BOMBING OF U.S. FORESEEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 20 October 1942, Page 2

BOMBING OF U.S. FORESEEN

SUPERIORITY OF GERMAN PLANES VIEWS OF RETIRED COLONEL (Rec. 1.30 p.m.) Washington, Oct. 19. Germany will resume concentrated bombings of air bases in England, redouble her attacks on American shipping and directly bombard American industrial centres, predicts Colonel Hugh Knerr retired chief of United States Army Air Corps in an article in “Mercury” magazine. “The Germans at present have planes capable of raiding America at any time they choose, and have been testing bombers with 40,000 feet of altitude and equipped with automatic pilots and improved bomb-sights. “I think the Germans will come from Norway, via the Arctic and strike the industrial region between Sault St. Marie and Niagara, perhaps as far south as Pittsburgh. The present German air strength is barely holding its own be cause they froze models early in the war, but soon a new series of Me's and Fockewulfs will give her the finest fighting team in the world. To oppose it we have the Spitfires, which equals the Me. in the air-cooled class, and the Republic P 47, which remains to be seen if it is as good as - the Fockewulfe. “I do not think we will knock out the German air force before the spring but it is possible the United Nations will have mastery of the air over Europe before thfe spring. A threat to this is our own Navy, which is attempting to divide Flying Fortress production and divert hundreds of these planes to Pacific naval bases under battleship admirals who have had no business with land-based bombers, because they do not know how to use them.” —P.A.