AIR CONFLICT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 July 1942, Page 4

AIR CONFLICT

IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN SPEECH BY AMERICAN COMMANDER. WOMEN PILOTS EMPLOYED BY JAPANESE, (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.15 p.m.) , NEW YORK, July 1. Major-General Willis Hale, the new commander of the United States Army Air - Forces in the Mid-Pacific, in a speech at Pearl Harbour, revealed that the Japanese were employing women pilots in war planes. Major-General Hale asserted that a new chapter of aerial warfare had been opened by the Pacific conflict and that a showdown had yet to come. It was a hard job, he said, against an enemy that was not a pushover. The operations at Midway Island had been an excellent example of the complete co-ordination necessary between all forces in the Pacific. “Air forces will be the controlling factor in the Pacific,” General Hale said. “The Japanese have real planes, manned by real fighters, who are highly trained and skilled. They have introduced hew weapons in the Pacific war —for example grenades from planes and also are employing women pilots in warplanes. It is going to take the best we have to carry on to victory.”