The Admirals Surrender

Taranaki Daily News, 29 August 1942, Page 2

The Admirals Surrender

St. Louis Star-Times.

Something comparable to the invention of gunpowder has taken place in our day: the triumph of the. aeroplane over the battleship. The formal acknowledgment came in the announcement that the new 8,500,-000.000-dollar navy construction Bill contains not a dime for "dreadnoughts," but provides for 500,000 tons in new aircraft-carriers. Thus passes the day of the dreadnought as the backbone of the fleet. There ts no longer an argument as to the relative merits of warplanes versus battleships; the war-planes have won, hands down. It is not easy for amateur strategists to comprehend all the problems involved, even with such a contemplated striking force, in carrying the war directly against Japan. The advantages of landbased aviation, when we take the offensive, will rest with the Nipponese. But we may have land-based aviation ourselves, in Siberia and China, when the time comes, and the carriers now building and planned would mother thousands of bombers and fighters with the fleet.