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NEW YORK WORLD-TELEGRAM, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1941. Trail Blazers--Two [[image]] Lee Ya-ching, China's flying pioneer, takes it easy in an antique Wright plane at Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, during the United China Relief drive there. [[/image]] U. S. Fleet Throttles U-Boats; Many Destroyed, British Say (Continued from Page One) Iceland and the approaches to Norway.] Belief that American warships might be based in the British Isles is a result of the neutrality law revision was widely, though unofficially, expressed in London. Of- "Thirdly, the Germans have suffered a decrease in personnel for manning submarines." Small Craft Useless. The British naval experts pointed out that the Germans have not been able to make much use of the "baby submarines" which U. S. to Arm 100 Freighters A Month for Four Months (Continued from Page One) guns for the merchant ships, concentrated them in yards near the private shipways. Naval architects prepared plans for strengthening the after decks of vessels so that the heavy guns for use against submarines could be mounted with safety. The conversion program is a huge one. It calls for the arming of 100 ships a month for four months. Then the United States will have a backlog of 400 armed merchantmen, enough to cover the 185 for service to Britain and 135 for Red Sea shipping, which Rear Admiral Emory S. Land, chairman of the Maritime Commission, said was essential to deliver lease-lend goods. Strengthen Decks. Each ship prepared to fight for its existence at sea with deck guns, antiaircraft guns, depth charges, smoke-laying devices. ammunition stowage rooms and bulletproofed wheelhouse and bridge will cost the taxpayers $100,000, shipping circles believe. This means at least a $40,000,000 outlay. If it is found 400 ships are not enough for the job of "delivering the tools" to Britain, and particularly across distant seas to Russia, the expense of arming additional ships will have to be authorized. Several months ago each private shipyard in the country was canvassed by the government to ascertain which ones could undertake the work of conversion. On the basis of those inquiries assignments were made, to become effective upon passage of the ship-arming bill in the House. It was found that the navy already had a hand on sufficient deck guns of caliber heavy enough to repel submarines but there was a shortage of antiaircraft guns. Congress appropriated $75,888,820 to meet this situation and the navy soon was getting 100 AA guns a month in addition to those needed for its own combat ships. Under this appropriation setup the navy was to get 1445 guns and 1344 gun bridge. This will protect against machine-gun bullets and bomb splinters but nothing heavier. Each ship will have to be strengthened for mounting the guns. In the early months of the war Britain learned that ordinary deck plates, even of heavy steel, were not strong enough to stand the recoil of one, three and four-inch guns. In several running battles with U-boats British merchant sailors saw their deck guns break loose and fly overboard after the first shot. Not only will the afterdecks have to be buttressed but the wings of the bridges will have to be made stouter to mount the AA guns. A magazine, protected with concrete slabs, will have to be built in the hold and quarters for the gun crew added to those of the sailors. Naval strategists expect to note a salutary result from the arming of the merchantmen under the American flag. They point out that the neutrality patrol conducted by this country and the near completion of Britain's program of arming merchant ships has cut the rate of Allied ship sinkings. Every additional gun on the ocean, even when mounted on a slow-footed freighter, is a another threat to every submarine or bomber that tries to cut the Democracies' lifelines. Whereas in the early months of the war the ship sinkings were deadly and the number of bomb-torn, torpedo-blasted freighters that limped into American shipyards for repairs was so great it threatened to strangle our own defense building program, in the last half year the repair work on this side slacked off materially. American shipbuilding men, who have done yeoman service in repairing Allied ships, are pleased that we are to arm our own [[ships]] at last.
