Evening star., 1945-01-04

.Nazi Army Reyerses
Held Responsible for
lufiwaiie's Gamble
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.

= It was about 300 against 5000
when the Luftwatfe made its futile
surprise attack on Allied airflelds
back Of the LIST Army front Monday |
The enemy lost more than 200l
planes. according to reports received
here, while the American British
losses were negligible. There Isl
every reason to believe that the Ger
mans bungled the attack. 1t wasI
badly timed and lacked the element
of surprise. 1t found many Allied
planes in the air.
One is led to conjecture why the
Luftwaffe took such an apparently
ill-advised gamble. Not that the
loss Of 200 fighters is considered
very serious. During the summer
and early fall, when the combined
air forces were concentrating much
of their attention On other objec-
tives, Germany doubtless had an
opportunity to replace, good many
of her fighter losses,
Fighter PfantS Targets.
Starting early last year, the pri-
mary objective of the United States
9th Air Force, operating from Eng
land, was to destroy the enemy ca
pacity for fighter production. It'll
concentrated its bombing on fighter
assembly plants and industries con-
$tributing vital products to fighter
production---a very wide field. It'll
could never bring fighter production
to an absolute stop, but it did reduce
1t to point where 1t was pitifully
incapable of replacing the heavy
losses the Luftwaffe was taking I'M
the air and on the ground. /
This policy paid enormous divi-
sdends. With. German fighters in
the air in force maintenance and
building up of the Allied toehold on
Normandy would have been nearly
impossible. They probably could
not have prevented an Allied land
ing. The efficacy of fighters against
ground troops, particularly those not
confined to roads, still may be de-
hatable. But they very likely could
have delayed for a long time the
breakthrough, after which the 1st
Army swept across France and Bel
g1um In less than three months.
Reached Low Ebb.
But during June and July the Ger
man fighter force was at low level
1t had, however, got respite from
execution and hidden fighter pro-
duction centers presumably were in
operation night and day. At the
same time, presumably, the produc-
tion Of buzz bombs was we'll under
way, as one answer to the fighter
shortage.
A good many of the fighter losses
were replaced. Such replacement,
however, must have been far from
reaching the point where several
hundred can be sacrificed without
very serious thought. But the Ger
mans today have an even greater
weakness than shortage of planes
shortage of experienced fighter
pilots. For some reason, they have
not been training many to take the
place Of the experienced flyers shot
down since the start of the war. L
Probable Reason
That the Luftwaffe should have
attempted such maneuver prob
ably is due to the terrific damage
done to Won Rundstedt's army since
the break through by the use of the
combined Allied tactical and stra-
tegic commands against communi-
cations and supplies. Perhaps al
most any risk which win nghtenj
this is worth while. Also the psy-
Geological effect on the Germanf
ground troops must be considerable.
For 10 days now the Allied forces
have been in the air a good deal
of the time against the enemy po-
sitions. At times they have almost
blotted out the sun. Doubtless a
good many German soldiers have
been asking: Where is our Luft-
waffe?"
The theory has been that what
was left Of it, including the new
fighting craft built in the last few
months, was being boarded for the
defense Of Germany itself. 1t is at
least Of some psychological COM
fort to the populace of a bombed
city If their own fighters are able
to shoot down few Of the invaders.
The Luftwaffe dare not take many
such losses.