The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-05-24

l lSI hbd IldNt lOllbCl IdllBC' ItJ, CFtI before this war is over, 1t is inevi- table that there will be still bigger better and longer range planes, can non and guns,
 Aerial weapons Of today have their definite limitations.
 Bombing today Is precision bombing in name only.
 Strahng as it is known today is effective only against undefended positions, and when Strafing is con- ducted against battle lines or supply lines which are well defended, 1t is extremely costly to the attacking aircraft.
 Finally the tactics of air-ground combat--that is. the method of en- ploying air forces to cooperate with ground troops-is still in decidedly embryonic state Of evolution.
 PROBLEMS UNDER
 CONSTANT STUDY
 These are the combined views Of many air officers and ground force officers who have seen service fin various theaters of operation, and of officers who are in command of q number of training centers where air and ground troops are being giy- en their final pre-combat inStluc- tion. They represent also the eX- periences of the British command in their operations.
 All these problems are being con- stantly studied by responsible staff officers of every army, who shift their plans Of operation and train Ing as new doctrines are decided upon, and as newer and more pow erful weapons Of all arms are de- made available to the services. What yeloped, put in production and this points to Is the possibility Of marked changes in tactics of aerial warfare, certainly for the next war, and decided possibility even before this war IS much older
 In the last war, the airplanG was useful largely for observation though acrobatics and dog fighting did come Into use in combat of plane against plane, and though limited stralng of undefended ground positions was employed.
 The period between the wars saw tho development of heavy bombing and anti-aircraft weapons with which to defend ground positions.
 Blitz warfare saw the development of combined, co-ordlnated air. ground attack. Planes, instead of being operated independently, were actually attached to ground force units and fought with them under orders of the ground commanders. SCATTERED AIR
 FORCE IS WEAK
 Many air officers now believe this may have been carried too far. Fur ther improvement of aircraft weapons has made air-to-ground attack less effective. Furthermore, scattering of the air forces by as- signing small units of aircraft to ground forces has weakened the air power that could be delivered in concentrated attack.
 For time, there was an Idea that 1t would be nice to have aircraft flying around behind some cloud, subject to call whenever the ground commander decided he was in need of aerial help to overcome some specific enemy strong point which was holding up his advance and was out Of range of his available artil- lcry. The weakness of this has been Lhat about every time the ground commander wanted hls air arms to function, they would be out of gas and have 10 go home,
 The success of General Chen nault's Chinese operations in obtain ing maximum effectiveness with a minimum air strength is pointed to as q prime example of the need for further revision of the fir tactics now being taught young airmcn,