“GUTS & BACKBONE”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1942, Page 3

“GUTS & BACKBONE”

OF THE AMERICAN AIR OFFENSIVE VALUE OF THE FLYING FORTRESSES DECLARED BY GENERAL ARNOLD. PRODUCTION NOW AHEAD OF SCHEDULE. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) SEATTLE, April 6. An Army representative, Colonel Griffith, in an Army Day message, an-,, nounced that the production of fourengined Flying Fortress bombers at the Boeing aircraft plant had been doubled since December 7. He said the Boeing planes, which had been particularly successful against the Japanese, had been consistently on or ahead of schedule and were now ahCcid. Colonel Griffith declared that Boeing Fortresses were credited with the majority of the 52 enemy ships sunk or damaged and the 50 Japanese fighters destroyed by air attacks by the United States Bomber Command in the Far East before March 1. General H.-H. Arnold, chief of the Air Force, has sent the following message to the company: “The big Boeing Bl7’s are proving to be the guts and backbone of our air offensive throughout the world. They take the fight to the enemy from New Guinea to Libya.”