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Show GERMAN MASTERY OF AIR. Simultaneously with the report from the American army in France that the Germans control the air over the American Amer-ican sector. Washington announces that shipments of planes to France are being made five months ahead of schedule .. time. We have been in the war nearly a year now and the public will be inclined to receive Secretary' Baker's announcement announce-ment with skepticism. Some of our planes were used in L'urope before we entered the conflict and it is difficult to understand why our small sector of the front is not sufficiently guarded by our own machines operated by our own flyers. .And if that is aot possible, why are there not enough French or British machines and flyers to prevent the Teutons from making observations at will and from dropping bombs wherever wher-ever and whenever they pleaset Manifestly the British and French reports which conveyed the impression that the allies held the mastery of the air did' not really mean what they said. Rather they meant that for a short period the allies were able to cope with the Germans. The sector now held by the Americans Amer-icans was held by the French until a few weeks ago and presumably the French should be just as well able to defend it now as they were then. Two possible explanations suggest themselves. The shortage of shipping may have delayed our machines and the materials for the construction of machines ma-chines in Great Britain and -France, or the Germans have been able to bring a large number of machines from the eastern front as an addition to the increased in-creased output of their factories. |