Cost $80,000,000
Washington, June 2.
The United States battleship Washington, the first battleship to be built in the United States since 1921, was launched yesterday.
With a displacement of 35,000 tons, the Washington was laid down in 1938 as part of the 1936 building programme.
The Washington, whose estimated cost is $80,000,000, is designed to carry nine 16-inch guns and four aircraft.
Senator Walsh, Chairman of the Senate Naval Committee, in a speech at the launching ceremony, said an adequate navy capable of defeating an enemy navy at sea was the only sure way to bring a war to a close.
The American people, he declared, were determined at all costs to prepare for any eventuality that might follow the European war.
Another battleship is to be launched this month, and six others are under construction.—Reuter. planes, This combination of three German units can bring infant within 25 yards of the British lines.
"Time after time this is what happened. When the barrage ended we looked up and, just as we expected, there they were—scores of Germans armed with tommy guns and rifles. Time and again we threw them back and time and again we had to retreat in the face of their overwhelming odds. Often they were ten to one.
"We retreated orderly and steadily all the time and exacted an enormous toll. But their superiority of equipment was such that it was merely a question of hanging on as long as we could and then getting back as slowly as we could, still holding them.
"Give us the same equipment as the Germans and we will finish this war in three months. When we met them alone they couldn't stand up to us. Even against everything they have we have been driving them back and doing it with bayonet and rifle"—United Press,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.