Evening star., 1943-05-26
Knockout by Air?

Inc DldStlnS OIL OOTJHlunQ, key
industrial and transportation city of
Germany's Ruhr Valley, last Sunday
night in the heaviest and most con-
centrated air attack in history Is
striking evidence that great
strategic experiment is under way.
That test was expressed by Winston
Churchill in his recent speech be-
fore Congress, when he remarked
that, while opinion was still divided
whether the use of air power could,
by itself, bring about the collapse of
Germany and Italy, there certainly
is no harm in finding out" The
stepping-up of the sustained Allied
air offensive against both the Axis
powers toward some laundering
crescendo almost beyond civilian
imagination indicates the dread or
deal which the Axis-dominated con-
tinent is facing during the summer
months.
Back of the present supreme test
lies more than a generation of pro-
fessional dispute among military
technicians ever since Douhet, the
Italian general with French name,
started the argument with his chal-
lenging theory that even first-class
military power could be knocked out
by air warfare alone. The first great
experiment was the Luftwaffes
campaign against Britain in the au-
tumn of 1940 1t failed. But we
now know that it came perilously
near success. If Goering had tackled
the RAF with his fighter planes be-
fore sending in his bombers, and if
the attacks had been pressed little
longer regardless of losses, the end
might well have been a different one.
However, professional doubters
raise the counterargument that Brit
ain is relatively concentrated
target, whereas the Axis is sprawled
over continental area many times
as great. Nevertheless, Allied cham
pions of the air offensive reply that,
given enough planes, even this
greater job can be done. A year ago
Britains Air Marshal Harris publicly
asserted that Germany could be
knocked out by nightly raids of 1000
planes. Since then, new plane types,
heavier bombs and perfected tech
niques have lent fresh arguments to
the proponents Of an all-out air
offensive. While the layman is prob
ably wise to suspend judgment and
not indulge in wishful thinking, the
air strategists seem to have enough
evidence on their side to make even
a costly test we'll worth while, be-
cause success would end the war
more quickly than has been gen.
orally imagined.
Even though the current expert
ment may not attain the ultimate
objective, it will undoubtedly weaken
Axis resistance in many ways. The
enemy'S industrial centerS are being
Systematically devastated, his COM
municaMons are being disrupted and
the morale of the enemy populations
is being subjected to a cumulative
strain almost past the understanding
of Americans who have not been
subjected to a single air raid. All
this could conceivably so soften up
the Axis defense that an Allied in
vasion launched at the continent
later in the summer might encounter
much less effective resistance than
has been estimated. Also, there might
be total collapse Of 2alian morale,
military and civilian alike, even
though the sterner German will to
fight on would remain unbroken.
All these factors, together with
still others yet unknown to the lay
man, should be kept In mind as the