REPORT ON U.S. AIR FORCE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 22, 21 October 1942, Page 5

REPORT ON U.S. AIR FORCE

Strength And Weakness NEED FOR ALTITUDE FIGHTERS (By Telegraph—Press ..Assn.—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, October’ 19. Warning .that “in the coming months battles may be lost and crushing defeats suffered,” the Office of War Information, in a 10,000-word report to the public designed to dispel the fog of confusion concerning American planes, said "the truth lies between the two extremes of adverse and favourable criticisms.” The report specifically said that the Ourtis P4O (Tomahawk and Kittyhawk), Bell P 39 (Airacobra), and Pol (Mustang) standard fighters have many good points, but are definitely inferior to foreign, types in high altitude combat. Improved types are in production, but have not yet been tested in battle. The chief fault of. the American fighters is the tardy and incomplete development of the Allison liquid-cooled motor. For daylight precision bombing, z the Flying Fortress Bl7’s and Liberator B24’s are unsurpassed. The medium bombers, the Mitchell B2s’s and Martin B26’s, have no competitors. The latest navy fighter, dive-bomber, and torpedo types which are already in action, are the best carrier planes in the world. Other types of patrol, reconnaissance. cargo transport and fire spotter planes are satisfactory in quality within their own fields. The report stressed the fact thatonly results in battle provide valid standards of criticism. No full appraisal is possible till the war has been won. Better Choice of Weapons. The alternate superiority of the United States and Britain in various types gives the United Nations, as a team,.a better choice of weapons than the enemy. The report declared that the United States aircraft industry and services were steadily developing specialized aircraft of high, and in some eases sensational, promise of battle performance. The report issued a warning that the air victories, specially in the south-west Pacific, may (have resulted primarily from specialized tactical situations which will not always be- so favourable. It warned that defeats were possibly coming, and said: “When we meet reversals and the pull of victory seems to grow long and hard, Americans will do well if they indulge to the full their genius for critical self-analysis.” .... While asserting that America had lagged in developing (high-altitude fighter planes, the report said that existing fighters are valuable weapons in Russia and Northern Africa, where fighters are needed at relatively low altitudes. It was stated that in China, where the American Volunteer Group flew P4os, the pilots, with the aid of the excellent Chinese air-raid warning system, destroyed 218 Japanese planes with , a loss of 84 American machines, but in. the February raid on Darwin the P4u s were shot down bv the Japanese mostly because of the lack of warning. Likewise, in the Philippines, the army aircraft were hampered because the air-raid warning system was "disrupted by fifth columnists before it had functioned. . Falling back continuously on inadequate fields and inadequate facilities all through the Japanese drive to the south-west’Pacific, the P4os performance was decidedly less than standard. In the vital European theatre, *• appraisal of the P 39 and P4O compelled the conclusion that they are not right for, operation under vtoday’s high altitude’tactics in - England. Two New Fighters.

Two newer fighter types, the - twinengined >Lockheed P3B (Lightning) nnd the. single-engined Republic P4< (Thunderbolt) are in production, and show great promise as high-altitude pursuit planes. Yet the public should he warned that neither .plane is a complete answer to the fighter problem, and probably no plane ever will be. Discussing the supremacy within their own fields of the Flying,Fortress and Liberator bombers, the report disputed the claims of the superiority sometimes made for the Lancaster bomber, ...which carries a heavier bomb-load (because it is designed to fly lower and, carry less fuel. American planes, stripped tor the same job, could easily increase the bombload, it said. While American air-cooled - engines are generally regarded as the best in;the world, the report said, the only liquidcooled engine of American design now in mass production and general military use is the Allison. Its development has been carried out under great .difficulties and has not yet caught up With its opnosite numbers, Britain's Rolls-Royce and Germany’s Daimler-Benz engines. In reaching for the ideal iflr force, the United States was hampeted by the impossibility of anticipating the specific demands of the war and also has been hamstrung by disagreement in its own fighting services as to the weight and power to be wielded bj air power. Despite this, the United States went to war with a well-integrated air force not all distributed with the maximum eff.ee, “The prime specification for United States aeroplanes was the defence of our shores. This, more than any other factor, explains our preoccupation, with lon» range bombers. This practically explains the failure to develop a good interceptor capable of climbing rapidly at short nowar without such valuable equipment is explained only by our failure to give consideration to the possibility of full American participation warfare overseas. Subsidiary explanations are the shortage of development funds ia.Peacetane ye ars and the prevalent pubhc faith that the United States could avoid involvement in a foreign war. Allies . “In the vast revision of ideas of design since the war began E " r °P e >V?n„ e b d Sfntns owes a vast debt to the -Allie « particularly to the British and the lessons they have to America from the the importance of. an adequate warming system to the successful operation of combat planes, the report said that as the battle tor the Philippines wore southward there was often none at all. Furthermore, American fighter pilots lacked the technical equipment, and detectotrs to Prepare for the enemy’s approach. Often the first notice came when the enemy planes were Sl "*j t f < our fighters were already in the iir they had a fair chance of getting up and battling with the enemy, the report said. "More otten they had to wait. tor the enemy to come down to them and then slug it outT _____