Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-10-17
Allies Air Offensive
Halls Nazi Expansion
By New Production
BY the Associated Press

BY the Associated Press.
UNITED STATES 9th AIR
FORCE BOMBER COMMAND
HEADQUARTERS IN BRITAIN,
Oct. 16.-The Allies aerial invasion
from Britain has brought to a
standstill the German Air Forces
expansion through new production,
Brig. Gen. Frederick L. Anderson,
chief of the American bomber COM
mand in Britain, said today, but
he added that the final, critical
blows against Germany's war ef-
fort still are some distance off.
The attack on the German Air
Force has been aimed at Nazi air.
plane plants, notably by a long
series of precision attacks by Amer
lean daylight bombers dropping at
one blow as much high explosive
as could be shot by battery of
10000 l0-inch guns.
The air war on Germany also
has resulted in forcing the Ger
mans, even during the Italian land
ing and the recent big Russian adj
vances, to withdraw planes from
those fronts to meet air attacks in
the West, Gen. Anderson said.
Outnumbered BY Enemy.
These are other high lights of an
interview in which the director of
Americas main current assault on
Germany summarized the bombing
campaign:
The American air force is still
greatly outnumbered by the enemy
on this front.
Sixty per cent of the Germans
single-engine fighter force and
big proportion of her twin-engine
and 30 per cent of her antiaircraft
defenses, involving together a mil
lion men, are tied up on the western
front by Allied air attacks.
In recent weeks. for the first time
in two years, German airplane pro-
duction has not shown an increase.
The German Air Force still has a
lot Of fighter production and. despite
setbacks in manufacturing may still
be growing from reserves.
Generally for each plane in an
air force front line of combat
there are at least two more be-
hind the lines in reserve pools. in
process of delivery and in as
sembly)
More Double Blows.
The 9th Air Force has been en-
larged so that there will be more
and more USAAF-RAF double blows
IN successive days and nights against
important German centers like those
against Hamburg, Emden, Frankfurt
and Bremen.
Gen. Anderson said the Allied
air forces have hit their stride and
the public should look for no sensa-
tional developments.
we are now running a series
OF major military operations" he
sad, people keep on calling them
raids but that is a term that be-
longs to the first World War.
When We send 400 bombers
there are 1000 men invading Ger
many. The Germans have an op-
posing force of over a million men
organized III an efficient defense
built on interior lines.
Obstacles Surmounted,
In the belt of our operations ey-
tending from Scandinavia down in
an arc to Northern Italy are con-
centrated so per cent of Germany's
fighters and 80 per cent of her anti
aircraft facilities. Six million addi-
tlonal people are put on the alert
and tied up by one of our attacks.
The point is, bombers can carry
tnelr obstruction to their target
whether it is over water and noun
talns. There is nothing else at this
time that can hit at the heart of
Germany and Japan.
Operations like this take time
You cannot take bombardment
force. any more than you can take
a land or sea force, and engage
them in a major operation every
day. Staging major air operation
every day is like expecting land and
sea forces to take an island like
Sicily every day.
Our heavy bombers We're out
flve days of an intensive eight-day
air campaign at the beginning of
September. But We were not aim
ing at daily operation. Those were
short-range attacks, not major op-
erations."