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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Vice Admiral William S. Sims, Commander, United States Naval Forces Operating in European Waters, to Office of the Chief of Naval Operations

            Cablegram Sent Nov. 22, 1918      Y-94

To    Opnav Washington                 Serial      285

Prep. by M-4                  SX

     B

285 Recommend suspend shipment of all ordnance materials including Aviation ordnance. Special attention invited to following. Suspension manufacture and shipment material intended for shipment to Europe for Naval Railway Batteries. This does not apply to manufacture material for experimants<ments> super gun or type gun car at home. Suspension shipments includes light projectiles. Suspension preparation and shipment all mine material including that for Northern Barrage. Suspend shipment armor piercing gas shell for Battleship Divisions six and nine, all target practice ammunition. Admiral Benson1 concurs in all of foregoing. Recommend 7 inch gun company both personnel and material now Azores be sent home. Request information what disposition should be made of 3 inch guns loaned Portuguese. Torpedo Repair Station Base Six will be demobilized and all material except buildings and furnishings and power plant will be shipped to Navy Yard Norfolk for further instructions from Board2 as to disposition. Letter with recommendation as to disposition follows.3 173622 285

     Sims.             

Source Note: Cy, DNA, RG 45, Entry 517B.

Footnote 1: Adm. William S. Benson, Chief of Naval Operations.

Footnote 2: The General Board of the Navy.

Footnote 3: In his 1919 Annual Report, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels wrote, “The Navy was practically the first to be ready for demobilization on an extensive scale and for that reason it was able to proceed with the disposal of property with little difficulty.” Annual Reports of the Navy Department for the Fiscal Year 1919 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1919), 661.

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