Evening star., 1942-05-10

30 Pof ttSoto' ~ CSCOuf oStItS.
son to think some members of their
stats have advised that whatever may
be the case two, five or ten years hence,
the truth for 1912 is this:
l. The opening of an adequate second
front in Europe cannot be achieved
through air power alone.
2. Effective intervention on the CONT
nent may be accomplished this year only
by means Of large-scale, borne ex-
petitions of field forces-protected.
needless to say, by aviation.
Becoming Independent Arm.
The ground given for these assertions
Is that the decisive year of 1912 has
caught aviation in a transition stage of
design, equipment and production. 1t is
passing from its former status of auxih-
ary to the Army and Navy into another
whereby it undertakes independent mis-
sions of its own, requiring a pure all
air strategy.
The inevitable lag between theory and
practice has not been shortened by the
fact that up to Pearl Harbor the destiny
of aviation in this country was ruled by
infantry, cavalry and naval officers who
had arrived at top commands by proc
esses Of seniority, and were unable to
comprehend that modern warfare had
made the air arm equal If not para
mount to their own.
The change was brought about by
civilian, President Roosevelt himself,
u,L,
an aviator, as commander in chief of
the United States Fleet; and reorganized
the Army command last March so as to
make the Air Force to a large degree
autonomous.
The task of paralyzing or even Grip
pling the war ganglia of continent of
nearly 1000, 900 square miles is titantic
one. 1t means incessant, systematic,
item-by-ite bombardment Of myriad
factories. railroads. highways, air bases,
depots and military installations. The
argument advanced is that the United
States and Britain do not have in hand
enough bombers, with sufficient carrying
capacity, to do the job on total scale
Flying Fortress makes a round trip
Of hundreds or thousands of miles to
drop four tons OF explosives. The figure
for the Consolidated B-24 bomber is
slightly larger and that for England's
Short Stirling bomber is eight tons
The .-y Douglas Biz bomber carries 18
tons of explosive. But there is only one
In existence and it remains laboratory
experiment-rather than a military
weapon.
Owing to "brass hat" impedments,
only the first shadow of an American
heavy bomber armada is beginning to
emerge. Production of 500 a month is
not due before 1943. England, which
rejected the Flying Fortress with scorn
up to 194l, Is still farther behind
Long Distance Pursuit Plane.
No country. including the United
States, has yet devised long-distance
pursuit plane. Inventors have found it
impossible to combine in one craft a
large gasoline capacity and the fighters
essential weight of gun and engine
power, armor and structural stamina to
resist the violent strains of combat
acrobatics Lack of such a plane makes
little difference to Germany, with its
concentrated geographical position and
thousands of scattered air bases. But
for sky invasion of the continent 1t is a
grievous handicap.
1t MEANS that beyond a maximum ra-
dius of 500 miles, which in practice has
been found to be nearer 200 Anglo
American bombers must operate with
out fighter protection. The alternatives
are night and high-altitude flying, both
of which impair accurate bombardment
aim.
Also, in the case of American REIN
forcements, all fighters and interceptors
must be Grated, transported on slow and
conveyed surface vessels and uncrated
on arrival. The same is true of attack
planes, better known as light bombers.
dive and horizontal except that they are
not generally taken down. but are
shipped intact, with only the wings re-
moved.
SubstratoSphere cruisers like the Fly
ing Fortress have recently acquired a
new enemy or escort in the high-altitude
pursuit plane. Britain has raised the
Spitfire's ceiling to 10000 feet by equip
ping it with an American turbo-super-
charger and the 20O0-horsepower Napier
Sabre liquid-cooled engines. Germany is
said to have developed a Daimler-Benz
motor of equal power, also liquid cooled
American inventors have been unable
thus far to perfect liquid-cooled air.
craft engine of more than l 400 horse
power, but the Army Air Corps has de-
clined to avail itself of the Napier Sabre
on the ground that it is still expert
mental. That is why the Bell Airacobra
P-39, perhaps the deadliest fighter plane
in the world. is restricted to low attitudes
of $4,000 feet or less 1t is powered with
single Allison liquid cooled motor.
That is also why the Lockheed P-38
Lightning, said to be the fastest climbing
interceptor known. was compelled to
sacrifice combat agility to the relatively
clumsy twin -engine form. In order to
gain power for a mile minute ascent
and operation at Q 30,o0o-fo foot ceiling,