Evening star., 1944-06-16

came home. Eleven war correspond
ents went on the trip to see, at the
invitations of the Goth Bomber Com
mand. the show of shows And when
the planes had turned homeWard
leaving behind the glowing masses
Of wreckage, Japan had her answer
to DecembeT 7, l94l. at Pearl Harbor
It's not too muAh to say that the
silver and olive-drab Dragon Flies
AS some of the crews have nicknamed
these new B-29S. have struck at the
heart of the dragon itself. And stimuli
taneouSly the news came OF the
preliminary raid that has been made
on Jap-occupied Bangkok in Thai
land. in the last week. The Dragon
Fly is beginning to make itself felt,
Foe Has Defenses.
"The attack on the japanese
mainland by the B-29s demon
strated one fact which our Air
Force has long been endeavoring to
learn. The lesson being studied to-
day. as the reports of pilots and
crews are compiled, is that while the
enemy was caught by surprise in the
initial attacks. he has prepared de-
fenseS and he can marshal enough
ni9ht-fighter planes to cause at
least some interference with our
bombing patterns. For the most
part, during the first period of
this regular mission against the
Japanese mainland, very little de-
veloped except Searchlights and
antiaircraft. In the second phase,
the antiaircraft fire died down.
THAT to experienced flyers is the
signal that night fighters have taken
off. The third period was the crucial
one, when the Jap fighters actually
pressed their attack home with only
meager results. B-29s reporting
back to bases in the early morning
hours of Friday could show some
bullet holes but very little material
damage. The B-29, planned and eX-
ecuted as an offensive weapon has,
its own pilots believe, proved its
worth.
Primary Result Is Surprise.
THE primary result of the at
tack against YaWata was surprise.
The first dips over the target found
that the area was unguarded against
the destructive results of the bomb
loads. In itself. that one factor is
of vital Importance since the iron
and steel company in the harbor
area is the factory that Japan needs
to keep her war machine running
against us and our Allies.
What effect this bombing mis-
sion may have on the course of the
war not even the people who have
planned the raid will know, but it
is an assured fact that the whole
plan, mapped out long ago and car
ried through to relatively successful
conclusion, has brought more i'm
portance 10 our long-range bombing
program and similarly to the enc
my's often-publicized defense plan.
The boys who flew the raid last
night now know that there are de-
fenses there, but they also know
that they are not as formidable as
they have been made out to be
by the Japs. The B-29 raid, the
first on the japanese mainland
from Chinese bases, started off
with a bang and finished with a
flourish. From first to finish, it was
an American show, with American
planes. American bombs, American
apparatus and American crews.
China Helped Greatly.
But there are two other nations
involved in the planning of this
gigantic air offensive. First, China
because without hundreds of thou
sands of Chinese laborers called
coolies the raids would never have
been possible, because there would
have been no airfields from which
to bomb. The second nation in
volved-thats Japan-involved itself
by the sneak attack on Pearl Har-
Dor on that Infamous day of Decem-
Der 7, 1941.
Just since I've come back to
Chungking for this broadcast one
of my friends has asked me to de-
scribe an aerial fight between a
B-29 and the Jap bomber Well,
the answer is there is no such
thing-because it just can't happen.
There are cases on record where a
Jap pilot dove at B-29 which he
saw only a moment before him, and
when he pulled up he didn't know
it wasn't there That's just a small
recommendation of the speed with
which these huge bombers can bat
tie.
1T didn't always work that way
last night, and some crews had a
lot of fun sniping away from their
various positions while the Japs
sought to force the Dragon Fly's
tough hide like mouse poking at an
elephant.
There were a couple of smart
guys in my ship. For example. the
one who came on the interphone
Just as we were entering the tar