Squeeze of Victory

The speed of U.S. advance across the Pacific, far from solving the Navy's ship-production problems, has created new ones. This week softspoken, deliberate Vice Admiral Frederick Joseph Home, Vice Chief of Naval Operations, told what some of the problems were.

Priority ratings for more than 100 types of naval craft have had to be reshuffled. Little more than a year ago, top priority was held by destroyers and destroyer escorts for the Battle of the Atlantic. Soon they were nudged out of first place by landing craft needed for the Battle of France and campaigns in the western Pacific. There was always some emphasis on carriers; for months cruisers and battleships were far down the list.

Today attack transports, landing craft and auxiliaries, especially tankers, are what the Navy needs most; carriers and cruisers next. These are the vessels used most in current Pacific offensives. The Navy has put antisubmarine craft back to third place, battleships to a poor fourth, and has cut back its submarine-building program. But Admiral Home is worried about manpower shortages, especially in private shipyards, which have a large labor turnover.

230 Wars in One. Lagging farthest behind in the new, speeded-up schedule are fast, armed transports to carry troops, weapons and supplies for invasions. Just as badly needed are tankers, not so much because of any slump in building (and certainly not because of losses to enemy action), but because new bases like Saipan call for the hauling of a lot more fuel and gasoline over greater distances. Said Admiral Home: "It isn't the enemy but the rapid extension of our own operations that is putting the squeeze on us."

Devastating barrages like those laid down at Cherbourg, Saipan and Guam have eaten deep into the Navy's store of bombardment ammunition: 41,000 tons of shells have been fired at Jap and German shore defenses alone--230 times the total used to win the Spanish-American war. The need for rockets, for both ships and planes, is increasing. There is also a deficit in 40-mm. antiaircraft guns and in the ammunition they shoot.

The Army Air Forces are using high-octane gasoline in Europe at double the anticipated rate. To keep its combat planes flying at peak efficiency, the Navy has had to shuttle its high-octane gas around like a bucket brigade at a fire.

If it had not captured new bases in the Pacific far ahead of schedule, its problems would have been fewer and simpler.

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