Evening star., 1943-09-05
Stains Failure to
Appreciate New Method
By O1uen l.. Scott.

old-fashioned conservative, not a revolu-
tionary, in his ideas on war. 1t is that
innate conservatism that has kept him
harping on his demand for a second
front in Western Europe before the more
revolutionary strategy of the United
States and Great Britain called for that
front.
In final analysis, the troubles of both
Hitler and Stain will be found to lie
IN their military conservatism. Neither
has appreciated amphibious operations
in warfare and neither has understood
the potentialities of the strategic use of
airpower. Hitler first missed the boat
by failing to understand the problem of
moving large bodies of troops across
something broader than river. This
failure prevented him from invading
Great Britain in 1910 when she was help
less. Hitler then missed another boat
by not knowing how to make strategic
use of the airplane
Stain, like Hitler, has had difficulty
realizing that the problem of moving
over an ocean Is problem of much
different dimensions than the problem
OF moving across the Volga or the
Dnieper. Like Hitler, too, he tied his
airplanes to ground troops and failed to
exploit on an adequate scale the use
of the bomber to strike at the base of
the power of his enemy. Both the Rus
slams and the Germans depended upon
the old-fashioned method of hurting
mass armies at one another without at
the same time making use of the re-
volutlonary potentialities of the long
range bomber.
1t has remained for the military Lead
ers of Great Britain and the United
States to apply revolutionary techniques
to modern war.
The Americana British move into North
Africa was the greatest overseas move
ment in history up to that time. The
move into Sicily, against a heavily forti-
fled coast, was far greater move. This
last amphibious operation utilized strate-
glc bombing to prepare the way, where
the North African enterprise emphasized
surprise. Both have provided the train
ing and tested the equipment that will
be required when the time comes to
invade Western Europe. Both were
moves of revolutionary significance in
warfare.
Yet the greatest revolution Is being
worked by the strategic bombing of the
American Air Forces, of which Russia's
Stain has been so lacking in apprecia-
ton.
The Royal Air Force Of Britain is
carrying forward, on greater scale, the
type OF area bombing at night with which
the Germans had sought unsuccessfully
to knock out Britain. This is important,
but not the concept that American Air
Forces are bringing into USE The Amer
leans are going out deliberately, In day.
light, to strike directly at the single
factory or the particular group of re-
f1neries or the key laboratory on which
enemy power is dependent. These air.
craft are hitting where no land armies
or no artillery could hit. They Jump
over oceans or second fronts to strike at
the heart of German war making ability.
incidentally. In the process, German
aircraft are being destroyed in large
numbers.
There is every evidence that Russia's
present success against German armies
rests in important part upon the results
realized from this revolutionary concept
of strategic daylight bombing 1t is at
least questionable whether a second land
front would have given Russia any
greater aid, particularly since this coun-
try and Britain were not fully prepared
to launch that front and might have
been thrown back in the initial attempt.
Daylight bombing, besides injecting
revolutionary idea into war, is doing
things that have practical meaning to
the Russians as well as to this country
and Britain.
American bombing is credited with
knocking out to date the source of about
one-third of the German gasoline sup
ply. Lack of gasoline is credited with
preventing the Germans from making
full use of their airplane strength either
on the Russian front or elsewhere. Yet
the Russians, because of their old-fash-
ioned ideas of war, have failed to strike
within easy bombing distance for them.
Americans were forced to fly a round
trip of 1000 miles to render this help to
the Russians by bombing Rumanian re-
f1neries.
1t is American daylight bombing that
recently blasted two of the key German
aircraft factories. Results will be as
much aid to the Russians as to this
country.
Then, this same type of bombing Is
hitting at German repair shops for loco
motives and at German transport CEN
ters. The German supply problem in
Russia, more than any other single fac
tor, is responsible for the weakness that
has led to recent retreats. British and
American use of airpower is having more
to do with German transport difficulties
than any other single factor.
Further, there is growing agreement
that when the break comes in this war
it will come inside Germany, not in the
front lines where the German armies
will still be fighting with skill, utilizing
the weapons and the materials at hand.
Airpower used both for terror, as the
British are using it, and for destruction
of key sources of war power, as the
Americans are using it, may do more
than land armies to produce the inner
break in Germany.
Thus it is likely to be the revolutionary