Evening star., 1940-06-06
BY EVE CURIE.

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BY EVE CURIE.
PARIS, June 6-I am just back
from 1,000-mile drive in the army
zone. I started two days after King
Leopold's treason at the most des-
perate moment of this terrible week,
at the moment when every man and
woman, every soldier could feel that
too much evil, brutal strength and
bad luck was accumulating against
the Allies. On purpose, had asked
to go and see those French soldiers
who, among all others. would have
been entitled to be particularly dis
tressed-the pilots of our air force
Why hide a truth that everybody
knows about? We have fewer planes
than the Germans. Some of our
planes are not as fast, not as new as
the German planes. During the ad-
vance Of Hitler's motorized units, re-
lnforced by methodical bombing from
the air, bombing of French towns,
OF villages, Of infantry regiments, of
roads, of refugee columns, of trains
carrying wounded soldiers, of sani-
tary cars, of everything, our pilots
have been called for help everywhere
at the same time. They have had
to stand drastic attacks to give the
maximum of their efforts. Those
were the people that 1 wanted to
meet.
They Skin the Treetops.
Let us see at once the storm air
force-what We call aviation das-
saut." In this dreadful emergency
these pilots are taking off every day
to attack the German columns, or
try to stop the offensive of the en-
emy. They go as far as 40 miles
deep-sometimes more, in the terri
tory occupied by the Nazis, in full
daylight, in blazing sunshine. They
ny at so feet over the motorized units
which fire at them with guns, ma
chine guns, cannon, anti-aircraft
guns. The density of fire is terrific.
Nevertheless, the Breguet planes,
with their crews of two men, have
to stand it, to fight back, to fulfill
their mission at all costs.
1--WE fly at the height of the trees"
a young pilot-the first one 1 met
said to me laughingly. ITO say hello
to us, the Germans have just to
climb on chair"
1t was dinner time at the head
quarters of this storm division" ;"
The general is well-known pilot of
the last war. During the peace Pc
riod he has made several daring,
far-reaching flights. He has a good
natured face, he speaks calmly, slow
ly He smiles. No bluff of any kind,
no stiffness, no conventional or Of
fetal sentences. The facts. truth.
stated with complete objectivity, are
that so per cent of the pilots of some
of the squadrons have been lost since
the beginning of the war, most of
them. of course, since May 10.
Capture Worse Than Death.
You see" the general said, be
cause OF the job we have to do, we
don't happen to fall often on our
land. 1t nearly always takes place
on enemy territory. 1t is bore; it
makes us lose planes which. under
different conditions. could be
brought back and used again. If the
pilots are not killed they are taken
prisoners. Our men hate this idea
much more than the idea of death"
The dinner. a good, decent dinner
was going on. That very night two
planes and their crews, which had
gone on dangerous mission, had
not returned. The fact had been
mentioned casually to me with no
comments of any kind.
The conversation around the table
was quick, not too serious. not too
gay. The headquarters, which are
moved very often to escape bonn
bardment, don't seem to care much
about having anti-aircraft guns to
protect the officers But they are
protecting themselves against anec-
dotes, talks or useless retrospective
strategy. On the long table, about
which Is men sit, there is vel
low ribbon of shining silk, knotted
so as to form big soft necklace.
AS soon as an anecdote is menacing
one of the boys gets up silently,
takes the ribbon and puts it around
the neck of the anecdote monger In
the Smartest and most becoming
way possible. There is a general
laugh and a brief grumbling OF
protestation from the victim. Con-
sidering the kind of anecdotes the
boys could tell, a yellow ribbon may
prove very useful. AS soon as the
laughs die down the conversation
becomes interesting and often tech
nical.
Just 1000 More Planes.
why talk about our losses?" said
the general. They are not very
heavy if we think of the enormous
damage we have done on the enemy's
side. The only fact to consider is
this: Had We had 400 more planes
for this particular job of storm at
tack by air, had we had 1000 more
airplanes for the whole of the
french Air Force, we would most
certainly have stopped Immediately
and for good the German offensive.
Now this is the past we cannot
help it,
Let us face the future, the next
waves of offensive. Suppose we
could get, within a few weeks, some
American planes-Douglasses. to be