Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-04-22

on maneuverability at all
1t may be that their inability to build
and maintain the heavy installations
required for our types Of aircraft, as
evidenced by the ridiculously inadequate
construction and maintenance equip
ment found on captured japanese air
strips, was actually the determining fac
tor in the size and armament of their
planes. Perhaps their conception of
airport engineering determined the
character of their air force as much as
their conception of air tactics.
This theory is somewhat difficult to
appreciate without actually facing the
physical facts of life as the Aviation En-
gineers and the Sea Bees, too, face
them in the Pacific. To the lay mind,
runway is simply long, level stretch
Of ground, fashioned by bulldozer
and packed by steamroller until it is
hard enough to Withstand the impact
of an airplane of a certain maximum
weight landing at a -mile-an-hour
speed or greater. which sounds compli-
Gated enough. To the Aviation Engineer
the problem of where to get the gravel
or other material, how to drain it for
all-weather use and how to lay it out to
require the least effort in terms of cubic
yards of earth to be moved are tech
meal headaches When he has solved
these problems, he Is only about quar-
ter of the way through, because the
runway represents only about Is per
cent of a modern airfield.
Converting Jap Fields
Wading ashore with the amphibious
forces on some coral island in the Pa
cafe, the Aviation Engineers must con-
vert the Japanese air strip, II. there is
one. for use by our fighter planes in
about two days, or build a new one in
Ave or six days. While the fighters are
landing and taking of, and Jap planes
usually are attacking, work goes on to
convert it for use by medium bombers,
which takes a couple of weeks longer
For the heavies, month or more may
be required, depending on circumstances.
Preparing Saipan for operations by
Super Fortresses, to date the heaviest
bomber We have, required four months.
That job, the biggest the Aviation En-
gineers have undertaken in the Pacific,
involved, to cite just one example NOV
ing 100000 cubic yards Of coral rock.
The cubic content of an average FIVE
room house is about 1000 yards. Dur
ing the four month period they moved
the equivalent in cubic content of 10000
five-room houses. They built taxi strips
aggregating an area as wide as two
lane highway and as long as from Wash
ington to Baltimore, some 40 miles. That
does not include the Understandings, in
dividual parking lots for each of several
hundred B-2es leading off the parking
strips, each surrounded by a revetment
to protect it against enemy attack. The
network of pipelines needed to have a
gasoline pump at each Understanding
to furnish enough gasoline for 1900
mile or more flight Is enough to stagge1
the Imagination.
The Job at Saipan
Remember, there was practically
nothing disable left at Saipan when the
Aviation Engineers moved in. It wa.
necessary to build not only barracks
mess halls and chapels, but machine
shops, test blocks for engines, huge tanks
for gasoline storage reckoned in millions
of gallons, ammunition depots for the
superbombs and 1000 or more building!
and facilities undreamed of by the for.
mer occupants, all within a spac,
smaller than afforded by the area o.
Manhattan Island. All this was in add
ton to the gun emplacements and mill
tary works incident to defense of {
strong point which has become Ike!
for our offensive forces against the Jap
anese homeland, but which is only on
of many being created for the f1na
assault.
The question Of the final assault
naturally, raises questions of highe
strategy which can be answered only b,
the march of events. On the futur
developments in the Pacific theatel
there are two distinct schools of thought
One holds that the assault on the Jap
anese homeland, difficult as 1t undoubt
eddy will be-, will be the end, and tina
capture of Tokyo will end resistance o
all japanese, beyond perhaps the mop