OCR Text |
Show AIR POWER MAY BE OVER-SOLD While strategic bombing of Europe Eu-rope is making a great contribution contribu-tion of the winning of the war, there is a great suspicion in the minds of air advocates that the public has been "over-sold" by extravagant ex-travagant reporting of aerial accomplishments. ac-complishments. Something of a reaction against airpower has resulted from the failure to take Cassino after it had been reduced to "rubble" by bombings bomb-ings and by the disappointment over the failure of aircraft operations oper-ations to knock Germany out of the war. The last item is probably due, in a large degree, to the natural desire of Americans to win the war without suffering the heavy casualties that a clash between ground forces would make certain. The over-confidence in the Air Force has been, in a degree, a form of wishful thinking. It is a fact that certain civilian proponents of air power in books and public discussions have prac-ticallv prac-ticallv advocated that the nation -concentrate on its air force to the exclusion of other units in order to win the war. This view, we are convinced, was never accepted by our military and naval leaders, who are not disappointed disap-pointed with the magnificent results re-sults which have been accomplished accomplish-ed through the use of the air arm. |