And Still They Come

Few men adequately comprehend the battle power of the U.S. Navy. But now that it has grown to be the world's (and history's) mightiest, a few more figures could be given to outline its giant proportions. This Navy Secretary Forrestal did last week. Items:

P: The U.S. Navy is bigger today than the combined fleets of all the world five years ago; is undoubtedly more than twice as big as the British Fleet. Since war began in Europe, the U.S. Navy has multiplied its warships more than three times.

P: Wartime additions: almost 65,000 vessels, from rubber landing boats to battleships, totaling nearly 9,000,000 displacement tons. Some 775 are combatant vessels; others are auxiliaries, tenders, etc.

P: The Navy has multiplied its air power 20 times, adding a total of 57,600 planes. In a report of his own, Vice Admiral Aubrey Fitch, chief of naval air operations, noted that the Navy had 34,071 planes on hand June 30*; that among some 100 carriers, 14 are first-line Essex class, nine are Independence (converted cruiser) class.

P: Monthly production rate of torpedoes has been stepped up 40-fold, depth charges 60-fold. The Navy has added to its arsenal more than 125,000 20-mm. and 40-mm. ack-ack guns--and one billion rounds of ammunition for them alone.

P: Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel have been increased 24 times. Total: 3,717,000.

Said still unsatisfied Secretary Forrestal, "The Navy program is only a little more than half finished."

* Turned over to the Army and Lend-Lease: 11,000; lost in combat and noncombat operations, in training and through deterioration and obsolescence: some 12,000.

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