CONDUCT OF WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1942, Page 3

CONDUCT OF WAR

PROBLEMS OF UNITY & CO-OPERATION DIFFICULTIES OF THE ALLIES. AMERICAN WRITER’S VIEWS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) NEW YORK, October 22. Civilian officials and the lay public cannot confidently extend the conduct of the war to military men, declares Mr Walter Lippmann, writing in the New York “Herald-Tribune.” “Military men," he adds, “are unable to agree among themselves on most vital tactical and strategical problems, and for this reason decisions must be reached by laymen of trained judgment. “The rivalry of soldiers, sailors and airmen, both in the United States and Great Britain, is perhaps the outstanding obstacle to effective unity of command in war theatres and healthy relations between the Allies,” Mr Lippman goes on to observe. “This unresolved struggle for control of operations, allocation of equipment and power of command is the source of our most serious weakness. The apple of discord is air power. The advent of the aeroplane has obliterated the old, clear boundary lines between generals and admirals, resulting in confusion greater for England and America than land Powers like Germany, Russia and China. Only Japan has the same problem. The skill of the Japanese High Command in combining land, air and naval power clearly is one of the reasons for their spectacular successes. Some extreme air power advocates have harmed their cause by partisan violence and by wild and unsubstantiated promises of a quick and easy way to win. the war, but we must not be put off by the bad statement of a good case. The search for the right use of air power in combined operations is crucial in the Anglo-American conduct of the war.”