Evening star., 1940-05-25
Fast Nazi Progress
Laid 10 Inactivity
OF Allied Airmen
Little Effort Made to
Bomb Troops or Roads,
Lochner Declares
BY LOUIS p. LOCHNER,

Associated Press War Correspondent.
AACHEN, GERMANY CAT THE
BORDER NEAR THE 'FRONT.',
May 25.-During six days with the
German Army in the war zone I
have witnessed probably the great
est massing Of troops in history, car
ried QUITO the expressed amaze
ment Of the Germans-with almost
no interference from the enemy air
force, as far as foreign correspond
ents could see.
Every German officer will tell you
that the Nazi arny's fast progress
was made possible only by perfect
cooperation of the air force. I
wondered where the similar Coop
Grafton by the Allied air force was,
but I found no answer.
(The British Air Ministry yes
terday said $500 German planes
had been destroyed in the two
weeks since the invasion of the
Low Countries and reported
continued assaults on the enemy
communications and troops.)
Great Questions Raised.
Our six days in the operations
zone left great questions.
Why, throughout this time, did
we never, see an Allied plane during
the daytime?
Why were single bombers that we
heard but never saw in the early
hours of Friday and an air raid
on Aachen last Wednesday morning
the only evidences to us of the ex-
istence of the Allied airplane fleet?
During my stay on the front I
Travelled about 1900 miles and went
up and down more than 100 main
roads. ALI were jammed.
Imagine the confusion among
horses alone, not to speak of men,
which one bomber attack on such
a street would have caused!
We kept straining our eyes for
Allied planes and saw none.
Staff officers told us that Ger
man scouting planes located every
enemy contingent These scouters
knew who was who in each ap-
preaching column.
They also knew where bridges
which had to be crossed were with
out trees offering shelter or where
else they were especially vulnerable
German Officers Puzzled.
With this knowledge the German
air force appeared so supreme that
attack on the massed roads by the
Allies seemed inadvisable. But we
wondered why at least no effort was
made to drop bombs on strategic
bridges or military highways.
Not only as distinterested by
stander was puzzled, but German
officers implied they could not un-
derstand it.
Gen. Georg Won Kuechlen, COM
mander in chief of the German
Army in the Antwerp sector, and
Gen. Walther Won Reichenau, COM
manding the army pushing toward
the French ports opposite England,
were amazed at the absence of air
activity.
Allied air activity also seemed
missing at the battlefront, although
I can give only one personal i'm
preston.
AS we watched the struggle for
possession of the Scheldt Canal near
Tournai from the heights of Renaix,
we clearly saw German scouting
planes.
Officers accompanying us ex-
planned that these planes aided the
artillery by wirelessing their obser-
vation. We saw no Allied scouters.
German officers professed to be
puzzled by seeming lack of cooper
alton between the Allied air force
and the Allied armies and by what
they called aimless dropping of
bombs at night on Western German
cities.
German officers assured me that
they were keeping exact tabs on
these bombings, all of which they
claimed hit civilians and non-mil-
itary objects.