Daylight Bombing Success

Southland Times, Issue 24872, 12 October 1942, Page 4

Daylight Bombing Success

THE successful daylight bombing attack carried out last week by the United States Army Air Corps has now been repeated on a very muclx larger scale and with even more impressive results. In last week’s raid an unspecified number of American bombers shot down 13 enemy fighters without loss to themselves. One hundred and fifteen bombers —Flying Fortresses and Liberators —took part in the latest raid over northern France; and, with a loss of only four, they shot down 48 enemy aircraft and probably destroyed 38 others. No result comparable with this has been achieved by either side since the outbreak of war. The daylight raids which the Germans carried out during the Battle for Britain were extremely costly—so costly that they had to be abandoned in favour of indiscriminate night bombing. The Royal Air Force had indicated its preference for night bombing even earlier, although in this case the choice may have been dictated by circumstances. The R.A.F. had to concentrate so much of its strength on the defence of Britain that it had little time to spend on the development of aircraft and tactics for daylight bombing. The Americans,

1 however, were spared this task of defence; and, as we mentioned in a 1 leading article last week, they concentrated on the development of heavily armed and armoured bombers for daylight use. The Flying Fortresses and Liberators are not as fast as the British Stirlings and Halifaxes; and they cannot fly as far or carry such heavy bomb loads as the British aircraft. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that for daylight bombing the American planes are unsurpassed. Apart from the weight of their armament and the strength of their armour, they are used in co-ordinated formations which enable each aircraft to 4 get the full protection of the combmed fire power of the squadron. The two recent raids over France may mark the most significant development in the air war since the failure of the Nazis’ mass attack on Britain.