Evening star., 1944-06-11
Air Weapon
BOOmeranged
By w. H. Shippen, Jr.

Four long years after DunkerQue the
Nazis at last are beginning to feel the
full weight Of the frightful air weapon
they themselves created to subjugate
the world.
Neither Hermann Goering nor Der
Fuehrer himself could have dreamed UP
the power of destruction which the AL
lies have mastered In the years since
a little group of RAF fighters assigned
to the defense of London drummed out
over the Channel to shepherd home
what remained Of an army driven into
the sea.
If the British left the continent under
sky umbrella, they returned with
their American Allies under something
resembling circus tent by comparison.
incidentally, they missed by only day
an opportunity to celebrate the fourth
anniversary of Dunkerque on the
beaches of Normandy.
For the first few invasion days at
least, Goering's vaunted Luftwaffe re-
manned in hiding while the sky over
France thundered with fire and bomb
power and darkened with troop car
riers and glider trains which rained
down fighting men and machinery.
There can be little doubt at this stage
that the absence of Nazi fighters and
bombers gave the invaders tremendous
initial advantage.
When Belgium capitulated, and the
British were thrown back to the Chan
mel, the RAF was forced to use the
fighters on which London depended for
survival. For 10 terrible days they
screened helpless thousands on the
beaches from Nazi dive bombers and
strafers.
Few among the $4,000 troops saved
ever saw the Hfe-and-death battles
which went on all around their hazy
horizon. Many anguished men cried
out, Where is the RAF?"
The fact that they lived to learn later
was due as much to the fighters as to
the incredible calm OF the Channel and
the volunteers of the small vessels
pool"
Dunkerque, perhaps more than any
other single factor, jolted the vast pro-
duction machinery of Britain and the
United States into motion. Far-sighted
observers who had sought to warn Of the
peril had been dismissed as alarmists.
Fortunately, however, Goering had
unveiled his Luftwaffe year or so too
soon. He had hoped to intimidate, but
instead he activated certain hard
headed Americans allowed to see Nazi
mass production Of fighters and bomb
ers
When these men came home their
warnings fell on deaf ears, so they quit
talking and went to work-manufac-
turers, few military observers and
Government officials. They began to
design planes for fire power and bomb
load which could be produced in guam
tity, and they began to channel foreign
orders to firms capable of heavy pro-
duction later.
Thus when Dunkerque jolted loose
some real money for defense, many Of
them had the blue prints and some of
them had the mock-ups and the proto-
types for the future. From then on out
1t was race against time, and even
tually the sky became the limit.
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How well the home front has sue
ceeded was evinced by the fact that last
month, the heaviest yet for production,
8,902 military planes rolled off the lines
heavy hombers. too, or superheavies,
with emphasis shifting from light planes
like trainers to long-range dread
naughts. For the first time every bomb
er plant hit or overshot all production
schedules.
The Army Air Force is approaching
peak strength-one 1t can maintain in
combat, according to the commanding
general. Pipelines of supply connect
battle fronts all over the world with
requirements IN men and materiel from
the United States. The pipelines are
full.
"All we have to do" said a supply
officer, "is pump over here and 1t comes
out over there!"
The invasion air armadas are now
employing bombardment and ground
support tactics developed the hard way
in England, North Africa, Sicily and
Italy.
The American and British learned in
North Africa how to support land troops
with a tactical air force composed Of
AAF and RAF fighters and bombers
operating under a single commander.
The victories of the force, organized
for flexibility and quick concentrations
of power on any desired front, were in
sharp contrast to early reverses as a
result of the ability of the Germans
to throw the whole weight of their air
power against separated Allied armies
in turn.
This successful Allied operation, OBJ
servers said, was the first expression
in actual practice of the long months
of experience gained by the RAF' in the
only theater in which Allied air units
have fought the enemy alongside ground
units in the field At the same time the
strategic air force was destroying ships,
ports, docks and distant airbases.
In Italy the air force crippled the
Nazis by. severing 26 of their main sup
ply railroads and scattering their con-
voys. The Germans were reduced to
travelling damaged highways by night
while the Allies, with command of the
air, moved behind their lines with COM
plete freedom
Working out of England, with the
Raj mostly on the night trick, and the
AAF on the day side, the combined
force seized supreme command of the
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