Grand Joint Exercise No. 4

Grand Joint Exercise No. 4

The fleet of almost any second class power could have come dangerously close to capturing the Philippines last week. All of the fighting force that remained at Cavite, base of the U. S. Asiatic Fleet, were four tenders, twelve submarines, three destroyers up in drydock for overhauling, mine sweepers and auxiliary craft.

Three days' sailing away, lapping their grey noses in the yellow river off Shanghai's Bund, lay the Asiatic fleet's fighting strength. There, under Admiral Montgomery Meigs Taylor, were the cruiser Houston, ten destroyers and the yacht Isabel. The Navy's starry ensign also fluttered from the bows of seven gunboats patrolling the Yangtze River while off Nanking were three more U. S. destroyers. Meanwhile the Navy was busy elsewhere.

Over the horizon from California in the long swell of the Pacific rocked the clock-faced fighting tops of nine battleships of the Battle Force (Pennsylvania, California, New York, Oklahoma, Nevada, Tennessee, Colorado, Maryland, West Vir-ginia). Their radios were ominously silent and they did not come alone. Trailing in their wake was the naval sinew which complements the nation's mightiest sea arm. Jauntily steamed four light cruisers (Omaha, Cincinnati, Concord, Detroit). Rolling porpoise-wise came 24 destroyers. Like sluggish metal fish, six submarines crawled along with decks awash. Plowing forward in the procession were the Lexington and the Saratoga with aircraft on their flat backs. Mine sweepers, oilers, repair, supply and hospital ships, seagoing camp-followers, all bunched together in a guarded block. Theoretically 25 troop transports accompanied the armada, carrying a command of 40.000 men under Major General Malin Craig. Actual personnel of this Blue fleet, about to engage with the Black defenders of the Hawaiian Islands in Grand Joint Exercise No. 4, was 27.250 officers and men.

This year the problem is to recapture Hawaii from a hypothetical enemy. As the zero hour approached for Admiral Richard Henry Leigh's Blue force to cross a deadline and commence hostilities, the defensive Blacks, surmising that the attack's spearhead would aim at Honolulu's Pearl Harbor naval base, sent skeleton columns of soldiers, sailors and marines to patrol the coast of Oahu and guard against a surprise landing. Actually mobilized to defend Hawaii were 20,000 men, 17 sub marines, four light mine layers, two mine sweepers and 45 aircraft under Major General Briant Harris Wells, commander of the Army's Hawaiian Department.

Developments during the five-day battle practice were to be withheld until the maneuvers ended, since either side might profit from news despatches. Outcome was expected to determine the effective ness of the Battle Force's power of attack, Hawaii's capacity for defense. As the war game began, Admiral Frank Herman Schofield, commander-in-chief of the U. S. fleet, and a corps of military and naval observers steamed into Honolulu on the U. S. S. Pennsylvania. His crew was not permitted to go ashore because of naval apprehension, born of recent civil disorders and the Kahahawai killing. Nor would shore leave be granted the Battle Force when its maneuvers conclude. Honolulu merchants grumbled. Lest timid citizens worry, with most of the U. S. fleet on the other side of the world, the Navy made known that in Atlantic waters there still remained the Scouting Force, based at Guantanamo: seven heavy cruisers (Augusta, Chester, Chicago, Louisville, Northampton, Pensacola, Salt Lake City) four light cruisers, 26 destroyers and auxiliary craft.

On Feb. 25, however, most of this force will steam through the Panama Canal to the Pacific where it will join parts of the battle fleet in more maneuvers (Problem No. 13).

Meanwhile last week from the Caribbean the entire Special Service Squadron (Rochester, Asheville, Sacramento) was ordered westward to strengthen the slim defenses of the Philippines.

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