SECOND FRONT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1942, Page 3

SECOND FRONT

AMERICANS DISCOVER SIGNS OF ONE

R.A.F. BEING NURSED?

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 1.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 28.

Discontinuance by the R.A.F. of its 1000-plane raids is almost certainly a prelude to the opening of a second front, says the "New York Post." It estimates that Britain can dispose 5000 firstline heavy bombers, 5000 medium bombers, and more fighters per square mile of its territory than any other belligerent—all this apart from the American air forces in England.

Once started, the air offensive cannot let up. eyen for a few hours. It must be' carried on until the opposing fighter craft are permanently downed and communications smashed beyond repair Three weeks of such an assault would make the landing of an army comparatively easy. When one considers that the R.A.F. can have no good reason for holding so many of its bombers at home, except to organise them for an all-out assault on enemy territory, it will be seen that August promises the greatest air attacks in history.

GROWTH OF BOMB LOADS.

The Scripps-Howard Syndicate continues to advocate making a second front by the destruction of German cities from the air. It recalls that in the heaviest raids over London no more than 350 tons of bombs were dropped and that the bombs dropped in two Coventry raids totalled 275 and 400 tons. The British 1000-plane fleets dropped 3000 tons at a time—enough to destroy 10 square miles. Lord Strabolgi, in a speech in London, warned the Labour Party that there would be deep and extensive political reaction in Britain if the Russian Army was crippled without Britain's and America's growing forces in the West striking a blow. Britain had had 13 months and America eight months to prepare this contingency, he said, and the British public would not accept excuses for any seeming inaction. Labour should leave the Government and prepare to form an alternative Government, meantime fully supporting the war effort.

MR. BEVIN REBUKED.

The "News Chronicle" attacks Mr. Ernest Bevin's statement that advocates of a second front are causing division in Britain. >It says: "His statement will not be happily received in Moscow. Strategy is the Government's business, but winning the war as quickly as possible is the business of all." The Berlin" news agency announced that General Rundstedt's technical staff has completed a detailed inspection of extensive and deeply-echeloned fortifications on the French north Channel coast. The fortifications constitute a system of the most modern defence works on which tens of thousands of skilled workers have been employed for two years.