The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-02-18

Key to Nazl-FasciSt supremacy today is airplanes. Submarines also are important, but not to the same extent as the power of the Italian air armada.
 At present, Germany has more than 10000 planes, of which 6,0O0 are first-line fighting machines. Italy has around 5000. However, France and Great Britain, which once produced airplanes at a snail's pace, are catching up. This is what makes for the showdown.
 British airplane production is now Up to 220 planes per month while French production is around 65. This is small potatoes com- pared with the Nazi output of 750 planes per month, but the French and British have both the cash and the raw materials, and can stand the strain of the longer race.
 The Nazis and Fascists, on the other hand, cannot. They are way ahead now, and their best strategy is to demand what they want while the demanding is good.
 STARvE THE BRITISH
 When Hitler and Mussolini make their demands they can, if those demands are not met, do two things which should come near putting the French and British out of business:
 1. They can cripple, if not de- stroy London and Paris. The Ger mans have worked out a bombing
 formula of 30 per cent high ex-
 plosiye bombs to destroy build-
 ings, IS per cent incendiary
 bombs to set fire to buildings,
 and 5 per cent gas bombs to
 keep fire departments away. This should be enough to destroy
 Franco-B British airdomes, rail-
 road stations, munitions works,
 shipyards-the key spots in any war-and 1t might wipe out Lon-
 don and Paris.
 2. They can completely iso..
 late and starve out Great Bri-
 tain.
 Most people don't realize 1t, but the British are in far worse shape today than in 1916 when it comes to submarine warfare. The Ger mans had 60 submarines during the World War, and even with this small number they wroguht such damage on British shipping that at one time the United Kingdom had only six weeks food supply on hand.
 Today, Germany and Italy nave 200 submarines between them, plus the capacity to build now ones at record speed. Germany has developed new type of 3O0- i, to 600-ton submarine, requiring a crew of only eoght men, and capable of, cruising to the Irish coast and back. The Nazis plan to send these into British waters almost like schools of fish. ex- pecting many never to return, with deadly damage to British shipping.
 HELPLESS BRITISH SHIFTING EuItucItlukCs bttC hA PidklC WdD not fully developed during the World War. Today it is relatively simple for planes to fly 1000 miles offshore, bomb a merchant ship and return.
 Net effect is that British ship ping will take terrific punish- ment in the Atlantic and will have to abandon the Mediter- ranean altogether. Mussolini has 60 fortified his islands along the coast of Africa and in the Red Sea that the Admiralty already has planned to send British shipping the long way afound Africa to reach India and Australia.
 Even 0ibralta. symbol of Empire strength, is rendered impotent today by Italian bases in the Bal- earle Isles. plus the big guns hide den by Franco in the Spanish mountains behind the Rock. plus the certainty that the Nazis will take Ceuta. across the straits in Spanish Morocco.
 GERMAN IN ALPS
 Preparing for the showdown this Spring. Hitler already has sent