Evening star., 1939-09-17
Action in Poland
Gives U. 5. Insight
Into Aviation Needs
Germans Air Mastery
Makes Attack Eosy
For Ground Forces
By COL. FREDERICK PALMER.

BY COL. FREDERICK PALMER.
We have lessons from Poland
about air power which are Of vital
interest to our own country. There
is confirmation of the way sea dis
tances set a present limitation on
raids on our coast, to be considered
along with the helplessness of an
army with an air force pitifully
unequal to the enemy's. Aircraft
alone cannot win a war, but it is a
mighty and indispensable adjunct
to the other principal weapons.
Mastery of the air is an invalu-
able servant of victory. The Ger
mans had it over the Poles in what
appears practically the license of
free hand. Apparently the Poles
had no adequate anti-aircraft de-
fense for their air fields, which are
the first points to defend if any
power in the air is not to be sac
rificed. At least the Polish de-
lCllSC was lllSIllllIlCll0 dSdh1oO CllC
concentration of German bombers.
Resources Also Destroyed.
There were many pre-War eSti-
mates, accompanied by much spec
ulation, as to the amount of vast
age in planes in continuing major
combat operations. These forecasts
have ranged from Is to 100 per cent
a month which must be renewed to
keep an air force up to the strength
at the outset of the war. 1t is
quite possible that the Poles vast
age may have been close to 100
per cent in two weeks, with the very
resources of replacement also de-
stroyed.
Meanwhile, it is very much worth
noting that-owing to the German
air superiority, certainly five to one,
and more likely nearer ten to one
the German Wastage must have been
light. The Poles not only were un-
able to counters attack, but their
guard was down, wide open to the
German air force.
The German staff was in the same
happy position that general in the
days before motorization would have
been in if his cavalry scouts might
have had tourist privilege to move
freely about the enemy army, map
ping its positions, counting its num-
bers, with access to Its plans, and
return with all this in their saddle
bags With Polish reconnaissance
planes out of commission, the Ger
mans had a shield to conceal their
own movements. German recon-
naissance planes could fly low over
Polish troops movements, radioing
back their exact positions and where
to attack them.
Imp0tent as TribeSmen.
German bomberS could fly low un-
molested to bomb troop masses, am
munition dumps and soldiers and la
borers at work repairing bridges
again ruptured under their feet.
And very much worth noting are the
reports that German planes flew so
low they could machine gun f1us-
tered, retreating troops in close or
der who had no mobile anti-aircraft
guns or pursuit planes at their serv-
ice. Right and left, back and forth,
the people and disorganized troops
must have been driven by the roar
of the planes and the shifting thun-
derbolts from on high. They were
in the position of tribesmen armed
with spears against Kitchener's new
machine guns, or an Oriental mob
of old when my lords scythed
chariot swept through on punitive
and disciplinary excursion.
But the so-called military miracle
of the swift German campaign in
Poland with the aid of modern mo-
torization would not be so wonder
full if tried against skillful French
Army, or PerShing's army at the
close of 1918, had it q modern air
force to match the enemy'S.
What seems convincingly proved is
that an army which has the mastery
of the air, with its own eyes free to
see and binding the enemy's eyes
and downing his pursuit planes, by
repeatedly bombing a weary army
and weary people may have an
eventual effect on public and soldier
morale out of proportion to its de-
structive power. Think what mod
ern mastery of the air would have
meant against the Germans when
the allies had them on the run in
the late summer and early fall of
1918!
U. S. Moves Too Slowly.
Surely the Anglo-French stats
had professionally discounted before
the war, without relation to preserv-
ing air equality on the Anglo
French front, the possibility of
Anglo-French air aid to Poland
across Germany when no fighting
plane so far has radius, out with
full load and back to its base, of
more than 600 miles.
This disposes for the present of
any concern about an air raid on
our coasts across the Atlantic. But
the suggestion of it did service in
helping to supply our Army
with semi automatic rifles, mortars,
tanks and other weapons it needs,
which it is gradually getting, but
not fast enough in the present
state of world affairs. II an Ameri-
can Army ever has to go into action
abroad, it must also have planes
to see, planes to pursue and bomb
ers and mobile anti aircraft guns,
unless we want our soldiers to suffer
some of the handicaps of the Poles.
(Released by the North American News
paper AllianceD