The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1945-03-16
. BEHIND THE SCENES
IN WASHINGTON .

many the Royal Air Force was
given the assignment of dislocat-
ing German industry and the
housing of the German worker
population to lower German
morale, while the u. S. Army
Air Forces were given specific
targets for strategic bombing of
highly industrialized areas.
In three years of concentrat-
eded attack, however, the Raj
has been able to destroy only
about Is per cent of Germany's
industrial capacity for war pro-
duction.
On the other side of the pic
ture, Germanys combined air
a:>i ground attack knocked out
a third of Russia's industrial ca
pacity and took over so per cent
of Soviet coal and coke output,
yet Russia came back.
JAPAN KNOCKED,
BUT NOT OUT
The u. S. combined air, sea,
submarine and ground attack
on Japan's shipping has in three
years reduced this maritime ma
tons shipping from seven mil
lion tons to four-and-a-half mil
lion tons a year ago, and an esti-
mated two million tons today.
This has put the Japs up against
the tough decision of whether to
stop imports of raw materials
or cut down on supplying her
troops in the field, but it has not
knocked Japan out of the war.
These results support the Am
erican strategical belief in the
bombing of selected bottleneck
targets which will most seri-
ously cripply an enemy's war
production capacity. One-third
of Germany's aircraft ball bear
ings and two-thirds of her indus
trial ball bearings being concen-
trated in the Schweinfurt area
this was natural target. Near
ly 95 per cent of Japan's coal,
coke and power production be-
ing concentrated in six main
areas, they have been natural
targets.
In a years strafing of German
railroads. Allied planes were
able to knock out some 100 To-
comotives. II sounds like a lot
until measured against Ger
many's capacity to build new To-
comotives, which was 1900
year. The net loss was therefore
only 500 locomotives a year.
That made the bombing of loco
motives not so good from stra-
tegic standpoint, though it was
good tactically il it tied up the
supply line to the front for even
a short time. But as the Ger
mans became pretty proficient
in patching their rail lines that
made the game still less worth
the candle.
REGENERATION A FACTOR
The ability of an industry to
recuperate from bombing loss is
still another factor in determin-
ing whether it will pay to bomb
it. In attacking the German air
craft industry, the Army Air
Forces let the final assembly
plants more or less alone be-
cause they were easy to replace.
Instead u. S. bombers were sent
after the engine assembly and
the finished parts assembly
plants which, because Of their
specialized tooling, were harder
to replace.
Since the German single-en-
CINE fighter craft losses in recent
months have been running ~
high as so per cent 4 month, If
this aircraft production could
have been stopped for two
months it could have been stop
ped completely. Yet it never
was.
All these facts are analysed
here at the Orlando Tactical
Center not to minimize the part
the Army Air Forces have play
ed in this war or will be capable
of doing in the next. But they
do show that the aerial branch
Of military science Is stOl In the
process OF development, and
many Of the early and fantastic
claims made for airpower have