Admiral v. General

Fierce summer warfare broke out anew last week in the sea angle, between Long Island and New Jersey, which forms the entrance to New York Harbor. An enemy fleet viciously attacked U. S. land defenses at Forts Hancock and Tilden and was finally repulsed, but only after lower Manhattan, the bridges across the East River, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, great ammunition dumps at the Jersey City railheads had been laid in ruins. The invading fleet in this Army-Navy war game was commanded by Rear Admiral William Carey Cole, U. S. N. Aged 61, slender, handsome, rather English in manner, he led down from a Rhode Island base two battleships, three cruisers, three destroyer divisions, aircraft equipment-- theoretically a full-fledged battle fleet. His mission was to bottle up U. S. fighting ships in New York Harbor. At Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook was Major-General Andrew Hero Jr., Chief of Coast Artillery, defending New York, keeping the harbor open. For three days the battle between the Admiral and General veered back and forth. Claims on each side were large. Admiral Cole issued this war-time communique: "Our Grand Fleet today engaged the enemy at 3.000 yards off Ambrose Light, silenced their battery fire, levelled the defenses and destroyed New York. At 7:12 our bombing squadron dropped 50 bombs on the lower harbor and their air reconnaisance aided materially in governing shell fire. We maneuvered N. N. E. and scored repeated hits." The invading fleet, besides wrecking New York, claimed to have "blinded" Fort Hancock by the destruction of its observation and control towers and then, sweeping aside a mine field and under cover of low visibility, come close enough to pound the fort to powder. General Hero, however, saw only success in the defense operations under his command. His coast artillery claimed destruction of two battleships, one cruiser, five destroyers, many a seaplane, and the repulse of a night landing party. General Hero, thick-shouldered, grey-haired, blue-eyed, explained: "The problem of guardsmen at Hancock was to keep the harbor mouth open permitting the Blue ships to debouch therefrom and go to the rescue of endangered Blue vessels off Delaware Bay. This they did successfully."