SPEARHEAD OF TASK FORCES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 19, 18 October 1943, Page 5

SPEARHEAD OF TASK FORCES

Carriers To Lead Drives On Japan

NEW YORK, August 29. On the eve of the 30th anniversary of naval aviation, Vice-Admiral John S. McCain revealed tonight that the navy had launched a dozen new combat carriers since this country entered the war, and that by the end of this year would have 27,500 planes, states a special correspondent of the “New York Tinies.” Asserting that naval aviation marked its birthday “with an announcement of its readiness to help smash the Japanese into complete defeat,” Admiral McCain, who is Deputy-Chief of Naval Operations for Air, continued: “Huge task forces, spearheaded by carrier-based aircraft, are poising for new pile-driver blows against the enemy. “Tiie navy has always sought to bring all its weapons to benr against an enemy simultaneously, believing that such coordinated attack is the most effective. Naval aviation has become an extremely powerful weapon, possibly the most powerful. “Let every officer and man in naval aviation resolve, on this anniversary of the formal beginning of this branch, to continue and intensify unrelenting punishment we have given to the enemy from the air till he is utterly defeated.” Strength of Navy’s Air Arm.

With another carrier being launched at Norfolk tomorrow, the new Hornet, succeeding the Hornet which took the planes to bomb Tokio, Admiral McCain recalled the growth of naval aviation from. 38 officers, 163 enlisted men, 54 planes and one air station at the outbreak of the first World War. Besides combat planes, he listed the following sinews of its present strength: -Training programmes for 30,000 pilots

and 100,000 mechanics a year. A large but “undisclosed” number of “baby flattops” designed for convoy and ferrying, as well as combat duty. An authorized lighter-than-air fleet of 200 airships. . Aeroplane strength “multiplied six times in 1941 over 1940, doubled again in 1942 and with 1943 certain to triple 1942. Advance in Construction. Admiral McCain said that a tremendous construction programme was undertaken by the Navy for its air arm when the global nature of World War II became apparent. This programme, carried out in hundreds of areas, he added, was 90 per cent, complete by mid-1943. Seventv per cent, of the programme was completed in 12 months. On August 1, 1943, the Naval Aeronautics organization was three times larger than it was a year ago. . Recalling that Admiral George Dewey signed on'August 30, 1913, the report of the General Board recommending establishment of an air department “suited to the needs of the navy in war,” Admiral McCain paid tribute to “those pioneers of naval aviation, without whose daring accomplishments prior to 1913 and unshakable faith in the military utility of the aeroplane there would have been no recommendation 30 v-mrs ago that there be established within the navy an aeronautical organize tion.”