SEA POWER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 September 1942, Page 4

SEA POWER

TREMENDOUS AMERICAN EXPANSION OPENING WAY TO OFFENSIVE ACTION. COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN’S SURVEY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day. 12.7 p.m.) NEW YORK. September 22. “When a second front is launched in Europe, it is sea power that will launch it,” writes Mr Carl Vinson, chairman of the Congressional Naval Affairs Committee, in a report on the course of the sea war prepared with the co-opera-ticn of the Navy Department. The first fruits of American naval expansion are already influencing the course of the war, Mr Vinson states; for example, the Dieppe raid and the increased submarine action against Japanese shipping. Furthermore, the Battle of the Atlantic has definitely taken a turn to the advantage of the United Nations. “Augmented American naval forces are giving the United Nations a greater sea power than the world has ever seen,” he continues, “enabling us to take the offensive with superior force in any chosen theatre. A total of 697 naval vessels was under construction at the end of June, 1941, while in June, 1942, American yards were building 3,230 ships for our own Navy and 218 for the Allies, with a further 11,659 in 'smaller categories, including harbour craft and auxiliaries. Deliveries generally are ahead of schedule. For example the usual construction time for a battleship is 42 months, but one commissioned last year was actually completed in 29 months. The Coral Sea and Midway battles have proved beyond doubt that the aircraft-carrier has supplanted the battleship as the backbone of the modern fleet. The latest models of naval aircraft are unexcelled, particularly the torpedobomber, perhaps the most lethal weapon yet devised against surface vessels.”

Long-range bombers for patrolling the oceans were now produced in sufficient numbers to supply American bases from Iceland to South America and from Alaska to the Indian Ocean. Mr Vinson said. The first squadron of lhese bombers had already destroyed five Axis submarines. American plants were at present producing 2,000 naval planes monthly and also increasing the output of non-rigid airships.