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ODAY the ocean does not separate us from the other continents, but rather it joins us to them, forming a high road for invasion over which troops can move thirty times faster than over land.

Our five thousand odd miles of coast line present a great vulnerable stretch of territory protected only by the existence of a fleet now third among those of the powers. The distance of our coast line from the enemy's territory should not be measured as the breadth of the Atlantic or Pacific, for no nation would attempt operations with such extended lines of communica

tion. Hawaii in the Pacific or some of

the West Indies in the Atlantic would form the stepping stone of the invasion. From these points, once secured, the enemy would approach our shores, screening the purpose of his movements with swift cruisers and scouts and by sweeping before him our scouting planes with battle planes accompanying the fleet.

The purpose of the invader's forces is not to bombard our coast towns, nor to carry out any useless raiding expeditions, but it is to meet our fleet under such circumstances as are most favorable to him. Thanks to the coast defenses, the important coastal cities are self-protecting and the United States fleet is allowed a complete mobility. It would not be long therefore before the opposing naval forces met to dispute the mastery of the seas. At this great moment, millions would be voted in Washington for the construction of new battleships!

If we should win, the war would probably be over; should we lose, the war would have just begun. The fragments of our beaten fleet would be driven back upon their bases, where they would be blockaded and muzzled like the Russians at Port Arthur. Once the seas were cleared, the enemy's transports would put to sea, and it is then that the great system of an aerial coastal patrol would begin to function.

The operation of the aerial coastal patrol as planned by me in June, 1915, was a system to warn our land forces of the operations made by the enemy for the purpose of landing troops.

To meet suddenly an enemy's landing operations on our coasts, it is necessary that we have forces of a specific character and of defensive ability to counter him. With the first signals from an aeroplane warning of landing operations at a given point, preparation could be made to send by railroad to that point special high angle fire artillery mounted on railroad trucks. This artillery, situated at a predetermined distance from the point of landing, would deliver great bursts of shrapnel over the landing parties of the enemy. Supported by this fire and in direct vision of the landing forces, there should be companies of machine guns that have been carried to the scene of action, either by armored motor cars or specially constructed motorcycles. Each machine gun is supposed to be the equivalent in firing value of fifty rifles. The effect of landing operations against shrapnel shot from 12-inch mortars, and against the deadly fire of entrenched machine guns, would be practical annihilation for the landing forces.

At this time a general concentration of the aeroplanes patrolling the coast could be made at the point of landing. This concentration would be for the purpose of overpowering the enemy's air craft and thereby prohibiting him from knowing the extent of our reinforcements. The chief factor in prohibiting the enemy from obtaining a

strong entrenched foothold upon any part of our coast is the factor of the length of time required for us to concentrate at that point sufficient men and artillery to arrest the landing operations.

While this matter would have great importance to the heavy artillery on railroad trucks, and on motor drawn caterpillar wheels, tho situated away from the fire of the ships, the matter of the time of arrival would have a special significance to those troops meeting the enemy at close range with machine guns. It would be necessary for these troops to choose such protected positions as to be safeguarded from the shells of the ships supporting the landing forces, and therefore they would desire to entrench themselves as strongly as possible.

To bring these necessary forces to the scene of the enemy's landing there should be a number of points of mobilization for men and guns, and these points should be situated at certain intervals along the coast, so as to be as nearly equidistant as possible from the various feasible landing places in their zone. Thus, each center of mobilization could tell to the minute how rapidly it could concentrate its force at any point. Forewarned, as the land forces would be by the broadly scattered coastal patrol, it would be possible for them almost always to anticipate the landings of the enemy, and prevent the landing of any appreciable force.

Certain people have imagined that a system of aerial coastal patrol was an endeavor to suppiant certain functions of the navy. This is not the case, for the navy, using hydroaeroplanes operating from ships, would form the first line of patrols. These patrols would be feeling for the enemy in the first stages of the invasion. After a definite fleet action had taken place, the system of coastal patrol would unquestionably prove a tremendous factor in the national defense.

New York City

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Somewhere off the coast of France-a characteristic sample of our mobilized war forces already in action on the other side

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At Harvard in Massachusetts, at Dunwoody in Michigan and at Newport News are the big training schools where naval reservists are graduated in a few months with a general knowledge of seamanship and specialized training in some one department of the navy

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GOOD GUNNING

The United Htates Borg is proud of a many things.

but it is proudest of all perhaper of

ite workmanship. There

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teen inch guns on the "Oklahoma." The narro black thing at the 4Xtreme right of the picture at the top of the page is target. The shell went right thru it. and richocheted. because thells don't wink at once, along the water just the stone doe if you skip it well. It makes a xery pretty picture. Part of its charm. tho, in the pleasant sense of security it gizes one to look at it. That target might have been the periscope of a submarine and when you are shooting at submarines it is just 44 well to *hoot straight

Internations! Film

THE EYES OF

THE NAVY The observation balloon isn't quite

as erciting to go up in as an aeroplane but don't imagine that it's easy. When a bali loon is attached to the fighting mast of a ship it pitches and tosses and sways so that it takes an observer

a long time to get accustomed to the motion even tho he may be a good sailor. The men below are operating one of the big range finders which are very important factors in good marksmanship.

That distances on the water are very deceptive and strong sunlight often very dazzling are facts that should add just a bit to our admiration for the nary if it needs to be added to. And good gunnery isn't the only good thing about the United States Navy!

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