NOTES ON THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 150, 26 June 1943, Page 5

NOTES ON THE WAR

ALLIED AIR BLITZ

BATTLE OF THE RUHR The Allied air blitz on Western and Southern Europe continues with increased intensity. . The devastation wrought is admitted in Axis quarters to be terrible, but? Allied air losses are causing some comment, especially m America. The American commentators Raymond Gram Swing and Paul Schubert both, in their broadcast last night, dealt with the air blitz and laid stress' on two points raised in yesterday's notes, the difficulty, of. reaching German war industries in Saxony, Silesia, Bqhemia, Moravia, and Eastern Poland, and the cost of the air offensive to the Allies in men and machines. The gist of. their argument was that the issue whether ihe Axis could be bombed into submission was still ■' undecided. Gerr .many seems definitely to have taKen , up-the challenge and the air defences of the Ruhr in anti-aircraft fire and night fighters are being continuallystrengthened. Both Ii.A.F. mgnt bombers and American Fortress day bombers are finding the opposition stronger. • Where the opposition ,is weak, as in the southern area of Axis Europe, the task is much easier and the losses almost negligible. The ex* perience of the Lancasters which flew to North Africa, bombing Friedrichshafen on the way,, and back to Britain, delivering a load on Spezia' en route,' all without loss, seems to show that the losses sustained in bombing western Germany are mostly incurred on the way home. The enemy may not know where the outwafrd-bound- bombers are going, but they certainly know whither they are returning. No Easy Victory. Hanson Baldwin, in a dispatch dated , April 19 to the "New York Times" from London on his way home from" North Africa, discussed the whole situation, as it was then, at length. He said "a great and possibly decisive stage of the air war is now opening and upon its outcome will depend the war's duration." He continue:;: "German fighter strength is increasing in Western-Europe and now there are considerable swarms cf FockeWulf 190's—probably the best all-round fighter planes—available to oppose our day-bombing raids. Large numbers of night-fighters prowl the skies to head off night assaults by the R.A.F. Moreover, German anti-aircraft guns, which reach high altitudes with considerable accuracy, "are an important element in the strong German defence. . . . Despite the fact that Germany is spread thin in the air and the fact that her air strength relative to that of the Allies is on the down^ grade, the sir battle in Western Europe will not be won easily. Though more German air strength is concentrated in Russia than ' on any other front (this was in April), it will take far larger numbers of Allied planes than those now available to beat down the German air force in '• Western Europe and' soften the industrial core of the 'fortress.' \ . . The large Allied bomber losses illustrate the problem. It is clear that final victory in the air war, like the final victory in the sea and land war, will not come easily." ! The one step that would greatly increase the effectiveness of the Allied air offensive and reduce the losses would be the securing, of bases in southern- and eastern Europe—in Italy and the Italian islands, in the.Balkans, and in Western Axis-occupied Russia —from which the now inaccessible vital industrial Axis targets in the areas previously mentioned could be reached and dealt with, by "shuttle" raids, if necessary. To attain these bases sea and land operations must be undertaken, after air preparation. Thus, one comes round to the old argument that warfare is indivisible and that to win one must use all the arms available in their proper proportions, each according to its function, at the right time."