umbrella" as the Soharnhorst and Gneisenau did in their dutd through the English Eng-lish Channel, or be guarded toy carriers. So itlhere is a good case for more carriers, particularly smaller ones which can be more quickly built and widely dispersed. dis-persed. But it would be unwise to put all 'the sea-power eggs on the carrier. It is even more vulnerable than the battleship and almost as helpless when 'Confronting la(hd-ibiased planie. It must be remembered' that the naval battle of Midway was largely won by Anmiy iboimlbers and itoipedo planes. And the attack just made iom Wake Island Isl-and was mot from a carrier, but from Hawaii 2,000 miles away. The superior flying qualities of |