| OCR Text |
Show Axis Nations Face to Face With Strong U.S. Air Power America's Theoretical Aerial Strength Translated Into Actuality; Japanese Revise Three Major Campaigns. - By BAUKIIAGE Views Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1343 H Street, N-W, Washington, D. C. As this is written Washington is discussing a pitched battle in the Solomons Sol-omons and the beginning of a sharp rise In American air activity over Europe. Exciting stories are coming com-ing in from all quarters of the globe about the achievements of our pilots and our planes but few civilians realize the significance of these separate sep-arate exploits. The enemy does. And in the opinion of air force officials In Washington the Axis partners have at last been brought face to face with the fact that America is In the war, that the theoretical striking strik-ing power of the United States has been translated into a practical impact im-pact of American strength which is now being felt on every front. Since the smashing victory of Midway, Mid-way, the Japanese have been forced to change their whole campaigns in three different sectors: in the Aleutians, Aleu-tians, in New Guinea, in the Solomons. Solo-mons. And, as Rommel girds for another attack in Egypt, it is conceded that what might have been a victory in the drive on Alexandria was turned to defeat in a not unimportant measure meas-ure by American bombers and fighters. fight-ers. And lastly, with the great raid on Lille early this month, the Germans found themselves faced with the prospect of terrific destruction ol their cities or the revision of their whole program of air defense. From the beginning, the Germans knew that America had the men, the money, the resources to build the most powerful war machine in the world. But they never thought the parts of that machine could be assembled in time. Now as we approach ap-proach the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, we are still unable to furnish fur-nish our Allies with the men and material required to make any single sin-gle front, of the many we are feeding, feed-ing, strong enough for an offensive in which there is combined action, air, land and sea. But in one arm we have developed the beginning of superiority and for the first time we are emerging on many fronts as the growing giant of the air. This is now possible because we have been able to do three things: provide a terrific engine of precision preci-sion destruction in our mammoth bombers; provide those bombers with such fire-power that it makes up for their lack of maneuverability and thus offers in a single unit the ability to carry out precision bombing bomb-ing of individual targets and at the same time the ability to fight off the enemy defense in the air, a combination com-bination perfected for the first time in this war. A Comparison To reduce this achievement to lay terms: Heretofore the big bomber which could drop tons of destruction destruc-tion on the earth below, was so cumbersome in the air that it was a prey to fast moving acrobatic fighter fight-er planes. Like the buffalo which could be pulled down by a herd of agile wolves. Now, because of the terrific effectiveness of the guns our bombers carry, those fighters cannot can-not get near enough to them to damage dam-age them. The wolf pack is cut to pieces before its fangs can seize the monster. In addition to giving our heavy ships their own protection we have built pursuit planes the agile wolves which are sinewed with some of the might of their bigger brothers. Our pursuit planes are able to carry bombs, too, and perform some of the functions of the dive bomber with the added advantage of maneuverability. With this equipment we have been able to make the Japanese hold on the Aleutians untenable. We have already dislodged two footholds (At-tu (At-tu and Agattu islands, and will probably prob-ably force the Japs out of the third, Kiska, before the winter sets in. That is one radical change of plan which the Japanese did not anticipate antici-pate we could bring about In the southwest Pacific there has been wrought another change of plan. In conjunction with Australian Austra-lian fliers, American forces have completely broken one offensive, the one directed at Port Moresby, by smashing enemy bases and supply lines and forcing the Japs, who after incredible hardships had crossed the towering Owen Stanley ridge, to take to their heels and flee. And in Europe we have definitely affected the tide of battle on three fronts. In Russia, vicariously it is true, because we have sent no pilots there. But American planes played a vital part in harassing the Nazi advance. In Egypt, the British, according to dispatches, credit American fliers with a large part of the achievement of breaking down General Rommel's advance into Egypt. Attack on Rommel There our heavy bombers helped to render Rommel's supply ports of Tobruk and Benghazi virtually useless. use-less. Against Nazi ground forces our planes, notably the Airacobra, acting as a shallow dive bomber and also as a strafer, played a vital part in smashing the Axis supply lines. But it was and is and will be American bomber wings over Germany Ger-many itself that cast the most alarming shadow across the Reich. The Lille raid brought home the fact that Germany must now face American might. In that raid 112 American bombers, bomb-ers, besides carrying out their mission mis-sion of precision daytime bombing, were able to bring down 115 of the 120 Nazi fighter planes that were destroy edA Germany must rebuild her planes to match ours, or suffer an incredible incredi-ble handicap. And so we see the faith in air power and American invention justified. justi-fied. This, however, does not mean victory. It means merely the preparation. prep-aration. Smoking ruins are a triumph tri-umph but possession is nine points of victory. No land is conquered until a human being stands upon it, his feet firmly planted, his position secure.. And that means, in the last analysis, man power, not air power. That is the next step. Aircraft Carrier Fleet Spearhead The aircraft carrier, says Rear Admiral Carl Sherman, naval hero of World War I, and commander of the Lexington, is "the spearhead of the fleet, the backbone of .the navy, the slugger in offensive and defensive warfare." Theadmiral may be a bit preju-diced.'of preju-diced.'of course, but after you have read "Queen of the Flat Tops," which is the story of the Lexington's epic adventures, you may agree with him. Lest I be carried away with my own enthusiasm, I asked a lover of the sea what he thought about it. He pored over my copy and refused to return it. So I am going to quote his words. "This is a fine book," he told me after he had read it "The author, Stanley Johnston, sums up my opinion. opin-ion. He says that the 'flat-top' Lexington Lex-ington ushered in a new era in naval warfare which will rank . with the battle of the Monitor and the Merri-mac Merri-mac in the Civil war. And he makes you believe it." Johnston was in the highly enviable envia-ble position of being the only reporter re-porter on board, and now has given the world a first-hand picture of the terrifically important last cruise of this converted battle cruiser, right up to the time she was sent to the bottom by American torpedoes after aft-er withstanding Jap "tin fish" and direct bomb hits. Johnston saw it all from the "Lex," as she was affectionately known. All of our new group of naval air heroes appear as modest young run-of-mine men, in Johnston's record. He was struck by the complete lack of heroics, as he was struck during every action and particularly during dur-ing the last terrible hours aboard the carrier, with the complete lack of confusion and the outstanding bravery brav-ery of all aboard, even when the gallant ship was a blazing inferno. This is all the more remarkable when it is known that a great many of the ship's complement were making mak-ing their first trip to sea. No naval or military man is going to miss reading and studying this volume, and no civilian ought to who has any interest in the methods of modern mod-ern sea battling. |
