Evening star., 1941-03-02
mo. I OF q Series. ]

BY CAPT. SHERMAN B. ALTICK.
The headlines say: Britain aims
to equal Germany in the air by
1943"-"Col. Lindbergh testifies to
Germany'S great advantage in war;
planes P. Wright puts Ger
man production at 10000 warplanes
a Year."
Such information creates in the
popular imagination a picture of
fleets of aircraft, thousands and
tens of thousands of planes in mass
attack. 1t brings a vision of the
sign of the swaStika backing out
the sky above England, of thousands
of invading warplanes in never
ending offensive.
In the minds eye waves of gigan-
tic bombers drop fire and explosives
from 4-mile attitudes while thou
sands of escort fighters protect them
from interference. For close-range
work the dreaded stukas, by the
hundreds, dive at tremendous speeds
and unleash their cargoes just
above their objectives.
So much for the imagination.
What Is He Waiting For?
When its spell has been broken
and the brain gets back to realities
there arise questions such as these:
Why did not all this happen last
September when Hitler's air advan-
tage was greater perhaps than 1t
ever will be again?
Why isn't such an attack going on
each day that weather permits?
Having all these planes, what is
Hitler saving them for?
The purpose of these articles is to
consider these questions and to at
tempt to answer them. To do this
requires a study of the physical,
mechanical and geographical prob
lens which Hitler must overcome
if he is to strike at England in an
about attack with as many as TO-
900 to 10000 air effectives. 1t will be
necessary also to study the various
phases of aerial warfare, the strategy
of continued mass attack and the
matter of defense.
Maximum of 1900 Planes.
British and other sources say
that. of his warplanes, Hitler will
not be able to employ more than
10000 for a blitzkrieg on England.
In these articles we are to assume
that the attack would be made by
$4,000 planes coming over in waves
of 500. This would mean that with
in a period of less than nine hours
the entire force would have had a
crack at England. Of the $4,000
planes about 5000 would be bombers
and about 1000 protective fighters.
Hitler has the planes But if he is
to strike by air in the manner which
we are assuming, Hitler must have
also:
Fields from which to operate.
Fuel concentrations at each flying
field.
Lubricants for the powerful air.
craft engines.
Ammunition for the defensive
machine guns.
High explosives and fire bombs
for the raiders.
Oil and gasoline tanks and NOV
able pumps.
Tractors to pull planes out of the
camoufaged woods on the edge of
each field.
Tons of sand or earth in bags to
protect planes staked out from
emmy raiders.
Intercommunicatio system be-
tween each air field. n
Operators to man the phone sys-
tenn, the fuel pumps and the trac-
tors.
Dollies to rack bombs and experts
to handle them.
Armorers to install ammunition
in the planes and men to assist
them.
Mechanics to tune the engines,
and
Airplane mechanics to repair dam
age to machines.
A Tremendous Job.
Men familiar with the flying busi-
ness find it difficult to visualize
offhand what a task it is to get
10000 planes into the air for a
massed attack. We talked with Capt.
E. v. Rickenbacker and he was as
founded at the figures on the phys
ical requirements for an aerial
blitzkreig. When these figures are
obtained and studied there comes
some understanding as to why Hit
ler, even with three months to pre-
pare and with a great superiority OF
warplanes, failed to beat down the
British in August and September
why the Nazis didn't then send over
warplanes by the thousands to drub
the English into submission.
At this point it is. fitting to dwell