BOMBING OF GERMANY

Southland Times, Issue 24818, 10 August 1942, Page 5

BOMBING OF GERMANY

ALLIED METHODS (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 7. The Washington correspondent of The New York Tinies says the widely advocated British and American aerial offensive against Germany is not under way because of the British and American inability to agree on methods and objectives. United States bombers have not yet participated in Royal Air Force night raids on Germany.. Furthermore, such participation is improbable, at least until a complete and separate United States air organization is built up in Britain with American ground crews. Although the American planes are faster and have higher ceilings than the Lancaster and Stirling fourengined bombers, they carry only three and a-half tons of bombs, whereas the Lancaster carries eight tons. The Americans are also insufficiently armed for night bombing. An American Air Force spokesman agreed that American bombers are not intended for night bombing. He added that the American Air Force was not as confident as the Royal Air Force regarding the effects of night bombing attacks. It preferred precision daylight bombing.

Britain and America, therefore, are divided concerning the proper use of air power, one of the most important issues of the war. The British want American bombers sent to Britain now for bombing Germany, pointing out that at present their attacks are restricted by their inability to replace losses from their own production. Also, the British want America to build heavily-armed bombers with a large load capacity designed to operate at middle altitudes at night time under all weather conditions. The British have room for thousands of such planes and could service them with British service crews. The British argue that now is the best time for a sustained air offensive against Germany, as the Nazis, concentrating against Russia, cannot spare bombers for retaliation. DESIGN OF PLANES The Americans reply that when Lieu-tenant-General H. H. Arnold’s air force is organized, trained and sent to Britain it will launch a big offensive against Germany. Meanwhile, American bombers have been sent to many parts of toe world and are also being used for training at home. As for design, toe Americans argue that their planes may have to fight in any part of toe world. Therefore, they cannot be built for toe specific purpose of bombing Germany from England. Air-Commodore H. N. Thornton, British air attache in Washington, denied this report. He admitted that toe methods and equipment of toe Royal Air Force and toe American Air Force were dissimilar, as the two countries had developed their equipment and technique from different viewpoints, but he added that to call these methods divergent was far from toe truth. If toe Royal Air Force continued night bombing and the Americans engaged in daylight bombing it would be advantageous as toe defences would not receive a long period of rest. The methods were not divergent, but parallel.