The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1944-06-06
Vast Air Forces
Flung into Fray
American-Made Sky Fleet
Vital Factor i'm Show Down

mander of the Army Air forces,
said, with plans but no planes. ="
Of the 5000 Army airplanes
available on Dec. 6, 194l, only
1857 were suited to combat
service. Actually. none of them
could stay in the air against
1914 models.
In a matter of hours on Dec. Z,
l94l, the Japanese reduced our
combat-suited aircraft total to
800, and for some time there
after whitfield it down still furth-
er before American production
began to swing up.
The Armys only fighter then
in mass production was the P-40
WarhaWk, a sturdy plane lack
ing in performance but which
then carried and, in improved
models, still carries a sizeable
responsibility.
Bombing was done princi-
pally by the { and d models of
the BIZ Flying Fortress, the
BPS Mitchell and the AGO
Havoc. Also in service in small
numbers were the B-24 Liber-
ator, the BIG Marauder and the
A24 Dauntless.
The BIZ had first been
flown six years earlier. at about
the time work was started on the
B-24. Being readied for action
at the time of Pearl Harbor were
the P-38 Lightning, an ex-
tremely versatile, high perform
ance fighter; the P39 Airacobra,
which welded two years later
TO a much improved version;
the PAT Thunderbolt, high fly
ing slugger which did not get
into the air until after the war
began, and the Psi Mustang,
rated by many the worlds best
single-engined fighter.
Literally dozens of other war
craft were on drafting boards,
but few of them have passed the
Armys rigid requirements.
Variety in aircraft was sac
rificed to production.
About 10000 airplanes were
built in l941. The 1913 total was
85,946, and the weight of each
plane was nearly double that of
the prewar model.
The early 1914 rate of produc-
ton was around 10000 year
with still greater average
weight.
The Eighth bomber command
went into business on Aug. IT,
1912.
United States participation in
the air war over Europe had
been little more than a token UP
to that time, and even thereafter
it grew but slowly. Not until
Jan. q, 1943, did an American
force strike at target in Ger
many proper --Wilhelmshaven
and not until more than a
year later, Feb. 3, 1914, were
American planes seen over Ber-
lin.
The two years of preparation
were followed by a mighty ex-
pansion in activity.
GRIM RECORD
The December, 1943, volume
of bombs dropped by the Eighth
Air Force was 10000 tons "a
third as much as had been
dropped in the preceding Is
months. Thereafter the totals
spiraled upward.
If Berlin had not seen Yankee
planes, they were familiar in
plenty of other citie+Bremen,
Emden, Wilhelmshaven, Kiel,
Vegesack, Schweinfurst, Han
over, Paris, Antwerp, Trond-
helm, st. Nazaire, and even
Gdynia in the Polish corridor.
The objective of the American
Air Forces, stated officially aft
er the Casablanca conference,
was:
ITO accomplish the progress
sive destruction of the German
military, industrial and econom-
ic systems to point where the
capacity for armed resistance is
fatally weakened"
The plan for reaching the OBJ
jective was:
First, hit vulnerable targets to
slow the Nazi fighter plane pro-
duction program, then as mo-
mentum gathered 10 beat down
the German air force itself and
thus lay open the whole of Ger
man war production, transpor-
tation and stores.
Standing in the way Of the OBJ
iective were the German air
force itself. formidable though
not too numerous force: q high
ly developed system of ground
defenses and detection devices
the size of the undertaking, and
the distances to targets.
NEW DEVICES
Added TO the skill of Nazi
pilots and the speed and power
of Nazi planes was an amending
string of new and strange devices
aerial bombs. rocket guns.