The Key West Citizen Newspaper, March 17, 1953, Page 10

Sau Py AMMO SHORTAGE WRANGLE RAISES QUESTION AS TO HOW MUCH AN ARMY SHOULD SHOOT By DON WHITEHEAD WASHINGTON (%—The ammuni- tion shortage wrangle exploded by Gen. James A. Van Fleet raised the serious question: ‘How much ammunition should an army shoot in attacking the enemy and defend- ing itself?” Fresh from Korea, Van Fleet told senators that in all the 22 months he comma “omy he didn’ r ‘on he needed—and at times this scortege was s?rious Gen. J. Lawton Collins, Army «” ef cf staff, told the same sena- { 5: “There has never been a + »vlage of ammunition (in Korea) ever to repel #n attack that + ually developed or to conduct ¢ * own operations.” By using the phrase “to repel 20 attack that actually developed,” Collins may have been saying he thought the gunners in Korea were a bit trigger-happy over attacks that didn’t develop But the nation, Congress and even the Army is learning it takes a vastly greater amount of ammu- nition in Korea’s warfare than was required by a force of equal size in World War II. Since the start of World War II| there has been a trend toward id-rate “‘spray’’ firing, pump- as much lead and explosives the enemy as possible, even when you don’t see the enemy. This is particularly true of night attacks. i toward | This increased rate of fire in mall arms and machine guns has jextended also into caliber artillery pieces—eating up jrate than military planners ever had anticipated. The Pentagon when asked had (no figures readily available for a precise comparison of the rate of fire in World War Lf as compared -; to the Korean fighting. But Collins \has disclosed the comparatively }small U. N. force in Korea has | fired almost as much ammunition as America’s giant World War II armies expended in both the Pa- cific and European theaters during all of World War I. This revelation points up the fact that American troops are depend- ing more and more on heavier rates of fire. And it strongly indi- cates the Pentagon top command has one concept of how much an army should shoot—while the field | command has an entirely different concept. Secretary of Defense Wilson and Secretary of the Army Stevens |both have indicated there were | shortages in certain types of am- | munition, but that these shortages are being corrected and the situa- |tion already is much better. Wilson said: ‘“‘As of now, | have for operations on the present | scale.” Again it is significant that | Wilson added the phrase — “‘for operations on the present scale.” we Page 10 1951 DODGE, 4-Door 1945 PONTIAC, 4-Door 1946 FOR, 4-Door 1951 DODGE, Coupe 1941 DODGE, Coupe 1949 PLYMOUTH, 2-Door ........... 1948 MERCURY, Convertible ROLET, 4-Door 1849 CH 1.30 FELYMOUTH, Suburban THE KEY WEST CITIZEN NAVARRO, INC. 36th Anniversary SED CAR SALE STILL GOING AT TOP SPEED (°F IN TODAY! 1947 DODGE, 4-Door ........... 1950 CHEVROLET, 4-Door 1948 WILLYS, Station Wagon .. 1950 CHEVROLET, 4-Door . Tuesday, March 17, 1953 FULL PRICE $ 795.00 1245.05 840.09 1195.07 1605." 495.69 645." the heavier | | ammunition supplies at a far faster | the ammunition necessary | | Van Fleet’s testimony that he |didn’t have enough ammunition was not so unusual in itself — |because it has become a truism | in the Army that no field comman- der “ever. has enough.” The man} doing the fighting always wants | more of everything — more men, | more guns, more ammunition, | more transport, and more of this | and that. | | Senators are well aware of this, | |but they aren’t brushing off Van |Fleet’s insistent complaints of an | ammunition shortage as just an- other case of a commander want- | ing too much. | | Chairman Saltonstall (R-Mass) | jof the Senate Armed Services | Committee, a man not addicted to impulsive statements, has said: | “There is no question that our |troops in Korea were limited on} ammunition. There unquestionably were shortages. They are now less than they were.” | Testimony by Van Fleet and} others clearly indicates the plan- ners for Korea just didn’t antici- pate the amount of shooting that | | would be done there. Shortages | developed especially in 105 and 155- millimeter guns—and according to} | Van Fleet even in hand grenades. | | One obvious reason is that the | war developed into a stalemate— | a “sitdown” in Van Fleet’s words. And in such a situation artillery fire always becomes heavier. But, over the years, there has been a growing demand by infan- trymen for more and more artil- lery support and it has reached its present peak in Korea. | Some military men will argue |the American Army shoots too much, pumps explosives without even seeing a target, and is waste- ful of its ammunition. | But the man doing the fighting | doesn’t take time out for academic jdiscussion as to whether he’s | wasteful or not. The man in the jline wants artillery pouring into i suspicious activity in the enemy lines even if an attack doesn’t | | develop. | A platoon. wants- the artillery |to help to pull back from a raid. | Line commanders want those en- | emy guns silenced which are firing jon their men, They call for artil- lery to help them in attacking. | And some want explusives dumped | onto the enemy-held hills’ just for jthe hell of it and to keep the en-| my jumpy. | Add up all these demands, des- | perately important to the soldier in combat, and it means a vast! amount of ammunition, | Once ammunition production gets rolling, then—as someone has | said,—it will ‘be running out of | our ears.” The problem will be) where to store it and have it handy for use. And Secretary Wilson’s remarks would indicate that time BABY LINDA AN four-months-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs, ‘Charles E. Ryals, 612 Simonton, was the winner of the monthly prize in a recent contest conducted by a locai photographer.— National Studios Photo. Indian Women Believe They Belong In Home, Not Outside: By SELIG S. HARRISON ALLAHABAD, North India #%— In India, village women heartily agree that the place for the gals is i & in the home, That is the challenge faced by seven modern-minded young Indi- | an women who are out to get the mothers and daughters working | for farm improvement along with | the menfolk under the Indo-Ameri- | © can Point Four program. Allaha: bad Agriculture Institute official sent the seven wives and their hus- | bands out as “village teams” for | the first time a year ago. Their re- port is that family customs break down slowly, but none the less surely. “In the beginning the villagers would have nothing to do with us,” commented 20-year-old Mrs. Udai jingh. ‘They were not used to see- ing a woman outside her home and so they simply refused to work with either of us. Some people] | Honor Truman |Champion Auto NEW YORK #—Former Presi- H . . dent Truman will receive « sz! Thief In America Stephen Wise Award of the Ameri- | we | can Jewish Congress for giving) NEW YORK up—“You are the “inspiring leadership in the con-|Champion auto thief in America. | me-—I just can’t stay «way from automobiles. It’s not that I want to do it—I just do.” This was the dialogue yester- day as Leibowitz sentenced Maher to an indeterminate term in the State Reformatory at Lincolndale, N. Y. The boy admitted stealing more than 400 automobiles in two years—just to go joy riding. Michigan State’s veteran t-ain- er, Jack Heppinstall, is the oldest Spartan athletic staff member in |point of service. He joined the staff in 1914. tainuing campaign to extend full; That’s a great distinction, isn’t it? | equality of rights to all Ameri. | Here you stand before me ready } cans.” j* go to jail, when you should be} tstudying the box scores of the | dodgers.” = | To these words by Brooklyn Ship Scuttled | Judge Samuel S. Leibowitz, 16-| . } year-old Robert Maher replied: PANAMA, Panama adhesin! “I don’t know what comes over scuttled the Ecuadurean ship Ecu- ador in the Canal Zone’s Cristobal | harbor last night after an un-| successful nine-hour battle to put out a fire racking the 882-ton/ e vessel. The ship was sunk to pre-: aE men vent the spread of flames to other | ; shipping in the port. TO | SAVE TIME] | \ ! | | PHONE SPECIAL .. LONG DISTANCE C ‘47 Hudson, Super _. ‘46 Buick, Tudor Sedan ‘48 Ford, Tudor V-8 _ A-1 USED ‘50 Ford, Club Coupe ‘47 Studebaker, Comm., Radio, OD ‘50 Ford, Convertible, Radio, OD __ ‘50 Ford, Deluxe Tudor, V-8 ‘49 Mercury, Spt. 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