Show ROUND MERRY Bomb Survey Of Japan Brings Fight By fly DREW V PEARSON WASHINGTON It is now v getting close to a a. year since Ince the end of ot the war with Japan and yet the strategic bombing survey for Japan has hM not been made public Inside reason Is a vigorous vigor vigor- ous backstage war tug between between between be be- tween the army and navy which boils bons down to the b basic lc question Which of ot them won on the war In Inthe Inthe Inthe the Pacific The question secretly under debate is whether the navys navy's carrier based planes or the army's land based planes Inflicted in inflicted inflicted in- in most damage on Japan Mixed up in the question also is whether navy submarines or or army air power did most to bring Japan to her knees The two men appointed to battle out this question are re General Orvil A. A Anderson of the theair theair theair air forces and Admiral Ralph A. A of the Leyte task forces Actually however they are merely the spokesmen for their superiors What happened was that after the war with Germany a a. strategic strategic stra stra- bo bombing survey urvey headed by Franklin DOliver and a group of ot civilians traveled through Germany and reported on the damage done by U. U S. S air raids The rho report was vas not entirely pleasing to General H. H H. H Arnold then head of ot the air forces especially es es- es the section dealing with the raids on the Schweinfurt bearing ball-bearing works work where U. U S. S airmen were lost in one raid after Inflicting ineffective damage Following the European report report report re re- re- re port therefore the army and navy both took tooka a hand in the J Japanese bombing survey pushing pushing push push- ing civilians partly out of the picture Submarines No 1 weapon- weapon Civilian members of the survey staff however have privately made up their minds regarding the relative merits of the army and navy damage Inflicted on Japan and here is how they summarize the situation 1 Heaviest damage to Japan was inflicted by U. U S. S rines Though they didn't get the publicity up build-up of the B the submarines had just about shut of off all supplies for tor the main Japanese islands toward the end of the war and Japan was para para- Shortly before Japan surrendered surrendered surrendered sur sur- sur- sur rendered she lacked enough g gasoline for her planes to get getoff getoff getoff off the ground or oil for her navy avy to put out to sea 2 Next greatest damage was done by range long-range army land land- based planes n s. s 3 The he navys navy's carrier-based carrier planes were important but ranked second to the B Civilian experts who have no axes to grind for either the army or navy say a lot more air damage damage damage dam dam- age could have been done if there hadn't been personal Jealousy between General MacArthur and General Arnold They explain that this was why Arnold did not place th the air force under MacArthur but under the joint chiefs of staff Based Baaed on China this unit had as its target the main Japanese Japanese Japa Japa- nese nose Islands But since it re required required required re- re three flights of gasoline over the Himalaya hump to fuel one plane flight to Japan the bombing raids from China to Japan were Ineffective compared compared com corn pared with th the less les spectacular work of at the air force under General C Chennault h hen C fl n 11 a u 1 t which bombed shipping off oll the China coast Conclusion of ot civilian bombing experts is that if the air force had bombed Jap shipping instead of taking gasoline away fro from m Chennault's air force which was vas supplementing U. U S. S submarines submarine the war might have been bee won quicker It was not until the B were based on the Marianas experts ex ex- pe ts report that range long-range land-based land planes did much damage damage damage dam dam- age to Japan Best bureaucrats exit Two recent resignations of ot two top officials illustrate how difficult it Is to get good men to remain in government on current sal sal- aries They are Harold Smith budget director and Ganson Purcell Pursell securities and exchange commission chairman Both were among the best bureaucrats In government both had devoted years to public service service ice both resigned because they could not afford to raise families on government salaries Smith a Republican from Kansas was brought to Washington Wash Wash- ington iby Justice Frank Murphy when he became attorney gen gen- eral Smith tried to eke out hi his government salary by running a farm in near-by near Virginia Week ends he worked day and night on his farm ran his tractor tractor tractor trac trac- tor until midnight got up at 4 a. a m. m subsequently suffered aheart a aheart aheart heart attack For a time Mrs Smith also took a job on the federal federal federal fed fed- eral pay roll Finally Smith gave up resigned re resigned re re- re signed from the budget bureau to take a tax-exempt tax job with the International bank at twice his federal salary Purcell began In government 16 years year ago as legi legislative counsel counsel coun coun- sel el to congress congre Gradually he worked his way up until he became one of the top career men in g Living modestly modestly modestly mod mod- estly entertaining rarely Purcell Purcell Pur- Pur cell stuck it out until last wee week when he too threw in the sponge Both men will be hard to re re- re place Copyright 1946 Bell S Syndicate |