Evening star., 1941-04-08

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italian pilots without a row OF
medals across their chests and GER
tainly no bar in Italy, which has no,
heard them boast of their exploits
in Ethiopia, Albania and Spain
| Even American pilots, like Maj A
Williams, listening to them were
persuaded that they were willing
to dive down the tunnels Of British
warShips-or more important, that
they had planes which could do just
that. How did they stack up as
an air force when the going got
hard?
Theirs the Greatest Failure.
Their failure was greater than
that Of the army or the Navy. And
it was more significant because that
failure, more than anything else,
revealed to Italians the inherent,
essential, inescapable weakness of
the Fascist system. The weakness
of Fascism is that 1t cannot show
itself weak or recognize and admit
any inferiority.
"Mussolini is always right" That
is the motto of the Fascist party.
To point out weakness or mis-
take in the Italian Air Corps was to
point out that MusSolini was wrong
Similarly, to bring charges against
grafters is to break the party
solidarity. Consequently, the young
sters who composed the mass of the
italian Air Corps went into the war
thinking that they were the best In
the world
The high-ranking ministers and
officers who knew better or should
have known better are reaping the
rewards In the graft and patronage
which are the due of Fascists who
know how to keep their mouths shut.
They weakened the air force That's
all right. They never let Mussolini
or the party down by putting the
air force first.
Plenty of Fodder.
AS for the poor devils of badly
trained pilots whose inferior planes
were shot down over France. Eng
land, Egypt and Greece, Fascist
ideologists merely retort that they
don't matter: Mussolini's total
itarian Italy is rich in cannon
fodder. Let the bones bleach and if
mothers pine for lost sons give them
posthumous medals! They are only
sentimental mothers in the eyes of
the hard-boiled Fascists.
What is the record? As the arm
which was to prove sea power out
moded, the italian air force, despite
perfectly placed bases and a narrow
sea, has failed to sink one capital
ship or to close the Mediterranean
to the virtually free movement of
British conveys. The British fleet
itself sails that sea with impunity
and even enters the Adriatic and
shells such vital ports as Valona and
Genoa.
AS the eyes of the army, the
Italian air force could not even in
form Marshal Rodolfo Graziani that
the whole of Gen. Sir Archibald
Wavells army was being moved
across hundreds of miles of desert to
launch the offensive which proved
decisive. AS bombing force it
could neither smash up Greek COM
munications, despite the inadequate
air defense of that pitiful little army,
nor attack England.
The Italian air force which CO.
operated for several months with
the Germans against England was
withdrawn from the Channel be-
cause its planes were not good
enough for daylight raids and its
pilots not trained for night flying.
1900 of $500 Planes Lost.
In 10 months of warfare the
italians have lost 1900 of the $500
planes with which they started. My
estimate shows the losses as l 300 In
Libya, 200 in Albania and 100 on
the Channel. Not only have their
best pilots gone with these losses,
but the ships are not replaced
Except for handful of planes re-
designed as torpedo carrying craft
italian industry has turned out
virtually no planes in the past year.
italian engineers who used to steal
new developments from abroad and
combine them find that spies are
meeting with more difficulties today,
and, since they cannot design su-
perior ships and lack raw materials,
the Germans have told them merely
to make airplane parts, instruments
and fittings. The italian" dive
bomber of which the Fascists boast
is an early model Stuka made in
Germany and assembled in Italy.
AS proof that these losses are not
replaced I offer three facts. The
shortage is so real that sometimes
for three weeks at time no plane
is available to carry mail or pas
sengers on the italian line connecting
Rome and Lisbon. These planes are
drafted for transport of troops.
Cadet pilots, though badly needed,
have been given holidays for weeks
and months at a time because there
are no training ships for them. I
have skilled with these youths and
know.
When British Sheiled Genoa.
Finally, when British warships
appeared off the coast Of Genoa
and began to throw a thousand
1-ton projectiles into the Ansaldo
and other factories, their fire being
corrected by British spotter aircraft
overhead, it took the Italians three
hours to get aircraft to Genoa.
That only means that In their
shortage they have drained normal
airdrome defenSeS.
The failure Of the air corps was
due essentially to it's being shot
through with Fascist politics and
corruption against which no one
could protest. Marshal Italo Balbo
once told me himself some years
orn how, he orr,,ci with NE,,cro1iv,{ I