Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-02-27
~. 5. Must Be Worlds Greatest Air Power
o Survive, Gen. Arnold Warns in Report

in this country in 1912, many others
have been built and flown, Gen.
Arnold said. 80 rapid has been our
advance that the P-59 is today
classed as q trainer" Information
on this latest type of jet-propelled
plane will be made public as soon
as security considerations permit.
New figures on the activities of the
Air Transport Command disclosed
it had delivered 10000 planes over
seas up to January l. 1915. It's flying
record increased from 1880 900
miles month in 1943 to 21,872 900
miles a month last year.
Must Ever Be Alert.
Gen. Arnold warned that the
American people must never again
assume-as after the last war and
as the French did up to 1940-that
numbers of aircraft and quantities
of equipment make an air force. A
second-rate air force, he declared,
is worse than none at all because
1t gives false sense OF security
which bombs may quickly demolish.
The United States, he said. must
have pre-eminence in the air by
all means, and the Importance of a
progressive, healthy aviation indus
try cannot be ignored
One way to keep the aviation In
'dustry progressive after final VIC
tory, he recommended, is promptly
to sell. salvage or scrap excess or
obsolete planes SO that they will not
hang over the air forces and the
aviation industry, retarding devel-
opment.'
Other Hight Lights.
Other conclusions reached by Gen.
Arnold and high lighted in dis
cussing postwar requirements were:
In about war the Army tactical
air force and the Navy air force
must work closely together with our
Army and Navy. Each must under
stand the techniques, tactics, capa-
bilities and limitations of the other.
This can be secured only by actual
service, together in tactical exer-
cises and maneuvers during times
of peace.
Private flying must be encour-
aged, he stressed, and up-to-date
training establishments should be
maintained.
Writing of the progress Of the
war, Gen. Arnold conceded there
were arguments about the results of
strategic air war against Germany
which began in the early war years
with Raj attacks and then were
stepped up in August, 1912, with the
first American strategic attack on
enemy controlled targets.
The results of this Allied air Of
fensive were open to interpreta-
tion," he said. "Wishful thinking
had caused some persons to believe
Germany might collapse during
l943. Then as time wore on the
pendulum swung the other way"
He followed this up with an &C.
| count of the strategic attacks
against German plane production,
oil plants and transport and the re-
sulting curtailment of the enemy's
war machine. He added: THE final
yardstick is the battle of Germany"
The German air force should not
be underestimate, battered though
it is, he warned. BY calling on its
reserves and withholding them when
not absolutely essential, the enemy
can put up as many as 500 to 900
planes in the air at time eOn
January l OF this year. he reminded,
the German air force made sweep
through France, Holland and Bel
gium, destroying 155 Allied planes.
Discussing the air war against
Japan, Gen. Arnold, writing before
the invasion of Two Jima, $50 miles
south Of Tokyo, said:
1--WE must build air bases closer TO
Tokyo, and we must lombard che
japanese mainland at an I'M
precedented scale. We must bring
the maximum amount of air power
to bear against Japan with the least
loss of time, so that Japan will be
defeated with the minimum loss of
American lives"
That time. he indicated, is swiftly
approaching by the close co-opera-
ton of the Navy, the ground forces
and the AAF in cutting Japanes'
lifelines and drawing steadily
closer ring around the homeland.