The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-17
ombers Show
Air Attack Possibility
Great Flying Fleet Demon
strates Might Of U. S.
Strategic Command
BY ELTON FAY
Associated Press Military
Affairs Editor

BY ELTON A
Associated Press Military
Affairs Editor
WASHINGTON, May Is. -lPE
"A warning shadow Of what could
happen if an enemy struck from
the air was cast over the Eastern
seaboard today by 100 hugs bomb
Iers which theoretically smashed
at New York in a mock raid.
The great flying fleet also dem
onstrated over other teeming cities,
including Washington, and concelv-
ably could have dropped an atom
bomb on each.
The big show Of the Strategic
Air command also demonstrated
that even now it can assemble a
major striking force OF giant
bombers from thousands OF miles
distance and hit a target at exact
Iy the required minute.
The Strategic Air command In
vited reporters to witness this
muscle = fexing as passengers
aboard some of the 100 super
fortresses put up from bases in
pre-dawn darkness at points as
far away as Arizona and South
dakota. They became, for the day,
members of the air crews.
They listened and groaned with
the crew when priefing officers
predicted wind, thunderstorms, hall
and the chance that most OF the
home bases would be weather
bound before they could get back.
Gle was wrong in some OF his pre-
dictions.) They gulped black col
fee. climbed into the bombers and
sweated out lurching, roaring take
offs into a black night.
At Right Time
Lead planes, flying above a land
scape on which landmarks were
completely hidden by clouds, reach
ed exactly the right assembly
points at the right time and were
Immediately joined in formation
by other elements.
Forty five hundred feet above
the Atlantic shoreline at Cape May
the smaller components OF the
whole mass force climbed, dipped
and twisted into position.
From a gunner's dome atop a
lead ship of the huge formation
the whole array of deadly machines
were visible, stacked in echelons
almost two thousand feet THICK
laundering methodically along over
friendly cities.
From the air, all the prime tar
gets that would be available TO
enemy bombardiers drifted under
meath the bomb bays OF the Buys
- piers and ships, railroad yards,
oil plants, chemical works, steel
plants. They were strung out IN
fine pattern for bombing from
New York through the great New
Jersey industrial cities, Phladel'
phia and Wilmington, Del. Sur
prisingly, only a few planes Of n
originally scheduled mass lorna
ton were unable to get into the
air or reach the target on time.
Engine trouble caused n bomber
to cancel its flight from Fort Worth.
Tex. Heavy storms forced elements
coming from Tuscon, Ariz., to head
for Florida, but some OF them
managed to reach the target area
after the main flight had made It's
run.
No Accidents
The men who organized and con-
Quoted the biggest air operauon
since the war were pleased that
no accident occurred. They noted
that most of the a~irplanes flew for
more than half the distance to the
target through and above clouds
where the chances were hlgh o
collision with no survivors. Pilots
were specifically urged by brleflng
officers to take extreme care IN
fyinp into clouds and to get ou!
of them Immediately.
There. were no foreign observers
taboard the planes. 1t was strlctly
an American family affair.
Officers of the command also
noted that only about 40 per cent OF
the pilots and co-pilots OF the force
have had some form of combat ex-
nerience. The rest have learned the
tricky trade of formation flying,
etc. since the war. The percentage
of ground crewmen with wartime
e~xperience in maintaining alrplanes
runs considerably higher.
There was no doubt that Gen.
George C. Kenney, SAC command
err, wanted Congress and the rest
of the government to see his serv-
ice was in a reasonable state oil
readiness for trouble. But he was
disappointed.
Cloud Cover
A virtually solid cloud cover, the
bottom of which was a scant l.
800 feet above the earth, obscur
ed the capital. The commanders
did not care to risk flying more
than 100 big bombers at such low
!, altitude.
The result: most capital Of
ficials and citizens heard or saw
nothing of the 38 B-29's that did
maintain formation and fly up
along the Potomac. From the air,
observers caught a glimpse OF the
,Pentagon - and had no sight OF