The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1942-09-11
THE BIG BOMBER MAY WIN
THE WAR

THE WAR
The bombing plane has been call
ed a gun that can shoot 1900 miles,
because it can carry five tons of
bombs that far, drop them and come
back home. Flying at 800 miles an
hour, the bomber has a speed COM
parable to a guns projectile Gone
of our dive bombers registered $50
miles an hour in dive), but in
picking out it's target it is far more
effective than gun could be firing
blindly. In fact, the up-to-date
bombing plane is almost Relation
of that we'll known exaggeration OF
the Negro soldier of the last war
who asserted that the Germans had
a gun (which don't need nothin' but
yo' address"
The older this war gets the more
it becomes a war of the air. Ger
many got long start with her ter
rible dive bombers, driving the
British out of Norway, crushing the
Low Countries and paralyzing
France. But the English saved their
country from invasion by first saw
ing their fighting planes and by
finally stopping the invaders in the
air. "When the skies over nation
are captured, everything below lies
at the mercy of the enemy's air
weapons" declares Major Alexander
De Seversky, the Jealous apostle
of air power The Germans never
got control of England's skies.
AS the war goes on, the air power
bulks ever greater in Importance.
For a plane to sink a battleship is
now commonplace. Every fighting
nation is eagerly seeking more and
better fighting planes. They are
getting constantly bigger, faster,
deadlier and more efficient in every
way, and the United States is in
the forefront of the race. In quantity
of production it is certainly ahead
of all. In quality there is argument,
but it is generally admitted that our
bombers are among the best.
eff I could send 10000 bombers
to Germany tonight" said Air
Marshal Harris, chief of Britian's
Bomber Command, Germany would
not be in the war tomorrow. He
probably had in mind bombers like
the new British Avro-Lancaster,
which the British claim is the big
gest and fastest in the world. 1t
carries bomb load of eight tons
at 800 miles an hour, and has a
range of 1000 miles. In July a
squadron of them dropped bombs
on Danzig 1850 miles away, in
the longest daylight raid of the war.
Possibly Marshal Harris will re-
alize his dream, or reasonable APP
proximtion of it. 1t has been claimed
that the combined production OF
British and American two-engine
and four-engine bombers will attain
a level in a few months which will
permit task force of 1000 bombers
to be sent over Germany night after
night, dropping bombs at the rate
of $4,000 tons a month. 1t has been
figured that it requires about 800
tons of bombs to wreak complete
destruction over one square mile,
and of late the R. A. F. has been
carrying 4,000-pound, or two-ton
bombs. These "block-busters" send
whole houses up into the air.
OF all the weapons invented by
man the bombing plane has been
called the most adaptable to total
war. Among all types of planes 1t
represents ''the true offensive strik-
ing power. 1t can, and does, car
ny out attacks alone. When the
British dropped 900 tons on the
Renau1t factory near Paris they
destroyed more German tanks at a
single blow than they had been able
to shoot up in weeks of Libyan war
fare. All other fighting arms, land
and sea, need an umbrella" OF
planes for protection; but the big
bombers have shown their ability
to fight their way through even
against enemy pursuit planes.
Air-fighting enthusiasts (and
there are more of them every day.
believe that if the British and
Americans can keep up a sustained
average of one or two thousand
raiding planes day Germany can
be put out of the fight. With our
ultimate goal of $4,000 flying and
fighting planes, manned by 2,00O,-
900 men, as recently stated by Gen
Henry Arnold, head of the Army's
Air Forces, such an average daily
blow for the two powers does not
appear extravagant. The flyers know
how now; they have maps of every
German city, and of all the bis
plants in it. They can operate by
day or night. They know how to fly
the various types of bombers al
different levels, assigning to each It'll
specific task and specific time ovel
the target. Incendiary bombs frs
light up the city. Some big ships
ny SO high that 4 anti-aircraft firs
cannot reach them: some fly so low
that they get by before the guns car