The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1917-06-28
Aeroplanes for Winning the War.

Mr. Frank A. Munsey, has written a
letter upon the above subject which is
well worth reading. 1t reads as follows:
France needs 100, 900 aeroplanes from
us far more than she needs our soldiers at
the present time. She also needs our en-
gineers, our artisans our captains of in
dustry, far more than her immediate need
of our army. Indeed, France and England
are not now suffering from a shortage of
men on the battle front. In both England
and and France the pinch for men in the
industries, in the munition shops, in aero
planes factories, in shipyards, in engin-
eeTing fields is much greater than on the
battle front.
This is the situation today; a year from
today it may be entirely different. Then
our men may be needed to strengthen the
decimated and worn forces of France and
England.
But the men in the trenches and the
big guns back of them cannot alone WIN
this war. After finding herself forced to
the defensive by the Allies on the west
ern front, Germany turned to the subma-
rine, stalking her hopes of triumph on it.
Meanwhile, the aeroplane has come to be
a greater factor in the war than the sub
marine.
The submarine, our own devilish Gre
alton, will be and must be neutralized and
eliminated by America. And with 100, 900
aeroplanes added within the next II
months to the British and French squad
Tons of aircraft, we can crush another of
our inventions now doing deadly work in
the hands of the enemy.
France and England combined have in
operation on the western front approxi-
mately 1000 aeroplanes. Back of the lines
they have In reserve and ready for the
front, and also for training purposes,
three machines to every two On the front.
The best adviceS are that Germany's
numerical strength in aeroplanes is just
about equal to that of France and Eng
land combined, and some reports indicate
that Germany has so far improved her
machines that they are again superior to
those of the Allies.
In the early part of the war Germany
was immeasurably stronger in aeroplanes
than France and England. Gradually
the latter SO improved this branch of
their service that their aircraft were
superior to those of the Germans. Late
ly the Germans have applied themselves
with redoubled force to the production
of aeroplanes and their higher develop
ment in speed and other respects.
The average life of an aeroplane on the
front is about two months. This would
mean mortality on the western front
alone, in English and French aircraft, of
"a, 600 machines in a year. Of course
not all this mortality is due to destruc-
ton by the enemy 1t comes from many
causes, breakage, wear and tear, imper-
fections in material, and from the loss
due to the natural hazards of aviation.
have not been able to learn the meas
ure of loss to the aeroplanes back of the
lines, those used for training, but it must
be large, especially as they are operated
by green men. If this back-of-the-lines
mortality were to aggregate, say, 5000
machines year, the total mortality on
the present scale of aerial operations
would be $1,000 machines.
While England and France are steadily
increasing their output, they are not in
creasing faster than Germany, so if they
are to become strong enough to gain con-
troll OF the air, to subdue or destroy the
enemy fleet, the Allies must have min
imum of three machines, and better,
five, to every German aeropIane.
SO, if America were to add, within the
next II months, 100000 aeroplanes to the
pIoduCIlon OF England ana france, Lney
would be equipped to wipe out the Ger
man air squadrons, without which Ger
many couldn't hold her own in the
trenches.
And this is something that America
can do within the next year for the west
ern front. We have the genius for or
ganization, we have the trained artisans
in our automobile factories and machine
shops, and if the Government were to GO
at the job with a will, communicating all
these resources, human and otherwise,
necessary to the production of 100000
machines within the next IL months
they could De built and delivered