hard-fought but winning battle for Papua "a new form of campaign was tested which points the way to the ultimate defeat of the enemy in the Pacific." This new method of warfare the general said, primarily involves "the continuous, calculated application of air power." He remarked particularly that in the northeastern New Guinea fighting the Allies' air arm had been found effective and important not only as an offensivedefensive weapon but as an instrument of troop transport and supply. "Our air forces and ground forces were welded together in Papua, and when in sufficient strength with proper naval support, their indissoluble union points the way to victory through new and broadened strategic and tactical conceptions.” MacArthur said in written comment on the action now concluded. Close coordination between air and land units will permit "swift, massive strokes" against the enemy and preclude the necessity for a "dilatory and costly island-to-island advance," he predicted. The text of MacArthur's written comment: "The destruction of remnants of the enemy forces in the Sanananda area concludes the Papuan campaign. The Horii army (Lt. Gen. Tomitaro Horii commanded the estimated 15,000 Japanese troops in Papua) has been annihilated. "The outstanding military lesson of this campaign was the continuous, calculated application of air power inherent in the potentialities of every component of the air forces employed in the most intimate tactical and logistical union with ground troops. "The effect of this modern instrumentality was sharply accentuated by the geographical limitations of this theater. For months on end, air transport with constant fighter coverage moved complete infantry regiments and artillery battallions across the almost impenetrable mountains and jungles of Papua and the reaches of the sea, transported field hospitals and other base installations to the front, supplied the troops, and evacuated casualties. "For hundreds of miles bombers provided all-round réconnaissance, protected the coast from hostile naval intervention and blasted the way for the infantry as it drove forward. "A new form of campaign was tested which points the way to the ultimate defeat of the enemy in the Pacific. "The offensive and defensive power of the air and the adaptability, range, and capacity of its transport in an effective combination with ground forces represent tactical and strategical elements of a broadened conception of warfare that will permit the application of offensive power in swift, massive strokes rather than the dilatory and costly island-to-island advance that some have assumed to be necessary in a theater where the enemy's far-flung strongholds are dispersed throughout a vast expanse of archipelagos. "Air forces and ground forces were welded together in Papua, and when in sufficient strength with proper naval support, their indissoluble union points the way to victory through new and broadened strategic and tactical conception." POST-WAR PLANNING Colonel GORRELL. The second part, that is, paragraph (b) of section 1 of the bill is of greatest importance. This section calls upon the Civil Aeronautics Board to report to Congress concerning developments in civil aeronautics which may be anticipated after the war with plans for such development as will assure the preeminence of the United States. Because of the broad jurisdiction and its intimate acquaintance with the problems, the Civil Aeronautics Board is of course eminently qualified to undertake this important function. As a matter of fact, it has already, and quite properly, set for itself certain important research projects described in Appendix S-1 of Senate Document No. 206, part 2, Seventy-seventh Congress. It is of great importance that not only these specific projects which it already has planned but also further projects relating to our post-war future should be undertaken and pushed vigorously to a conclusion. Certainly the Congress and the country at large will need to have expert advice at an early date concerning the ends toward which our civil aeronautics should be working in order to assure unquestioned supremacy of the American flag and concerning the various steps which should be taken to achieve such ends. It is gratifying to note in this particular section of the bill a recognition of the special importance of the matter of transporting cargo by air. That cargo air transportation will one day be widespread is as clear as crystal. That other countries have made substantial progress in this respect is also clear. Indeed, the great bombing raids that be being carried out every day are nothing more nor less than costly and terrifying experiments in the transportation of cargo by air. America made the world's first plans for transporting bombs by air for large-scale bombardment of enemy territory. It would seem particularly appropriate for America to make the first plans for the transportation of cargo by air in peacetime commerce on a sound and widespread basis. Whether such transportation on an economically feasible basis is already possible is a question to which no person knows the answer. You hear every day glib talk of transporting cargo at 5 cents, 10 cents, or 20 cents a ton-mile, but there is not a single living person who can demonstrate the validity of his figures with any appreciation of the practical problems which are involved. As to the transportation of a large volume of cargo by air in the near future, I feel the opposite of Thomas Jefferson when he wrote on aviation and signed himself "With more good will than confidence, and wishing you success." Mr. Chairman, I have here a photograph of that letter of Thomas Jefferson. With your permission I would like to pass it around. It may be that you would want it for your record. Some gentleman by the name of Lee wrote to Jefferson saying that it had been found that a balloon could support weight in the air. He wanted to find a mechanical means of steering the balloon. Jefferson wrote back that he knew of no such mechanical means, and that it would have to be based on principles theretofore not devised, and wishing him success "With more good will than confidence." I would like to pass this letter around. With your permission, may we insert the letter at this point? (The letter reads as follows:) Mr. D. W. LEE. MONTICELLO, April 22, 1822. SIR: Your letter of the 15th is received, but age has long since obliged me to withhold my mind from speculations of the difficulty of those of your letter that there are means of buoyancy by which man may be supported in the air, the balloon has proved, and that means of directing it may be discovered is against no law of nature and is therefore possible as in the case of birds, but to do this by mechanical means alone in a medium so rare and unresisting as air must have the aid of some principle not yet generally known. However, I can really give no opinion understandingly on the subject and with more good will than confidence wish you success. THOMAS JEFFERSON. Colonel GORRELL. There was another friend of America named Benjamin Franklin who had a different type of vision on transporting things by air. In 1783 Paris became mildly excited over its pioneer balloon ascensions. Franklin was alert to the destiny of those first, feeble efforts to command the skyways. There were skeptics then, as now. And, of the first ascension, a skeptic was at hand to ask what good a balloon could be. Franklin replied with an epigram caught up throughout Europe: What good is a new-born baby? As the ascensions continued and the first human passengers were carried he chided the British for neglecting the experiment. Soon he was wondering whether the balloon might not become a common means of carriage, relieving one of jolting pavements. And he made this extraordinarily prophetic observation: Five thousand balloons, capable of raising two men each, could not cost more than 5 ships of the line; and where is the prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defense as that 10,000 men descending from the clouds might not in many places do an infinite deal of mischief before a force could be brought together to repel them? He was expecting to carry the large number of two men per balloon. Mr. BOREN. He had the paratroop idea. Colonel GORRELL. It might be of interest to you gentlemen to know that the statement that America made the first plans for large scale bombing is quite true. America got into the war in April 1917 and realized that airplanes were changing their types very quickly. So America offered to build the big planes that might fly by night, that did not become out of date so quickly. We wired England in April 1917, soon after we got into the war, for designs of the Handley-Page and they wired back and said, "“Don't build them. They are no good." And, they would not give us any designs. The first meeting we had in England was on the morning of June 26, 1917, before the entire British Air Ministry. We wanted to build planes to bomb the life out of Germany. The entire British Air Board advised us against it. They said that we could not bɔmb the enemy except at night, otherwise we would be shot down. And at night, "You cannot see what you are going to try to hit." They said if we bombed in the daylight that we would be shot out of the air. When we failed to get a copy of their plans, we went to Italy and got a copy of the plans of the Italian Caproni. It may please you to know that when the armistice came we had 101 of the big Handley-Page bombers on the assembly line in England. Two had actually been assembled. We were just on the verge of opening up wide-scale bombing against the Germans. We had been doing bombing since the summer of 1917 but with only 12 squadrons of small airplanes. We got but a very little distance into Germany. However we made the people squeal and peace talk start. The British would not advocate bombing so we did a rather unusual thing. We gave a copy of our plans to a member of the House of Lords. He used them on the floor of Parliament and drove the British to the idea of bombing the Germans. It is history that the Americans made those first plans. I hope that America can make the first plans for carrying peacetime cargo instead of terrifying cargo. Since we have had some opportunity to see the work of the Civil Aeronautics Board at close range, I hope I may be pardoned if I make one suggestion relating to its facilities for carrying out a study and report under section 1 (b) of this bill. I doubt that the Board has ever had sufficiently large appropriations to discharge with full adequacy the great amount of work which it has to do under the Civil Aeronautics Act. The Board has functioned extraordinarily well on extraordinarily little money, considering the scope of its duties. It is to be sincerely hoped that if it is called upon, as it should be, for this very vital study and report, it will be furnished with entirely adequate funds to do the job in the best possible manner with a necessary leeway to pay proper compensation to persons doing the work-what I mean by that is that they ought to be given a half dozen very good men with freedom to pay whatever is necessary. A dollar spent today will multiply itself infinitely to the benefit of the entire Nation in the future. Mr. O'HARA. Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. O'Hara. Mr. O'HARA. I do not understand what committee you are referring to. Colonel GORRELL. The Civil Aeronautics Board, sir. Mr. O'HARA. The Civil Aeronautics Board? Colonel GORRELL. Yes, sir. For this post-war study you want the best America can produce and they ought to be allowed to have some extremely good men and at proper salaries. Before leaving this subject I might suggest that in the further consideration of section 1 (b) of the bill by this committee care be taken to assure that there is adequate authority to cover the many important technical subjects involved in planning our post-war future. Quite aside from the strictly commercial matters, there are such technical questions as that of securing adequate engines, fuels, and special materials, the vast and highly significant matter of projecting plans for adequate meteorological development and service, provisions for improvement in the types of air navigation and communication facilities and development of airways, and many other matters upon which the Civil Aeronautics Board would wish to secure the advice of many technical agencies or which should be undertaken by such agencies. For the information of the committee I might insert, with your permission, an excerpt from Senate Report No. 185, Seventy-fifth Congress, a report by the Senate Committee on Commerce under the chairmanship of Senator Copeland, which relates to one phase of this matter, and another memorandum which develops another point to which you may wish to give consideration. The excerpt from the Senate Report No. 185, pages 6 to 7, is as follows: AIRCRAFT ENGINES Almost every commission or congressional body that has investigated aeronautics during the past generation, and investigations by governmental bodies have averaged at least one a year since 1916, has found that American aeronautics needs for safety and for other reasons, more powerful aircraft engines. Most of the investigating bodies have recommended that the Government take constructive action on this subject. This sound advice has fallen upon deaf In the eyes of those officials chosen to administer them, Federal aeronautical appropriations have not been great. Apparently the Army, Navy, and governmental bodies handling commercial aeronautics fear to take from their annual appropriations a sum large enough really to place America first in aircraft engines. To avoid this obstacle it would appear to be wise to appropriate a fund for the engineering development of powerful aircraft engines, the appro ears. priation not to be charged to the annual appropriations of a Government department. Larger power plants than are now available in this country would contribute to safety on our air lines. Types other than the conventional ottocycle engine might make for greater security in the varying conditions of flight. Military demands dominate and have brought into existence larger engines abroad than here. To provide the incentive for the development of engines that might well be of inestimable value in military aviation in the event of emergency, we make a definite recommendation for the appropriation of $1,500,000 to bring into being in American shops, proven higher-powered Americau motors. This should promote the early advent of larger power output in units and keep us abreast of foreign power plants. Not only will this benefit safety in commercial work but it will insure larger engines with higher performance for military aircraft in the Army and the Navy. In 1934, instigated by the wisdom of the House Committee on Military Affairs, the Congress took such action as we are now recommending. Unfortunately, the language of the appropriation was not sufficiently specific. A small portion of the appropriated money was allocated by the President for a different purpose. The rest reverted to the Treasury. America needs more powerful aircraft engines and needs them just as quickly as they can be developed. Europe now designs more powerful and better performing large aircraft than does the United States. Whatever Europe has in the way of supremacy is by virtue of having available more horsepower in its aeronautical engines. Without more powerful engines our commercial and military aerial supremacy is threatened. As it is now, should we start today on this program, we shall still require years to accomplish it. Aeronautical engines are costly to develop, as well as to purchase. In no country does private capital find it possible to develop them. Every country that might threaten our national supremacy in the air has been and is now appropriating money for a solemn purpose which in America we are neglecting. Our possible enemies, in the only war that might defeat the United States, are engaged in such a development. Powerful aircraft engines, at least equal to those that are being used by our military and commercial aerial rivals, are an economical form of insurance against the mad dogs of war. It is the recommendation of your committee that the present Congress make an appropriation for this purpose, the money to become immediately available and to remain available until expended. It should be earmarked for the specific purpose of designing and developing high-powered aircraft engines. Your committee visualizes engines of between perhaps 3,000 and 4,000 horsepower as being desirable and necessary. Practically every board America has ever created to study this subject has recommended that somebody do something on large engines, and America has talked a lot about it. Once the Congress appropriated some money. Just a minor amount was spent a very minor amount-and for a different purpose-and the rest was turned back into the Treasury; but the need of properly powered engines that will run a proper length of time is essential if you are going to get ahead of the other fellow. An airplane stays in the air by its propulsive power. METEOROLOGICAL NEEDS IN THE POST-WAR PERIOD An adequate study and report should also be prepared concerning the meteorological developments which will be necessary in the postwar period, including organizations, research and weather service in order to promote safety and efficiency of aerial navigation to the highest possible degree. Such a study should include an appraisal of steps necessary to promote the development of adequate world-wide meteorological services, international exchange and coordination of meterological information, encouragement of professional collaboration between private and Government meteorological interests, and the implementation of scientific research in meteorology. 83838-43 |