Fleets Come In

ARMY & NAVY

After four months' battle drill in the Caribbean, the bulk of the U. S. fleet-- 67 men-o'-war--last week assembled at the entrance to New York harbor. At dawn a great line of sea power, ten miles long, began to thread its way up the bay into the Hudson River. The procession was led by the California, the Navy's No. 1 capital ship carrying Admiral Louis McCoy Nulton, commander-in-chief of the Battle Fleet, followed by the West Virginia, Maryland, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico. Next came the cruisers: Detroit, Marblehead, Raleigh, Richmond, the brand new Salt Lake City, many another. Destroyers anchored around Staten Island. Other vessels crowded into Brooklyn Navy Yard. Sailors itched for shore leave. Aboard the flagship Texas was Admiral William Veazie Pratt, Commander-in-Chief of the U. S. Fleet, who, with other three-starred naval officers, received the formal welcome of city officials. For ten days the fleet would rest at anchor, then steam down to Hampton Roads where it hoped to be reviewed by President Hoover on May 20.

But New Yorkers were made conscious of the fleet's arrival more by what came over in the air than by what lay in the water or, later, walked in the streets. Simultaneously with the battleships an enormous naval air fleet visited New York City. From the carriers Lexington, Saratoga and Langley lying miles away in Hampton Roads, via Washington where President Hoover stood at attention as they passed, 134 planes flew to a rendezvous at Staten Island, then swept up the bay over towered Manhattan. They flew in tight, three-plane V-formations which in turn formed larger Vs, a shining flock of metal hawks that filled the city's canyons with the hammering roar of war. At the head of the formation in a Martin bomber, constantly in radio touch with all his following and ordering their every maneuver, rode Lieut. Commander Alfred E. Montgomery, in charge of the flight. Behind him came Martin torpedo planes, sturdy Vought Corsairs, Curtiss Seahawks, Boeing fighters.

In 30 minutes the squadron, largest ever assembled by the Navy for a major maneuver, had covered the city, wheeled away to land at Valley Stream, L. I. Next day the great squadron traveled to Boston, circled that city and its suburbs in theoretical destruction, returned to its Long Island rendezvous. Never before had so large a fleet of planes flown so far or so well together.

The following morning New Yorkers' ears were filled again with war's sky sounds as the squadron, now augmented to 143 planes, returned for a sham battle. At 1,000 ft. flew the attack and torpedo planes, ever and again diving earthward with a crescendo of open motors. Next above roared the heavy bombers. Scouting craft thundered along at 3,000 ft. High above in the bluish haze flashed tiny fighters. From New Jersey came the huge Los Angeles and a procession of small blimps.

The mimic maneuvers were to bomb the financial district, clean out a defense post at Columbus Circle, strafe the Hotel St. Regis as a theoretical centre of resistance (Navy umpires atop the hotel scored the attack). Formations were temporarily broken as the attackers engaged in imaginary cat-&-dog fights high over the city's craning millions. Proudest witness of the spectacle was David Sinton Ingalls, Assistant Secretary of the Navy in Charge of Aeronautics, the Navy's prime War ace, whose earnest purpose it is to impress citizens with the necessity for, and perfection of, the Navy's air technic.

After the air fleet sped away south to its distant base ships, the metropolitan press poured out stories of how the attack, if real, would have devastated New York, wiped out the Wall Street area, left thousands dead and dying. High naval officials, however, discounted such results from such an air raid. In a real attack upon New York, they said, the enemy would not seek to take life primarily but would concentrate its bombs upon the power houses and gas tanks that line the city's shores, upon the railroad bridges, tunnel heads, radio stations. The greatest effect of bombing a large city would be psychological, paralyzing the light, heat, transportation, communication morale of the populace.

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