Evening star., 1943-03-13
The Anti-Axis Air War

The report of Air Secretary Sir
Archibald Sinclair to the House of
Commons presents in graphic detail
picture of the great aerial cam
paign which is being ceaselessly
waged against Germany, Italy and
the Axls-occupied lands of Western
Europe by the Royal Air Force and
our own air arm. 1t is a grim tale of
death and destruction that has al
ready blasted many Axis cities and
industrial centerS. and which is be-
ing relentlessly stepped up in effec-
tiveness and fury.
Sir Archibald states that, in Ger
many some 1000 factories and in
dustrial plants have been DESTROYED
Or temporarily crippled, causing an
estimated reduction of at least
1,250,000 tons of steel production in
the Ruhr and Saar Valleys alone
Some 100000 Germans have been
driven from their ruined homes, this
estimate not including the devastat-
ing raids on Berlin, Munich and other
cities during the past ten days. Air
attacks on Italy. though absolutely
less, are proportionately heavy, con-
sidering Italy's smaller industrial
development. Turin, Genoa and
Milan, the chief industrial and COM
mercial centers, have been badly hit
All this raises the much h-discussed
question as to whether Axis resist
ance can be broken from the air.
The theory of successful aerial war
fare, originally propounded by the
Italian General Douhet, has its ar
dent advocates, who maintain that
the combined effects of industrial
destruction, Gripping of communica-
tions and shattering of popular mo-
rale can induce general paralysis
that would force the enemy either to
sue for peace or render him an easy
prey to invasion. Yet the case his
tories of Spain. China, Russia. and
above all Britain, lead other military
students to conclude that air attacks
against a well-prepared and resolute
foe are unlikely to be more than one
important factor in a co-ordinated
war effort embracing all the tradi-
tional methods as we'll. Such students
point out that the German air blitz
against Britain, though it inflicted
enormous damage and caused great
loss of life, neither disrupted British
industry nor broke popular morale.
This was true despite the fact that
Britain offered much smaller and
more concentrated target than does
Axis industry, spread over most of
Europe and Systematically decen-
tralized. Presumably, only time and
experience will tell which Of these
opinions is correct.
Of more immediate certainty is the
strictly military damage inflicted by
the Allied air campaign and it's ef-
fects on German strategy. Sir Archi-
bald says that one-half of Germany's
fighter planes are being pinned down
in Western Europe by our great
aerial offensive, leaving only one
fourth of the Luftwaffe available for
service in Russia, strung out from
the White to the Black Seas" and
with corresponding economies neces-
sary for the Tunisian battle front.
This at least partly explains Axis re-
verses in Russia during the past win
ter, especially the failure of the
German hedgehog" defense system
as against the preceding winter,
when German air superiority on the
eastern front could simultaneously
supply key points by air and hold
down the Russian air force to de-
fensive inferiority. With Allied plane
production gaining an increasingly
marked lead over that of the Axis,
the strategic air situation should
rapidly improve in our favor. The
reactions of that factor on the
ground operations must inevitably
be far-reaching.