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So far in the clash between plane and fighting ship, the ship has come out well. Only one armored ship at sea, the cruiser Southampton, has been sunk through bombing alone; only one aircraft carrier, the Illustrious, has been badly hurt by the machine it nests. Both these encounters took place in the Sicilian channel last month (TIME, Jan. 27), and by last week attenuating circumstances had been discovered for both cases. A lucky hit on the Southampton started a fire inboard, which necessitated scuttling; and according to a statement last week by U. S. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, it appeared that the Illustrious was transporting bombers and did not have her usual complement of fighters aboard.
The final test of plane v. ship may come in the Mediterranean, may be joined in the next few weeks. If so, the way in which Britain bears herself will rest very largely with a man whom seagoing Britons know as A. B. C. These are the initials of Britain's Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham.
A. B. C. The Admiral Collingwood who assisted Nelson at Trafalgar and succeeded him in the Mediterranean command later wrote home to his wife: "Tell me, how do the trees which I planted thrive? Is there shade under the oak tree for a comfortable summer seat? Do the poplars grow at the walk, and does the wall of the terrace stand firm?"
By a symmetry which pleases and is natural to Britons, the Hampshire grounds about which Collingwood wrote are now the home of another Mediterranean commander—Cunningham. To it and the sailor's greatest luxury, gardening, he hopes to retire. But meanwhile he has a heavy job to do. He knows that like all British servants of salt water, he must transcend his personal wants. He has a wife and family, but as Nelson used to say: "East of Gibraltar, every man is a bachelor." On the Mediterranean, every British manjack is a piece of naval equipment.
Short, tight-mouthed, efficient as a gyrocompass and untiring as the Mediterranean sun, Sir Andrew spent most of his years on the way up aboard destroyers, mostly in the Mediterranean. He learned some unhappy lessons off Cape Helles during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. He is known as a grim disciplinarian and a bear for work. He has such a loud voice for commands that his underlings say that inter-ship signals in battle are just a waste of effort; and he is such an expert navigator that his crews say he could cut an egg in half with a battleship.
The job before A. B. C. is as cruel as that which any previous British Admiral has had to face. All British Admirals have understood the ways of ships, have welcomed conflict with enemy ships. But Sir Andrew is opposed to an alien thing, an unnautical, ugly contraption: the airplane. He himself uses the airplane well, and accomplished his biggest victory, Taranto. with it. But he has not yet fought a decisive fight against it. This is why the long, episodic Battle of the Mediterranean seems more important than all the previous naval battles of history. Sea power itself is challenged.