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Show Looking Ahead At War The other day Russian soldiers gave a demonstration of "mass parachute jumping." Thirty-six men leaped in succession suc-cession from one Soviet army plane, and 11 from another. imagine, in some future war, another trench deadlock. Then one of the opposing armies sends across the enemy Lues 100 big transport planes each carrying 50 men with parachutes. The air transports would be ,convoyed, of course, by fast pursuit planes. A force of bombing planes might be part of the expedition. The 5000 parachute jumpers all picked for initiative and trained to go it alone or work together, as chance might decide would be dropped into some carefully chosen spot. It might be the heart of the enemy's capital, or his field headquarters. The jumpers would follow a barrage of bombs, dropped to clear a landing space for them. Once on the ground, they i ' could do untold mischief before they were killed or captured. cap-tured. Of course, none of them would expect to return alive but no nation would have difficulty in getting volunteers for such a suicidal venture in war time. The whole point of this editorial is that the next war won't be decided in trenches. Some way will be found to make impossible the sort of long-drawn out stalemate that characterized the World war. It is conceivable that a few successful mass parachute jumping expeditions could tip the scales decisively. If not that, then some other strategem. At any rate, the world is not likely ever again to see millions of men lined up for years in opposing trenches separated sep-arated by only a few hundred yards of No Mans Land. |