The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-03-27

AS Secretary of War, Harry is
opposed to the sale. He even goes
considerably further. At dinner
party he told Kansas friends that
he feared the President was edging
the country into the European
mess, and that he, Woodring,
might have to resign in protest.
Roosevelt, on the other hand,
favors selling the Allies the lat
est mode U. s. airplaneS, and SELL
ing them as quickly as possible.
Assistant Secretary of War john
son feels the same way and so
does Secretary Of Navy Edison, son
Of the famed inventor. He says
that no invention remains secret
long, and the French and British
might as well help us perfect them.
One secret airp1ane type which
the Allies want to buy is the
P-46, q new pursuit plane in
which the United States lifted
cerain ideas from, the Germans,
particularly a tw0-foot lower
fuselage which cuts down wind
resistance.
Roosevelt and johnson feel that
if we took this idea from the
Germans, there is no reason why
the British can't do che same (ex-
cept for the time element, and
that we can perfect better planes
by building for the French and
British.
Another new plane which the
Allies are eying GENEROUSLY Is
the P-38, LOckheed pursuit
plane with twin Allison motor.
In this case, the Germans took
over ideas from us. They built
two similar types, the Messer-
schmidt liz, which w. fall
ure, and the Messerschmidt Ill,
which is excellent and makes
389 miles per hour using
super-charger.
Meanwhile the Lockheed P-38
makes 381 miles per hour without
using a supercharger, which when
attached adds about 50 miles of
speed.
At present, the plane itself is
not secret, but the Supercharger
is. If the British buy the plane
alone they get a ship which goes
eight miles slower than the new
German Messerschmidr. But If
they can buy the secret super
charger, the speed will be about
30 miles faster than the Germans.
So some high-placed Army men
believe the supercharger should
be sold to them.
BRITISH FAILURE
Allied censors have tried to
suppress 1t, but British aviation
has fallen far short of expecta-
lions. The raid over Sylt was
miserable failure, most of the
bombs hitting only the sand.
Also the British were caught
completely mapping when the
Nazs raided Scapa Flow. British
anti-aircraft guns were late in
getting into action. while British
pursuit planes did not get into
the air until the Germans had
started home. Showing how short
handed they were on anti-aircraft
guns, after the raid, the Bril-
fish actually borrowed Is Of these
guns from Belgium.
Real fact is that what the
Allies need most are the U. s.
pIane detector, secret bomb
sight, and anti-aircraft gum
sight. The British have de-
yeioped nothing comparable to.
the u. s.. airplane detect0r,
which Is why the German
planes took Sacpa Flow by sur
prise.
It was obvious also from the
poor bombing craftsmanship over
the German island of Sylt that
the British have no bomb-sight
which comes anywhere near the
American.
NOTE-The Allies have not
asked for the release of these
three important u. s. military and
naval inventions.
SIGHTSEER STOKOWsKI
Orchestra leader Leopold Sto-
kowski's famous vacation on the
Isle Of Capri with Greta Carlo
was the subject Of quite aeon
troyersy at one OF the closed
door meetings of the House Ap-
preparations Committee.
Rep. John Taber, strait-laced
upstate New Yorker, brought It up
while the National Youth Admin
istration budget was under consid-
Grafton. Stokowski is organizing
an orchestra Of NYA students for