ARMY & NAVY: War's End

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After six tense days of hide & seek in the big Pacific, the U. S. Battle Force, Blue defender in the Navy's Fleet Problem No. 14, and the Scouting Force, Black raiders, met off California last week, went through 36 hours of terrific mimic fighting. The Black fleet of cruisers and carriers were strong aloft, weak afloat. The Blues had all the battleships. Black bombers from a divided force peppered San Pedro and San Francisco but heavy Blue guns (firing 1-lb. blanks) took make-believe toll on the Lexington and Saratoga. Most unexpected occurrence in the "war" was a flash from the Navy Department in Washington ordering the battleships Arizona and West Virginia to consider themselves suddenly torpedoed.

Problem No. 14 over, the two fleets stood into San Francisco where their weary crews were given shore leave. Though officially neither side won or lost, the consensus was a repulse of Black by Blue on the theory that a light sea force, though preponderant in the air, could not effectively stand up against the defensive fire of battleships.