Wagons for A.A.

Battleships are hedgehogs. For months the U.S. Navy has used battleships as anti-aircraft ships in carrier task-force screens. The Japs know their worth. Last week, when Captain Thomas Leigh Catch's report on his battleship's part in two South Pacific battles was released, U.S. readers learned their worth as A.A. ships for the first time.

Over his ship's speaker system, Oct. 26, Captain Gatch asked his men if they were ready. Bulkheads rattled the shout of 2,000 men: "Aye, aye, sir!" The first attack lasted eight minutes. The enemy threw in 20 dive-bombers. The battleship spoke with all its voices: the huge grump-grump of 5-inch all-purpose secondary batteries, the more frenetic chattering of smaller pieces.

Half an hour later 40 torpedo planes and dive-bombers swooped in. Only one plane got through, a torpedo bomber. It was just taking the attitude for its drop when shells clipped its wings. It flipped up and shot the torpedo high in the air, right across the fantail and into the sea on the opposite side of the stern.

After noon the stubborn ones came again --24 dive-bombers and torpedo planes. This time at least one attacker made good. He dropped a 500-pounder on one of the forward turrets. Captain Gatch, who was standing on the bridge's exposed catwalk, took a fragment of bomb in his neck. An artery was cut. His shoulder was torn. He was knocked out. But his ship got through.

Maneuvers without Names. Catch's battleship was not alone. It had cruisers and destroyers with it. It was probably supported by some Grumman Wildcats from one of the U.S. carriers. But its own record was nevertheless superb. The ship, which must have been one of the new North Carolinas since they are the only U.S. battleships with enough speed to escort carriers, proved as well that it could take punishment. The 500-pounder caused so little damage that three weeks later, with Captain Gatch standing on the bridge with his left arm in a sling, the ship sailed into "Windy Gulch," between Guadalcanal and Savo, and helped win the great night battle of Guadalcanal by sinking four Japanese warships by gunfire.

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