Evening star., 1942-07-02
Destruction Of Planes
On Ground Is TAUGHT
Picked Army Flyers
Students Quickly Grow
Expert in Strufing
At Florida Field

BY Wide World.
EGLIN FIELD, Fla. July O.
Get 'em on the ground" is one of
the precepts of modern sirplane
warfare
Mai. Howard F. Nichols, COM
nlanding officer of the Army Air
Forces Fixed Gunnery School here,
says there probably are more air.
planes destroyed on the ground by
ground strafing than in aerial COM
bat, and the most proficient stu
dents here get a crack at this ex-
tremely dangerous and precise form
of fighting.
Development of flrepower and
speed of aircraft has made it of ex-
treme Importance in cutting down
the adversary before he can get into
action. The japanese gave the world
an outstanding example of this at
Hickman Field on Pearl Harbor Day.
Because it requires great skill and
many weeks of dangerous training,
only the most advanced students
here are permitted to practice
ground strafing. Others completing
the 12-day course in gunnery leave
for the combat areas.
Maj. Nichols says most laymen
have no conception of the destruc-
tive power of a fighting planes guns,
which with one blast can destroy
an unarmed vehicle, disperse foot
troops, break up a motor convoy
or cut bomber in half.
Supply Train Easy Mark.
A supply train is helpless against
strafng fighters unless it has suf-
ficient air protection, and recent
dispatches from the Pacific have
indicated that a pair of American
strafing planes immobilized \ Jap
anese destroyer and perhaps de-
stroyed it In the Coral Sea battle.
The low attack angle Of strafers
renders anti-aircraft weapons of
large caliber useless, and their high
speed presents an almost impossible
target for lighter guns. Maj. Nichols
says the surprise element also is OF
great advantage to a strafing plane
since it demoralizes as well as de-
mobilizes the enemy.
Good strafers take advantage OF
all possible cover-woods, roads,
valleys and other ground obstacles
to hide their approach. They also
use low-hanging clouds and keep
the sun at their backs until ready
to pounce on their prey like some
great armored eagle.
The fixed gunnery school here
trains students for the entire
Southeastern Army Air Forces
Training Center.
Fighter pilots-some OF them only
a couple of weeks away from the
big show-paint swastikas and ris-
ing suns on their targets here and
go bowling in for the kill.
Practice ALL Important.
In the global warfare they are
training for, the practice they get
here in IL days may mean the diff
ference between life and death less
than a month hence in combat
thousands of miles away.
This is a finishing school for
hundreds of fighter pilots weekly,
the school where pilots who have
learned to fly their planes then
learn to fght with them by aim
ing the plane and its multiple
guns at the sea or air target and
diving at it with blazing speed.
Pilots coming back from their
first battle are seasoned veterans,
learning more in a few minutes
of actual eombat than they can in
the 12-day course here, so Maj.
Nichols says the schools sole OBJ
jective is to teach the untried
enough to get them through their
first battle. After that they will
know as much as or more than
their instructors.
I went out with a squadron of
cadets on several training mis-
sions.
We were away at daylight, an in
structor riding with each cadet. Our
first objective was ground targets,
small ones only 6 feet square with
a range house to the rear where
an observation range crew observes
the firing and corTects errors by
two-way radio to the pilot.
Leader Opens Fire.
The squadron circled the range
forming prescribed pattern. Sud-
denly the leader went screaming
down with machine guns rafting.
Only few yards over the target
the cadet pulls out of the dive, and
the second plane comes hurtling in
for the second target. Back aloft
the formation reforms and heads
downstairs again. The maneuver is
repeated until ammunition is ex-
hausted.
After few days the pilots can eat
out the bull's-eye with a minimum
of ammunition.
After nearly week on the ground
range the cadet tackles the more
difficult aerial gunnery.
A plane took OH ahead OF us tow
ing the target, a long piece of
cheesecloth decorated with crude
swastikas and flaming suns. Moving
at several hundred miles an hour
out over the Gulf of Mexico our
planes closed in.
Leading" his target sometimes
as much as three lengths to COM
pensate for speed factors, the pilots
go crashing down. My pilot had a
little too much lead and cut the tow
line. well, we shot down oul
objective at least" he said with g
grin on landing.
A week Of chasing these elusive
targets finds the cadet ready fol
graduation. His diploma awaits hin
at some distant rendezvous with
the enemy.
Pcstmon Rings Once
l,oua baay