Evening star., 1941-03-13
Failure OF Stukas
Called Serious Blow
To Nazi Air Force
Collapse of Dive Bombers'
Effectiveness Moy Alter
Makeup Of Air Powers
BY JOSEPH S. EDGERTON.


Failure of the German "Stukas"-
the dive bomberS which made 'front.'
page headlines in every part of the
world during the Polish invasion
has been one of the most serious
setbacks of the war for the German
Luftwaffe, in the opinion of Ameri-
can observers. and may have far
reaching effects on the future COM
position of air powers throughout
the world.
The terrific attacks of shoals of
Stukas in support of mechanical
ground forces made possible the
speedy conquest of Poland. They
made it possible, however, only be-
cause the Stukas met no air op-
position and little anti-aircraft fire,
later events have revealed.
The Germans counted on the
Stukas to repeat on the western
front, and for a time they did.
Holland and Belgium rolled up un-
der the Stuka storm, and the
French and British also were
forced back by the unified on
slaughts of the dive bombers and the
fast-moving tanks and motorized
infantry.
Against British 1t Was Different.
But as the StukaS neared the
English Channel they began to run
into the pitifully outnumbered Roy
al Air Force and better organized
anti-aircraft defenses, and the tide
began to turn rapidly against the
dive bombers. The British had only
two f1rSt-String fighter SquadronS
in France when the blitzkrieg began.
Fighting continuously against odds
frequently as great as 100 to l, the
British fighter pilots began StreW-
ing Stukas over the landscape-with
enough of all other types to give
the bag" interest and variety.
The miracle of Dunkirk" was
made possible by the momentary
eclipse of the Stuka. The R. A. F.,
by almost superhuman effort, swept
the StukaS out of the skies during
those cNtical hours when the wreck
age of the British Army was being
gathered up off the French beaches
and carried back home. The Ger
mans could do nothing against the
most ideal targets dive bomb pilot
ever had spread out for his techni-
cal consideration, and the B. E. F.
escaped the Nazi clutches.
The Germans were not yet ready
to give up the Stukas, however.
They sent Stukas into England dur
ing the attempted blitz of August
and September. In the attack on
Croydon Airport. when 13 Stukas
made an "alI-out" effort to destroy
this most famous of British flying
fields, every Nazi plane was shot
down, observers have reported.
StukaS Withdrawn.
The Stuka proved to be disas-
trouSly unsuccessful in other at
tempted attacks on strongly de-
Tended positions. The Germans
withdrew their dive bombers from
the English battle front. and few
of them have been seen there since
last fall.
1t was found that the fatal weak
ness of the dive bomber lay in the
fact that it had to be held in
straightline dive for some distance
when attacking a target, and they
became excellent gunnery targets
curing those crucial seconds while
they were pushing home the at
tack. In the air they proved no
match for the faster. more heavily
gunned fighters.
The early triumphs of the Nazi
dive bomberS in Poland, Belgium
and France were due to the fact
that they made their dives against
objectives which were either totally
undefended by strong anti-aircraft
guns and pursuit aviation or only
weakly defended, according to 1t.
Col. w. Lockwood Marsh, a British
aeronautical engineering authority.
IN an article in the latest issue of
Aviation.
This British view is in agreement
with that expressed recently by Mai.
Gen, Henry H. Arnold, chief of the
Army Air Corps and acting deputy
chief Of the War Department Cen
eral Staff for Air, who said that
American military observers abroad
have concluded that dive bombers
are successful only against relatively
undefended positions.
For this reason, although the dive
bomber originally was developed in
the United States, and many of
them now are being built for the
United States military forces, the
conventional horizontal" bombers
have become the mainstay of
American air power and of the
British R. A. F.
kI r.