Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-07-31
I,OOO-PIane
Raids Require
Light Of Moon
Dark Mig increase
Accidents in Air
BY PAUL MALLON

WASHINGTON, July 81
w The British are really max
ing hash out Of German indus
trial cities one by one, but
experience on this night bomb
ing front has placed certain
definite limitations on what can
be done with IT.
The Impotence ~ certain
American observers at the fail
ure 10 develop these grand aerial
assaults faster and further has
cast some reflection on British
efficiency. 1t is not that.
The British started this super
bombing campaign the night of
May 30-31 with a thousand
plane attack on Cologne. They
went hack AT Essen and the
Ruhr with a thousand planes
two nights later, but could not
duplicate these attacks again
for nearly three weeks.
THEY hit Bremen with a thou
Il sand planes on the night of
June p, and then skipped three
weeks more before marShaling
seven hundred for An attack on
Duisburg, July 1914. Two weeks
later they put six hundred over
Hamburg on two successive
nights dropping $4,000 incen-
diaries and using 4,000-pound
bombS).
Not inefficiency, but insur-
mountable obstacles Of weather
and operations forced the long
intervals OF comparatively quiet
nights when only few squad
rons were able TO indulge in this
new type OF warfare.
The British found. for in
stance. that their losses from
collisions among their own
planes were greater than from
enemy ion, on moonless
nights.
This meant they could eff
GENTLY hurl thousand plane raids
at Germany only half of the
month, when the moon permit
ted, and even in that half OF the
month only when there were no
heavy clouds or rain TO obscure
vision.
GUNNER night raiding is
u further restricted by the
fact that only four hours of
darkness is 10 be expected in the
latitude Of German industrial
cities (Which are on the latitude
of Labrador).
This condition. however. will
improve constantly as winter
draws near, and eases the COM
plicated traffic problems Of put
ting as many as a thousand
ships into the Air over a single
city at different levels and in
consecutive attacking squadrons.
When you figure that the
Germans have hundreds Of in
dustrial cities spread all through
Europe. over much wider area
than the industry of England,
and face all other practical
limitations. you will see fully
the difficulty of wiping out Ger
many by this means.
IT is easy to talk Of mastering
Il the 5000 bombers necessary
for sustained super bombing at
tacks. but quite another thing 10
get a thousand of them in the
air half the time.
There is no question about the
damage done when they hit.
The British have accurate re-
ports of damage done, these
having seeped out through
Switzerland from the accounts
OF neutral conSuls largely
Latin-American) in the German
cities which have been attacked.
and from travellers and German
newspapers reaching neutral
ground. No neutral report is
necessary. however.
Every one knows the damage
the Germans did in Britain and
they never put into the Air more
than 300 planes al night. The
Na2is levcled Coventry in a few
nights, never using third as
many bomberS as the British
can occasionally put into the air
now.
Thus while this aerial battle
ground. sometimes called the
second n IN first in this
column can he accounted
substantial success so far. there
are few who believe II viii he
able TO take the place Of sec
ond front by land invasion. no
matter how greatly II is ex-
panded.
british losses have averaged
~ slightly less than ) per cent,
which makes Taldng entirely
successful from that standpoint.
but II IS difficult 10 believe
Super-bombing can do more than
soften Germany for invasion.
The new 4.000-pound bombs,
supposed TO destroy an entire
city block, were first used eX-
perimentally al Duisburg July
1914 with such success they viii
he employed on an increasingly
large scale As the plan OF at
tack expands this fall.
Americans participating so
far are not fighting as units.
They merely ~fill in British