Evening star., 1936-09-27
CONTINUED From First Page.)

States Military Academy, West Point,
N. Y: Fort Leavenworth, Kans.;
Edgewood Arsenal and Aberdeen
Proving Ground. Md.
Most Of the G. H. @. Air Force sub
ordinate headquarters have been re-
organized and redesignated; nine base
headquarters and their squadrons
have been constituted, chiefly from
discontinued station compliments and
other entirely new organizations have
been created, such as the two new
staff squadrons at Boiling Field.
Seven squadrons in various parts Of
the country. among them the 14th
Bombardment at Boiling Field. have
been assigned to the G. H. @. Air
Force or to Corps Areas and made in
active for the present.
In a critique of recently concluded
field maneuvers, involving the various
types of Army aviation, Col. Bradley
pointed out that attack and lombard
ment form the striking aviation, with
bombardment as the chief assault
weapon. Attack aviation forms the
most potent and dangerous. weapon
against mechanical ground forces, he
said, citing as proof Of this conten-
ton the disastrous results Of an at
tack made by Spanish rebel airplanes
on q Column of 200 Communist gov
eminent trucks. He quoted a report
that the truck column had been en-
tirely destroyed by repeated air at
tacks, with bombs and machine guns.
Another effective weapon Of attack
aviation is gas. some attacks with
harmless gas substitutes during the
course of the recent maneuvers in
this country having produced from 80
70 100 per cent casualties" on their
targets.
Pursuit Aviation.
Pursuit aviation is designed and
trained to intercept and destroy hos
tile aircraft in flight, the acting chief
of staff of the G. H. @. Air Force ex-
planned.
In recent months" he said, new
pursuit tactics have been devised
whereby the fire of many pursuit air
planes can be concentrated at one
time on the target, instead of placing
reliance entirely on the World War
tactics Of successive diving attacks.
However, the problem of intercep.
tion of the enemy will always be
present to plague pursuit, and think
st is not unfair to say that any inter-
ception of an enemy bombardment OF
attack formation without the assist
ance of a ground intelligence net is
pure luck. At night. in my opinion
40 interception can be depended upon
And now for bombardment. ]
have purposely left this to the last
because we Of the Air Corps feel that
its present capacity and future devel-
opment are such that it is destined
to play a major part in any war. In
these maneuvers, the participation oi
bombardment was more to show it
capabilities than to assess results
This was necessarily the case because
the limitations Of time and space die
not permit the maneuver to be sc
drawn as to afford even partial scope
to the employment Of bombardment
aviation.
Although We do not like to put II
% hluntly, the wartime mission o!
the soldier is to destroy. We train
during the years Of peace to destroy
our enemy In war-to destroy hi.
soldiers, his property, his will to attack
us. Our national policy Is one o
defense. Our geographical situation
with friendly neighbors north anc
south and vas. oceans to east and
west, is such that an enemy mus
cross those oceans in tremendous force
to impose his will upon us.
Powerful Defense Agency.
Although bombardment aviation ir
Europe may be an instrument o,
aggression, with us it is a powerful
agency of defense Bombardment
aviation can destroy nearly anything
built by man. It can destroy ship.
easily and an enemy must come tx
Us in ships.
TO indicate briefly the power o,
modern bombardment, let me cite &
few figures: