| Show allied supremacy Sup remay in air result of african lesson borrowed page from germanys germanas Germ anys book taught Us to coordinate efforts of air land and sea forces by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator service union trust Build tar washington D 0 J early tn in the war with japan when the little men of nippon were swarming down t the he Mayl ayan peninsula at an unbelievable rate through impossible terrain end and rou roll shing ing uvone up one inconceivable victory waiter palter another 11 I 1 had a talk with a wise old military campaigner and a ai a result of the conversation sat do down and wrote that infiltration I 1 Is a word you are going to hear wed used a lot before this war la Is over then followed the days when the japs aps pushed the allies back from singapore to new guinea and the men of nippon were acclaimed as the aces of jungle fighting the art of filtering through ter territory in which heretofore human beings were not a supposed u to be able to fight today the aules allies have produced the best J jungle un gle fighters in the world we are dally daily beating the japs at their 0 own wn game and today iwas I 1 was reminded of something else after another session with another anonymous old timer of another urne time and place he told me some things about the tilled allied air f force 0 ace and I 1 recalled the days when hitler began to bully europe and I 1 realized that it in 10 much appeasement corruption deceit or nazi diplomacy th then enthat that made the fuehrer master of central europe first at munich munch and tater later in france and the low tand countries but the threatening chadow which the dreaded east t across the world today just as the allies have out P the japs they have out the in the latter c case a se we must admit the germans taught us in africa how they did it warfare we ve will be able to understand the invasion of europe much better if we understand a little more about the two roles which the allied air torce force has played in modern warfare ever since we took a page from germanys germanas Germ anys book and learned what it means to co coordinate 0 the efforts of hot and bombardier with the toot foot bidler and the sailor especially in what is now generally called 1 phi bious warfare first it might be well to state clearly the difference between the tactical and strategic bombing stra legac bombing Is directed toward the destruction of enemy strength at distance tactical bombing is de it ruction 0 n or interruption of enemy 0 operations in or near th the a combs combat I 1 area because the valuable quality of air power Is flexibility the two rotes roles sometimes overlap but in general the strategic effort to Is a long range effort in terms of both time and space apace at it requires the use of long range bombers and long range use fighters T tactical bombing Is the quick answer to instant needs it involves lighter bombers and usually does not require long range tor for its craft there wen Is an exception which tu ill mention later S strategic trat egle bombing Is aimed as we have seen at factories at all installations stal lations which contribute to the war effort railway lines junctures military bases rolling stock and oil all means of transportation and communication the targets in tactical bombing are more varied and will be mentioned later the final phase we are interested at present in the final phase of the european war so it might be well to describe the preliminary efforts before and the continued effort after the assault on an enemy shore the sicilian campaign Is a good example the first job the air force had aiwas was to remove an obstacle en route that obstacle was the island of pan tel lerla and you remember what happened bapp ened to it it was flattened battened into surrender in two days then the real effort b began egan it followed a pattern which it is pretty much the one accepted tor for invasions since the first ant step is the neutralization I 1 y P ot of the enemy air force and this Is a job nobody but an air force can do this means destruction the of air bromes and I 1 other distant vital areas later providing fighter coverage for or the beaches and for or shipping the germans had a thousand planes based on or near sicily thirty one of the airdromes aird romes had been attacked in the preliminary phase tor for a month rail communications were bombed in order to isolate sicily as nearly kearly as possible the second in the list of the bombers bombera functions messina was a chief target to for r it was a convenient tell rail bottleneck also the principal tell rail lines running down the boot of italy were hit telephone exchanges and stations where radar sets were located were hit bit this Is another thing the germans mans a taught us in their invasion of poland and it explains what seemed to be some of the sen senseless seles a bombings in 95 of the little poll polish ab villages il lages radar and telephone exchanges were often set up in these villages they were located by radio detection in sicily itself the enemy bases had bad been so thoroughly des destroyed ed that the germans get t enough nou h of their planes in the air to inter herewith fere ere with the landings also the second and third functions of the tactical tact icil air force were well carried out namely the isolation of the enemy forces from their supplies and also interruption of movement of reinforcements the fourth function of the tactical bombers which is to break down the signal communications I 1 referred to before destruction of telephone and radio installations ground troop support the fifth is 13 the close support of the ground troops this was achieved in sicily with more success than was fully realized at the time some commanders of the landing troops complained that there were no fighter planes over them later some of these same c commanders 0 m when they advanced and saw the wrecked armored cars tanks and other equipment strewn along the roads realized that the enemy bid bad been held back by the attacks from the air la in sicily meanwhile troops were dropped behind the lines and this contributed its share to the success bucce as of the invasion we know how well airborne troops have operated in the pacific theater and in burma this job Is listed as sixth in air forces tactical operations and includes carrying of paratroopers running a 8 shuttle huttle of trafis transports ports and towing gliders which land personnel and equipment the glider pilot fights with the tee land forces since he cant glide uphill we now come to the last two functions of an air force less dramatic but out highly important reconnaissance and the building of air bases in in the sicilian campaign a million photographs a month were made so that the commander of each each lending landing unit had pictures of 1 every place he be had bad to go to with his Us objectives plainly m marked a irked we k know now of the record time in which bases have been destroyed captured and reactivated in the pacific theater of war in new guinea a base w was a taken built manned and put into complete operation a hundred miles from the nearest t allied base and well behind the enemy lines thus we see the scope of air force orce operations how closely they are knit into the operations of the land and sea forces and how bow the allies have achieved air supremacy in europe but because air forces are so elastic they can be massed suddenly and therefore actual command of the air is much harder to maintain at a given moment the germans who certainly do not have air supremacy any longer might be able by heavy concentration and great sacrifice to achieve temporary command of the air in a given locality the allies did have command of the air in italy otherwise the beachhead at anzio could never have been maintained As it was supplies and reinforcements could be landed in broad daylight on the german side no concentration of men oi or supplies could be attempted except at night the shadow of the has grown thin the weapon hitler created to enslave the world has turned in his hand BRIEFS B R I 1 E F S by baukhage at the japanese domel agency rep ports that all members la in a toldo government ment bureau are now clipping each others other hair instead of patronizing the barber shops hops c the chinese government has on an bounced a ban on sending students abroad tor for study because china wan vill need all her manpower to attain victory 4 twenty five to thirty five million pounds ot of pork and 40 per cent ol of beet beef are currently being set aside each week for our armed forces oh where it til tal 1 L all drivers using th their e ir ca cars foi occupational driving and 1 all small delivery trucks are now el eligible i toi for new passenger tires according to the OPA |
