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Show Russians Prepare to Strike 1 From Skies in Event of War ISIterl Note; Webb Miller, aee lerelga eerreepeaSeat. has aude s tear ef Kureee stwSvlae Ike aeiieai' wer aucblaee. Teesy'e article kf iae tear Ik in a aeries ef aaeeascree Sissetrkes. By WEBB MILLER " (Copyright, 1837, by United Press) LONDON, March 39 Tha soviet air force, introducing a spectacular spec-tacular and daring clement into Europe's war preparations, is experimenting ex-perimenting successfully today with equipment to land soldiers, machine guns, light artillery and even tanks behind an enemy's line by parachutes. In event of war the soviet filers would strive to drop thousands ef saldlsrs book of the front where they could seise or at Wast harass strategic points on the enemy's lines of transport aad communications such as brldgaa, railroads or mountain moun-tain paaaea. The Soviets far surpass ether powers pow-ers ia their development of wholesale whole-sale parachute lumping and la easily novel experimenta in the use of gliders. Only Italy has begun seriously ta copy these Innovations la military technique and strategy. Test Needed I found on my flying trip to the soviet capital that military authorities authori-ties differ In their opinions aa to ths probable practical efficiency of the proposed aerial binding parties In actual combat But foreign military mili-tary observers agree thta they present pre-sent a factor that must be reckoned reck-oned with until and unless wartime war-time experience proves otherwise. In war games tha soviet aviators and parachutara have accomplished remarkable feats. Ia one instance. Mikhail Tukachsvsky, vies com- 1 m laser of defenss, declared the Soviets had "several tens of thousands" thou-sands" of fully trained parachutsrs who could be used In auch surprise attacks. Foreigners here place ths number at more than 10,000, Tank landed In other experimenta the Soviets have successfully landed a small tank from a bomber and had It running within a few minutes. Ths tank waa fastened underneath the airplane by steel clasps. In their development of gliders, whose value also is untested In war, the Soviets ars working oa ths theory that numbers of the inexpensive inex-pensive aad allent craft could ba towed close te enemy Unaa at night and then cut loose. Guided by skilful skil-ful ope rat ore. it ia behaved the gliders glid-ers could soar unseen over the lines, giving observe re a chance to a pot the enemy positions and return te their own lines, Or they might be used to land splae at night behind the enemy llnea, , Gliders might be loaded with ex- 1200 men were flown 100 miles and dropped by parachute, all of them landing within a few minutes. The men carried machine guns and reserve re-serve ammunition was dropped te them by s. pa rats parachutes. Within With-in tea mlnutss ths men assembled and established outposts around ths field to protect ths landing of SO00 additional men, who with additional machine guns arrived In troop-carrying troop-carrying alrplanee withla aa hour. Such a contingent dropped from ths skies behind aa enemy's lines In Urns of wsr, would be a formidable formid-able striking fores. A report a year ago by Marshal plosives, which eoukf be durapea on enemy positions with greater accu. racy than bombs, because ths gliders glid-ers theoretically would bo able to come close to the ground without being discovered. Pilots of gliders In such exploits undoubtedly would be killed In the explosion, but volunteers vol-unteers always are ready to undertake under-take auch haaardoua ventures. In the experimenta, gliders have carried car-ried loads up to a ton and a half. It Is eetlmated that 10.000 men have been trained la the cperatloa of gliders, which ars used for preliminary pre-liminary air training aad for sports, Mae b Secret While tbe slxs of Russis's air force Is secret, production of military mili-tary airplanes and equipment undoubtedly un-doubtedly has been increasing ata lively pace. General efficiency of Russian aviation Is proved by ths world records set In reaching aa altitude of al.7l feat with a load of 1100 pounds and a height of only 18 feet less with a 1300-pound load. Aa for aviation personnel, a re-osnt re-osnt official announcement stated ths foal waa to train 1(10,000 pilots. While ths Soviets until lately have eonoentrated on building up their air and land forces, they sow ars devoting much attention also to building up a defensive army. Ths most definite hint so far aa to the extent of naval construction was a recent newspaper article by Romuald A. Muklevltch, vice cam-missar cam-missar of defense Industry, which aaid that the Soviets "in .ths last few years have provided several hundred Snodsra warships,". P r, servers ars convinced that hs referred re-ferred mainly to submarines and ether small craft. rsrts Bailt Aa for land defenses, Russia in ths last fsw ysara has constructed snd garrisoned a system of frontier fortifications extending from Finland Fin-land to the Black sea in ths wsst, aad another system along ths Man-ohurlaa Man-ohurlaa border In the east, Ths primary disadvantages of ths Soviet's military position are that they must take Into consideration the possibility of simultaneous warfare war-fare on the eastern and western frontiers, and that their railroads are totally inadequate' to handle large forces of men and great quantities quan-tities of supplies. Te counteract that situation, they have created -five different armlee. each backed up by a self-sufficient Industrial ortanUaUoo, j |