The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-04-29
MILITARY SCIENTISTS MAKE
 WEATHER A SECRET WEAPON
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 t l4 6elnR something about tns
 AAnnn And noe taking much &6uI ll, ellheN
 4ts c collective somebody called EHn AKnR Alr korceS weather oIFSclofale end the Navy AeronAa- Aoa nulCanN Department ot Aefo- AwY. me members ao their work aaN1nd Q barrier of armed guArua ana hOsh.hNsh otmosphege. For, In wartime, clouds and showers ssaso Co he uOhiocls for casual cons gnENAllon. They're matters of vital importance that may hold the Key lo victory or defeat
 Inc enemy knows this, too. So a pAFt Og pfesenl.oay strategy cons 0&l8 of trying Co get the weather oN your side. ieS not an accident that most of tho racille sea and nlr battles have been wNged tn weather favorable to the YNnks, or chat enemy warshlps rode under storm clouds from Japan to KiskN lASt summer.
 aEk FORCES USE DATA
 And lt was moro than luck when Che NnHl pocket battleShips Scharn~ horst and onelsenau escaped from DFest through the English Chan. nel. There were plenty of English aircraft to cut oR these ships, Hut lust ns they steamed into tho Channel they were met by . low, heavy overcast that shielded them completely.
 Accurate weather fOrecastlnR, as as Illustrated in these examples, Is une oe the young branches ot mtll- tnev science. Weather observations have been taken ln the United states Army since lei4, but for many years they were Che rcSpon. slhlllty Of Army surgeons who em- nloyed them in connection with xever epldemios, Later the Signal Corps took over the NrecaSting slutloa, and it was not until i0ST that tho Army turned them over Co the Air Forces. Practically all forces ln tho Held now use the data,
 tn addition to general weather Information, every plano must be hrleied by Q foreeaster before it takes oii, Cholco of target bomb and gasoline load, and other primo considerations arc dependent on this Information, So the weather man" is on the scene in . new theater almost as soon as the first plane arrives, and he's among the last Co leave.
 Both Army and Navy weather men have thel own particular troubles in the Southwest Pacific thenter, For one thing, the weather thera Is particularly turbulent, For another, stations arc far apart, and tho enemy holds vast territory to tho west, wherN most weather changes originate, And enc ot the Navy's greatest problems--unlquo to this wAr-ls forocaStlng for voyages of two and three thousand miles, SOLVE GLOnAL WEATHER
 Obviously the ServiceS weather department need Q lot of men Co call Che turn in A glohal war, The Army Air Forces Technical Train ing Command has reserved It's toughest educational requirements a0r weathor-oit candidates. They must have had three years of col. laee with . science or engineering major, Thirty.weeks courses arc Hlven them in some of the eountrys leading technical schools, or in the nrmy's Weather Training Center at Grand Rapids, Mich.
 AFRICAN ACT OF con
 But in spite Of careful training and metieulous preparation, these scientific proRnuStleators cant quite make tho clements behave, Sometimes it's . good thing, GS ip the case Of the North African Invasion plans, which baekhred in our iRcvor.
 The time of invasion was decided months in advanced, And one ad- Haltted reason for the choice of date was the fact that storms are prevalent of the North African coast during November. ft the enemy were looking for an invasion of North Africa, they wouldn't cx- pect tt when the weather was worst.
 Yet the sca had scarcely ripple on that morning when tho Ameri. ems stormed ashore to open the second front.
 General Marshal called it "an net os Providence" And tho weather men in uniform, for all their inte- gtal calculus and Synoptic meteoro- iogy, are willing to let it 70 at that"