The Pacific has been reckoned the hardest nut to crack for our navy in the event of war and therefore it has seemed essential that our fleet personnel acquire all the knowledge and practice possible through fleet operations in that ocean. Our fleet in recent years has been almost continuously employed in strategical and tactical war games in the Pacific, centring around Hawaii and our base at Unalaska, the latter still unfinished.
These operations have usually been defensive in nature against an attacking fleet and the area of operations has never extended beyond the international date line, the 180th Meridian, longitude, This entire area will be the battleground in the event of war and should be familiar to our fleet. The reason our naval war games have been conducted on this side of the 180th meridian in the past has been not to unduly inflame the suspicious Japanese.
The navy air arm has become so important in any naval war in the Pacific that our strength in the air will be essential to success. In addition to the planes aboard our five aircraft carriers, long range naval seaplanes and appropriate air bases for them will give important aid to the fleet in operations west of Hawaii. They have a flying range of about 1.300 miles and air bases at Midway, Wake and Guam would give full mobility to these weapons.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.