The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-10-19
U. s. FORTRESS
 PROVING WORTH
Ccontinued from Page i,

(Continued from Page D turally we are going to lose planes perhaps many planes. The Aneri- cans must expect that.
 "But we have only begun our job.
 The hig ships were drifting down the griaways and taxiing toward the waiting ground crews
 Why had we been able to do this thing conduct daylight bombing operations-when nobody else had2
 A tired, grinntng boy climbing from the tail of one fortress had one answer.
 Guns Arc Real Thing
 'SThose guns are the stliff," said Jay Muse, a rough and ready kid who used to live in St. Louis and who isn't soft about anything except the picture of his girl friend, Lee Drywiclk, AS Arnhurst road, Ludlow, Mass. He carries. the photograph in his gun compartment.
 "9ee what's painted across the tail of the ship just above the gtl1s," !" he said. There in glearning letters six inches high was the crap ghoot- CTS battlecry: You're Faded"
 That's just how the fortress gum ners feel.
 ''When you're sitting up there waiting for them it's tough" Jay explained. "But once they start coming and the guns are going you don't think about anything else. You have just got the feeling you can get the other guy"
 Obviously the complete answer is much more complicated but the f1repower of the fortress formation is something that had never been seen before in this sector which has been tops for air war.
 "It'S 8 matter of mathematics" |" said an air ofIlcer. "If you have 100 fortresses in formation there are HOO half finch guns firing soc rounds per minute which can be turned against enemy planes in any direco tion. When that much lead is in the air somebody is going to get hurt especially any Nazi planes trying to come into range"
 The Germans now have had Q chance to examine our fortresses-. some have been shot down, of course --and innovations which no longer are a secret from the enemy can be mentioned.
 There was a time when the in- troduction of cannon-armed fighter planes appeared to doom daylight bomberS. The British bombers were armed with 1903 caliber machine guns which enabled the Nazi fight CTS to stay out of range and still knock off the bombers with their cannon.
 They tried to discourage the army from using the machine guns but the half-inch gun Is no peashooter It is four times heavier than the bullet of the 1903 gun and has ten times the striking power at opera tional ranges. It can penetrate al- most half an inch of steel. Its range is about the same as that ot the average fighter cannon.
 The Americans believed their gun would do the job.
 Today when the Focke Wulf tangleS with formation of fortress ses 1t must pit four cannon and two machine guns against the com- bined fire of an indefinite number of FortresseS. The enemy is firing at a single ship but three or four guns on each of six or more Fort resSes will be firing back. That may mean that 8 hundred half inch shells are whizzing around the Nazis ears in a single second. One shell out of that 100, smash ing through the Nazi engine, might shoot the plane down. Five are cer- tain to chew him up and if 10 hit he's 8 goner.
 No wonder that Jay Muse who has seen them coming in through the gunsights and who has one certain kill to his credit says:
 "ShoOt. Jerry. you're faded"