AIR WEAPONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1943, Page 3

AIR WEAPONS

INCREASINGLY EFFECTIVE USE BY ALLIES AGAINST GERMANY & ITALY. HARDER BLOWS YET TO COME. (Special P.A. Correspondent.) LONDON, April 19. Allied air-power in the past week has reached the highest point so far in the war in the European theatre. It is a significant and important development that British, American and Russian bombers have hammered Germany and Italy with terrible severity, and stronger and harder blows are yet to come.

The Allied bombers are smashing industrial centres. They not only put war factories out of action, but also deprive large communities of essential services and divert labour from the war factories to repair and restoration jobs, which also absorb materials

The result of what some commentators are calling “the invasion by bombers” is believed 1 to be a migration eastward and southward of lighter German industries and a cessation of production for varying reasons in some heavy industries.

Armies of occupation throughout history have wrought great destruction, but possibly nothing is comparable with what the Allied air forces are achieving by raids without a foothold on the Continent. HEAVIEST TO DATE BOMBING OF SKODA WORKS ■ & MANNHEIM. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 19. With the growing weight of the British and American strategic air offensive against the Germans, the war in the air, as on land, is mounting to a new climax. In Friday night’s double raid, on Skoda and Mannheim the weight of bombs, 1500 tons, was the heaviest yet dropped in one night. It is becoming more generally appreciated that the long-continued strategic bombing of Germany is having cumulative effects on all fronts. Well-in-formed observers consider that the past five months have proved that such bombing can be decisive in exposing a weakened front for final assault. Now at last the world is beginning to see a demonstration of the full effect of air power in modern war. The R.A.F. has found a weak point in what the Germans like to call the.“fortress of Europe.” Similar hopeful trust was once placed in the Maginot fortifications by those who did not appreciate the significance of the air age.