The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1944-05-04

The Japenese probably thought
these incidents, and many others
like them, were simply Yankee luck.
but actually they were the result
Of new and exact military science
the science Of photo interpreta-
ton. In the P.ID. hut ct this base
p(PI.D. Is short for Photo 1ntelli-
gence Division) experts work "a
hours a day prying the lid on Tojo'S
secrets In the North Pacific.
Since the Dutch Harbor attack
these men have known almost as
much about the Japanese garrisons
In this theater as the Japanese
themselves have. Working with
painstaking, microscopic care, they
have measured, analysed and chart
ed every hut the Japanese have
built, every foot Of road, every gun
position and trench and revetment.
Missed by 80 Men
"Our estimate Of the number Of
Japanese on Attu was In error,
however" said Maj. Jesse v. Smythe
6215 washington Blvd), Indian
apolis, Ind, commading officer OF
the p. I. D. section here. IT guess
they must have had q couple Of huts
we didn't spot. Anyhow, we missed
BY 80 men. We'll try to do better
next time"
When the reconnaissance bonn
bers return from the interhenis-
pheric operations now being carried
out against the Japanese In the
KurileS, p. I. D. men meet the
planes and rush the Aim to the
laboratories, and from this point on
nobody gets any rest until the pic
lures have been developed and
printed. When the, prints are placed
In a protector and focused on a
large movie screen for inspection,
the P.I.D. men are as tense and
eager as detectives with q new clue.
Sometimes the pictures are blank,
showing clouds or perhaps an ex-
panse Of bleak Kurile terrain -
nothing but rocks and snow and
unoccupied seacoast. But in salts
factory number Of cases aa garri-
son or an unsupported airfield will
be revealed, every detail clear and
sharp, faithfully recorded by the
combination Of fast Aim and bill
lion canrlepower flash bombs.
The P.I.D. men then go to work
with stereopticans, slides rules,
copying cameras and the various
complicated gadgetS Of their craft
and within q few days they know
virtually everything there Is to be
known about that particular enemy
garrison or airfleld.
I'VE haven't got the Job worked
out to the point where we can
measure the muzzle Of a Japanese
gun in a picture to determine its
caliber." says 1t. william Andrews,
Tulso. Okla. But we've got other
ways or figuring that out. There's
some guesswork involved, but we
were better than 90 per cent right
In our Kiska work.
Enemy CamOuflage Good
Men like Capt. Nils Peterson,
Johnson City, Tenn, and Capt
Byron Waldruff, Toledo, O., who
have analysed hundreds Of pictures
taken Of enemy installations, state
that Japanese camouflage Is good
but not good enough consistently to
fool American aerial cameras. The
lenses Of these cameras, they tell
you, will record q trail made by q
single Japanese walking through
the Kurile grass, or a line Of foot
prints on a sandy beach. They re-
cord objects the human eye would
pass over time after time without
seeing.
I'VE located an underground
warehouse once" Maj. Smythe said
when Japanese placed a small
plank across mudhole at the en-
trance-and 1t is an interesting fact
that the plane the picture was taken
from was flying at 10000 feet"
Generals and admirals planning
operations against the japanese
depend almost entirely on informa-
ton assembled by the P.ID. men
on information as to beaches suit
able for landings, on the number
and location of anti-aircraft bat
teries. coast defense guns, trenches
tank traps and airf1elds.
Without this information. they
would have to locate the enemy's
defenses the hard way, and lose
American lives doing 1t. They tell
20 uit would be very difficult to
fight this war without P. D.