THE DAYLIGHT RAID.

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 240, 12 October 1942, Page 4

THE DAYLIGHT RAID.

The remarkable success of the daylight raid just made over German-occupied areas by a fleet of American bombers, supported by 500 R.A.F. fighter planes, has sent the assessment of Allied air strength up with a rush. Not only was great destruction wrcught at Lille and

other places, but also heavy toll was taken of the Luftwaffe — and all this at singularly low cost. The escorting squadrons did not lose a single machine, and only four bombers did not return. The striking fact is that the 48 enemy planes destroyed and a great number of others damaged were accounted for by the Flying Fortresses and the Liberators. The dual capacity of the American machines has been proved in a wonderful degree. With their exceptional cannon power, they were more than a match for the latest types of German planes. The whole achievement is a very encouraging indication of the development of a new phase in the air war, with the combination of British and American resources and qualities. This collaboration has not been easy to develop. A few weeks

ago the New York Times asserted that the British and American air offensive against Germany had not been carried on because of the inability of the two commands to agree on methods and objectives. Not a single United States bomber crew had yet taken part in the R.A.F. night raids over Germany, the paper said. R.A.F. officers in Washington were quoted as saying that Britain would increase the production of big bombers because she must follow such a programme if the heavy air blows that Air-Marshal Harris had been delivering were to be continued. The reason that night bombers must be built in Britain, they intimated, was that the R.A.F. did not believe that the big American B17s and B24s could do the job. A United States Air Force officer spokesman told the New York Times that he agreed that B24s and B17s were not in-

tended for night bombing. He adcV?:d that the United States Army Air Force was not so confident as the R.A.F. about the effect of " saturation" night hombing attacks. It prefers precision bombing, which rrieans daylight bombing. He thought it likely that when the U.S. Air Force carried out the promise that American airmen flying American planes as American units would soon fly with the R.A.F., the American Aip Force might prefer high level daylight attacks.

In the meantime, no doubt, tne policy of co-ordination has been actively advanced. It was bound to give heed to the, American views, now so handsomely vindicated. The American success now reported is in line with the anticipations expressed by Mr Churchill in his war review at the beginning of September. "United States daylight bombing, he said, " is a new and increasingly important factor. There is no doubt that in the accuracy of their highlevel aim and in our mutually defensive, power new possibilities in air warfare are being opened up by our American comrades and their Flying Fortresses." A long-awaited day is dawning.