HITTING POWER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1942, Page 3

HITTING POWER

EXPANSION IN AUSTRALIA MECHANISED AND AIR FORCES. MAXIMUM DEVELOPMENT PLANNED.’ (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 3. The fighting powers of the Australian Fighting Services are to be increased by 50 per cent, in the next year. Increased striking power will be achieved by concentrating on the production of specially hard-hitting weapons, for which plans have been approved by the Government. The land forces will be given a greater degree of mechanisation and mobility, and the Air Force will be built up considerably in fighting equipment, much of which is being made in Australia. Priority orders in America, particularly for heavy arms and mobile machines of war, will supplement Australian production. It has been estimated that Australian war factories will produce war equipment valued at about £200,000,000 in the current financial year. It is understood that the Government has told the Army chiefs that, after the end of. this year, they will be able to get additional men only for reinforcements. The Government has calculated limits to the size of Australia’s three fighting services, beyond which the country s manpower resources cannot go.