Evening star., 1943-03-28
The Coming Air Drive

oo1iAoiAlSo VI oe1 e1llldlly ny our dlT
arm have been disclosed at a press
conference held in London by Major
General Ira G. Eaker, commander of
the Eighth United States Air Force
based on the British Isles. General
Eaker's forecast is solidly based on
the combat performances of our air
men in the European theater since
they began actively to function there
last July.
The beginnings were naturally on
small scale. Our pilots had to ad-
just themselves to a novel situation
and work out certain technical prob
lens, particularly that American
speciality, daylight precision bomb
ing, under European weather condi-
tions. But as the months passed,
results mounted in tempo, culminat-
ing in a series of successes rivaling
those achieved by their comrades in
the Pacific and in China. This
gratifying process has Just cul-
minated in two remarkable raids by
American Fortresses and Liberators
within the past week on the Ger
man port of Wilhelmshaven and the
nearby submarine base at Vegesack.
Besides enormous damage to ground
installations, our raiders destroyed
or damaged some 40 enemy planes
with loss of only five for our side.
This astounding success eclipses
previous American records set by
our raid over Lille, France, last
October, and by our more recent air
victory in the Bismarck Sea. Those
trlumphs indicate the superiority OF
our airmen over both their German
and japanese opponents. The Eighth
Air Forces overall score since last
July is 456 enemy planes destroyed
with a loss of 80 bombers for us.
1t is against this factual back
ground that General Eaker informed
his audience of American and
British press correspondents that the
experimental phase of United States
operations in the air over Europe
is concluded, and that in the clearer
skies of next summer our air arm
would be in position to assume full
partnership with the Royal Air Force
in round the clock bombings of
Germany, which would give the
enemy no rest and would SYSTEM
atically devastate his industrial
centers, one after the other. 1--WE
have some fat targets waiting" an
nounced the aggressive Texan, init
mating that Berlin was very much
on the list.
Amplifying that confident state
ment, General Eaker went on to say
that our big bombers had proved
they could fly above fack and beat
off enemy fighter planes. The bigger
the force was and the tighter the
formations, the smaller the proper
tlonal losses. So great is the range
OF our bombers that no target in
Germany is outside their radius.
Furthermore, he made the gratifying
announcement that still bigger and
faster bombers, carrying three or
four times the present loads and
better armored are now rolling off
assembly lines at home, and will
presently be over Axis Europe doing
their deadly work.
All this indicates that the coming
summer will subject the European
end OF the Axis to a virtually con-
tinuous air offensive far more sus-
tanned and intensive than anything
yet experienced. General Eaker does
not prophesy that this alone will or
can knock Germany out of the war.
But it should so harass, weaken and
disrupt Axis resistance and Axis
morale as to be a powerful factor in
bringing about an eventual down.
fall achieved by a combination of
all Allied offensive forces.