NOTES ON THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 63, 15 March 1945, Page 6

NOTES ON THE WAR

BOMBING BLOWS

JAPAN AND GERMANY

There is still something of a pause in Allied progress on the main European fronts. The Western Allies are busy enlarging their Remagen bridgehead over the Rhine and in clearing and cleaning up the long stretch of the west bank of the Rhine they hold between Coblenz and Nijmegen, all preparatory to a resumed major offensive across the Rhine. Where this will fall is, of course, a secret of SHAEF. Similar operations are occupying the Russians on the Eastern Front. A final effort to crush the hard nut of Konigsberg, perhaps the toughest fortress of the whole war, has commenced. On the other flank of the long front the Russians in western Slovakia have captured another strongpoint, after arduous exertions extending over weeks—the rail centre of Zbolen, north-west of Lucenec and north of Budapest. The fight round Lake Balaton continues, with the Russians behind minefields taking heavy toll of enemy tanks. While all this land fighting goes on, with sharp ups and downs of activity, the air attack of the Allies, not only on Germany, but also on Japan, has become now almost continuous throughout the, twenty-four hours. There can hardly be a moment of the day and night when Allied aircraft of all sizes and types are not bombing and strafing enemy targets from the Rhine to the Oder and Danube and Po, and from Burma to Bougainville and Osaka to Singapore. It may be that this, more than anything else, is paving the way to victory. In the Pacific and in Europe, as Hanson Baldwin puts it in the "New York Times," Allied air power is striking heavily against the will and the capacity of the enemy to resist. Punishing Japan. Japan, for the last three months, has been undergoing the punishment from the air which Germany received in 1943 and 1944; the "third degree" of treatment, now meted out 'to Germany, is yet in store for Japan. So far the distance is too great and the difficulties too' much for "thousand bomber" raids, which—and bigger ones—are of daily occurrence over Germany. But the Super-Fortresses —the B29's—rapidly rounding into what Baldwin describes as the "world's best bombers," are dealing drastically with Japan's highly concentrated industrial areas, round Tokio, at Nagoya, and now in Osaka and Kobe. The third most important industrial area of Japan, says Bald 1 win, the Nagoya area, with a population of 1,300,000 to 2,000,000, is the "centre of a motor-manufacturing industry, armament plants, and manyother war industries. The Mitsubishi, Kawanishi, Aichi, and other plane factories are also situated in Nagoya; the city is probably the most important aircraft-manufacturing centre in Japan. More than 5300 factories of all types are situated in the Nagoya area. High Priority Targets. "The attack upon Nagoya combines in one raid two high-priority targets. First-priority targets in Japan are ah> craft plants and ship-construction and ship-maintenance and repair plants. Contrary to earlier beliefs—which were acted upon last summer when our 'Super-Forts' bombed Japanese steel centres —the Japanese military steelproduction centres are probably too greatly dispersed to warrant listing them as Al targets. Yawata, on thesouthern island of Kyushu, is the greatest steel-producing centre of Japan, and it will probably be bombed again, as it has been bombed before—but close study of the location and production of its factories and of the location and production of other steel centres in Japan reveals that steel centres are not likely to be high-priority targets. Inflammable Cities. "But, in addition to aircraft plants and shipbuilding centres, the inflammable construction of many Japanese factories and cities presents us with a third high-priority target. Nagoya, a crowded, cluttered city with narrow streets and flimsy, highly-inflammable houses, fits this pattern, and we undoubtedly used incendiaries against it as well as high explosives. • It has been estimated that, out of 1000 incendiaries scattered across Nagoya, 200 or 300 would start fires. Nagoya, therefore, is a high-priority target, not only because it is an aircraft manufacturing centre, but because it is highly inflammable, much more son than Tokio. Other Japanese cities that have yet to feel the wrath from the skies also meet both these requirements. Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto are probably the most inflammable cities of Japan. In Europe, many of the German cities—far more modern than those of Japan—already are burned out. Today Allied bombers over Germany are concentrating their primary effort against synthetic oil plants and against German communications, particularly railroad junctions." Recent Developments. The smallness of the losses of Allied aircraft over Germany compared with the numbers in daily action indicates a decline in the strength of the Luftwaffe. The constant bombing of synthetic oil plants and refineries has caused a scarcity of oil fuel for all purposes. Air training of German pilots today is reported to be sketchy and pilots are not as skilful as they were. • Jet fighters do not seem to have been very successful, and their consumption of fuel is so heavy as to preclude long range. Radar warning is not so effective now that the Germans have lost so many of their Atlantic coastal stations. But the Germans are still fertile in devices to which Baldwin refers in one reported instance. "The 'silver-coloured spheres,'" he says, "that our airmen have reported encountering in the skies above Germany may be new types of floating 'windows' intended to confuse the bombing aim of our electronic 'magic eye.' During the winter months our bombers, more often than not, have been bombing 'blind' through overcasts. The target is picked up by radar and the bombs dropped by aid of this 'magic eye.' "In the past, ground radar, which is used to pick up approaching bombers (even though they be unseen) and to control anti-aircraft fire, has frequently been confused by . the dropping of 'windows.' 'Windows' consist of thousands of little strips of tinfoil. As they flutter to the earth, these strips often appear on the radar screen as hundreds of blobs, and it is sometimes impossible -to identify the raiding planes. The new 'silver spheres' might represent—but this is only an 'educated guess,' and there is no certainty that they are—the reverse of this idea. Such spheres, drifting about in the sky, might interfere with and confuse the radar in the attacking planes, thus making 'blind' bombing impossible, or far more inaccurate than it normally is." The Ten-ton Bomb. The latest bomb, weighing 22,0001b, or nearly ten tons, carried by heavy [bombers of the R.A.F. and already i used on rail targets in north-west Germany, is a tremendous advance on the 12,0001b "earthquake" bomb, which is reported to have had a devastating I effect whenever dropped. The blast and concussion of the new ten-tonners, say, on rail yards, should produce craters hardly fillable within days perhaps weeks. The blast would cover hundreds of acres. In this way the inner life of the Wehrmacht, which depends so much on supply, would be disrupted beyond recovery in time to offer effective resistance to the advance of the Allies.