Evening star., 1925-09-16

Col then Brig. GEM William
Mitchell had a chance to demonstrate
in actual warfare the value of an Tin
dependent air service" and according
to official evidence failed to get ava,
with 1t. The occasion was the Meuse
Argonne battle, which began sever
years ago this week. 1t was thus de
-scribed by Mai. Gen. Hugh A. Drum
Pershing's chief OF staff in that Al
day campaign, before the House air
craft investigating committee las
February:
"In the midst of the Meuse- Ar
goIlne battle Gen. Mitchell was per-
mitted to take practically all of his
planes, approximately $50, into the
air at one time in a large air
armada. to go oven and beyond
the ground battlefield. and to
lombard the enemy's airdromes to
the rear. This plan was based on
the theory that when they were
bombarded the enemy's planes
would be forced into the air and
then be destroyed by this armada.
Nothing of the sort occurred. In
stead, while Gen. Mitchell's armada
was in the air. and passed over the
battlefield and beyond US. a corps
chief of staff called me on the
puOllc anu ocAo. ilOtiNS SooA oAS
parade in the air. 1t is very fine,
but have message asking me to
get planes down on our lines, be-
cause the German airplaneS are
machine cunning our ground troops,
and we have no protection from
them. In other words, the Ger
man air forces penetrated to loca-
tions above the ground back of our
front line. and did not stop haras-
sing our ground troops until our
planes came back and drove them
on"
Gen. Drum asserted that events lik'
those Showed conclusively that in
dependence Of the Air Service wa.
found not to work-that it's most eff
fective use was bringing 1t up ant
operating with the ground forces
Drum related another episode in sup
port of that theory:
1.-The American Army began on
November /, 1918, an attack which
broke through the German lines
and penetrated to the outskirts of
Sedan-one of the decisive engage
ments Of the final state of the war.
We knew that in a certain woods
was German artillery, which was
the mainstay Of their defense at
that time. From the beginning
of our attack we had our air forces
constantly bombing, those woods.
Finally the 5h Corps, with the I'd
and seth Divisions, pressed for
ward and broke through the Ger
man lines. BY evening they had
captured those woods and driven
the Germans out. We found
large amount of German artillery
which had been concealed. There
Is no doubt that the bombing by
our airplanes Of those woods caused
the Germans to abandon their
guns. Thus, two actual situations
in the greatest battle that Amer
lea has ever been engaged in show
conclusively, to our mind, the field
of action for the Air Service. They
prove that it is an arm of the
Army that must tie into the team
of the other arms in order that the
ground man, as he always will,
may win the decision"
X
There was a characteristic example
of the Coolidge way of doing busines.
in connection with the appointment
of the Air Service board of inquiry
An hour or two before the President
announced the personal of the board
he was in protracted conference with
Howard E. Coffin, president Of tn,
National Air Transport, Inc, with
reference to the carrying of the mails
Although Mr.. Cofdn's name was ox