Evening star., 1943-02-24
First OF q series.
By WALTER McCALLUM.

Of the stratOsphere, an enem,
bomber flight speeds toward ar
American Army installation. :
thousand feet over them flash en-.
envy fighters. guarding the slower
bombers as they approach their Oh.
jective-an American airheld.
Invisible in the dusk of swift,
falling tropical night. peering eyes OF
the attacking force miles in the
air see no ground activity. No inter
ceptor planes spring from the field
to engage in battle. All seems Sc
iene-until:
Blossoms of flashing light spring
from the rim of the target as high
speed shells scream toward the
hlgh-fying bombers. Far faster
than sound. the shells bracket the
target in brown bursts of smoke and
flying steel. They close in. An en-
emy plane, struck squarely in the
fuSelage by the pattern of the shell
purSt, dl5lntegrates in midair. An
other loses wing and spins off to
doom. Ile port engine of another
breaks into black flame and the
bomber falls off on one wing, pieces
dropping AS fierce flames roar
through its structure. American
antl-aircraft fire has scored again.
On Job "a Hours a Day.
The enemy fighter planes dart
swiftly at the white pin points of
light marking the antiaircraft bat
teries. Diving at speeds up to 600
miles an hour. they fall in flaming
ruin before the blast of 40 nm. and
so caliber automatic weapons. Two
or three pull up before releasing
their light bombs and dart off over
the horizon.
The bomber fight veers off. ietti
soning bombs far at sea. The at
tack has -f1zzled because antiaircraft
was on the job, as it is "a hours a
day on more than two score fighting
fronts throughout the world, all
around the rim of the continental
United States, and at many inte-
rior points. Obviously heaviest con-
centrations of antiaircraft center
around important cities, production
centers and war plants.
Washington is we'll protected, you
may be sure of that. ANY enemy
bombing flight approaching from
any direction would fly into hell
of antiaircraft fire and wouldn't get
very far. And more installations
are being completed all the time.
They might be across the street, be-
hind familiar hill or in your
field. But wherever they
are and of what composition, you
can be sure they'll do a job if the
time ever comes when enemy air.
craft come over the Capital bent on
a mission of destruction.
Antiaircraft protection has moved
a long way from the crude, hastily
improvised air protection the French
on the rim of Paris early
in the first World War. They
the then marvellous French
IS nm. gun with the spade resting
on the ground and the wheels rest
ing on a horizonal wheel mounted
on a central post Fire control
was far from perfect, but the gun
could fire skyward and in all direc-
tions. The antiaircraft defense of
Paris especially was a high tribute
to the technical greatness of the
French said 1t. Gen. Lesley j. Nc
Nair, commanding the Army
Ground Forces. Gen. McNair is an
How different it is nowadays. The
Army of the United States is fight
ing on lot of fronts. If you count
them all, including sub-arears, they
will add up to more than two score.
installations of the
latest type are at many of them.
New Weapon Effective.
The gunners themselves, and par
ticularly those who have passed
through the alma mater of anti
aircraft, the big training school at
Camp Davis, N. c., speak in hushed,
reverent terms of the new 80 nm.
rife. 1t is now no Sc
,ret that this newest weapon, the
of attacking aircraft, will
throw a shell as far in the sky as
aircraft can travel and bomb effec-
lively; that the shell scatters in
burst effective against
aircraft in a wide area; that the
gun itself is marvelously accurate,
its rate of fire very swift and when
combined with secret detection and
range finding devices now in use is
the most lethal weapon against air.
craft ever put in use in any army.
But the Comm. gun is not alone
1t happens to be the Whirlaway of
the antiaircraft game. the gun that
reaches away up and blasts 'em out
of the sky, as high as bombing air
craft can effectually travel, Other
weapons are the 40 nm. guns,
known as the Bofors, fast-shoot
ing piece with a capacity of about
l20 shots minute and the powerful
so caliber machine gun, spouting
pellets of death at the rate of $50
shots a minute. Any airman that
dared to dive on target protected
by these weapons could count his
life in tenths of seconds.
Supplementing the guns are the
searchlight batteries, the moonlight
cavalry of the recruiting posters and
the "fashlight" cavalry of the gum
nerS. For antiaircraft works at
night. Then the secret detection
and gun pointing devices really
comes into action. 1t isn't neces-
sary that the gunner see the target,
although the searchlights. shooting
10000 600 candlepower beams OF
glaring light into the night sky will
pin bomber fight in the cross
light and illuminate them in a glare
daring the sun to rival.
Under Maj. Gen. Green.
.,.-., . 49, orr