Fleet Problem XX

ARMY & NAVY

The ladies of San Diego, Calif., good and bad, will gaze sadly out to sea this week. From roofs overlooking San Diego Bay they will drape bedsheets and tablecloths to be seen by departing lovers, husbands, fathers. Down to the piers as in the past, they will go, the lean, the fat, the swans and the ugly ducklings to wave and weep good-by to the U. S. Fleet.

For the first time since 1934 the might of the U. S. Navy is leaving the Pacific. Maneuvers in the Atlantic and Caribbean, and a ceremonial visit to the New York World's Fair of 1939, were planned over a year ago, before Franklin Roosevelt and the U. S. people became ultra-conscious of Europe and South America. Now the fleet's move has another significance: to bolster the President's "continental solidarity," and remind Europe's fascists that the U. S. is still a major power in the Atlantic.

Meanwhile in the Pacific, regarded for several years as the most vulnerable sea front of the U. S., four of the Navy's 15 battleships, two of its 31 cruisers, will stay for overhaul and to see that Japan does not forget its manners. The standing force of submarines, destroyers and planes in the Pacific Islands will also remain undisturbed.

Once East of the Panama Canal the Pacific Fleet will be joined by two new aircraft carriers, four battleships, seven light cruisers, seven destroyers of the newly formed Atlantic Squadron. A cardinal principle in Navy strategy has long been that "the Fleet" should largely remain together, ready to move as a unit and at maximum strength to any threatened point. Whether the Atlantic Squadron is to grow into a separate Fleet is a matter of dispute.

Decision on that point may be reached after this year's maneuvers, devoted to "Fleet Problem XX," the defense of the eastern shores of the U. S. and (in theory) the Republics of Latin America. An invading "White" fleet will try to outwit defending "Blacks," capture an operating base near the U. S. or Central America. This is no impractical game. Without such a base in Bermuda, the Bahamas or the West Indies, no European invader can get far in the Western Hemisphere. How much of a fleet is necessary in the Atlantic to prevent a foreign navy from gaining a foothold is the question that the Navy hopes to settle.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.