WAR WEAPONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 August 1942, Page 4

WAR WEAPONS

CHANGED PROGRAMME OUTPUT IN AMERICA. IMPORTANCE OF AIR POWER REALISED. LOS ANGELES, June 23. Following the great battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, Americans are fast coming to the conclusion that air power can win this war, with the result that aircraft-carrier and big bomber production is being stepped up to new record levels, writes Lon Jones. The Coral Sea and. Midway battles proved beyond any doubt that aeroplanes, whether land-based or carrierbased, are the most potent of all offensive weapons on land or sea. The battles were fought almost entirely by aeroplanes, and probably caused a sensation in naval circles in both Axis and United Nations countries. The fact that surface ships rarely came within, sight of each other has, it seems, caused a shift in the entire strategy of this war, especially at sea. LESSONS LEARNED. The United States has quickly seized on the lessons learned in the two encounters to change its entire shipbuilding programme. Aircraft-carriers from now on will be the main unit of the United States Navy. This startling fact was made evident recently when. Congress approved an eight billion dollar appropriation for the construction of new naval ships. Among the ships, provided for were 500,000 tons of air-craft-carriers, Battleships were eliminated. This decision seems to settle once and for all the bitter controversy between the die-hard surface ship advocates and the men who believe that final victory lies in the air. From now on, it looks as if the carrier will be the “top dog” in any United States battle fleet. It will take the place of the now outmoded battleship, and looms as the flagship of the fleet. Time after time, since the Second World War began, the aeroplane has proved that it can sink the biggest surface ships. There was the Nazi's “unsinkable” Bismarck, which was first disabled by a torpedo from a plane. The Repulse and the Prince of Wales were sent to the bottom by Japanese aeroplanes. But it took the almost unbelievable victories by aircraft over the Japanese fleets in the Coral Sea and at Midway to deliver the final blow to battleships.

A LIBERATOR EVERY HOUR.

The United States is an air-minded nation, and it is only natural that it should turn to the aeroplane as. its main weapon of offence. America’s four-engined bombers are proving their mettle on almost every front of this far-flung war, and there are many here who believe that the long-range, four-engined bomber will eventually smash the Axis.

Evidently with this in mind, production of four-engined Flying Fortresses and Consolidated Liberators has been greatly stepped up in the last six months. Henry Ford is now turning out Liberators at his huge Willow Run plant, and is months ahead of schedule. Ford claimed a long time ago that when his new plant is operating at full capacity he would produce a completed Liberator every hour of every working day.