"IS IT EFFECTIVE?"

Evening Star, Issue 25170, 9 May 1944, Page 5

"IS IT EFFECTIVE?"

I ALLIED BOMBING OFFENSIVE VARIED OPINIONS IN LONDON (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) (Rec. 11 a.m.) LONDON, May 8. The air offensive is the preoccupying subject at present, but while there are daily reports of the various forces engaged' on different targets, the numbers of aircraft involved and the tonnage dropped, there is one query which is difficult to answer. It is, what is the exact effect of bombing? " It is impossible," says the wellknown commentator, Captain Cyril Falls, "to estimate with certainty the effects of the offensive now being parried out with forces many times as strong as those which fought _ in the earlier battles. Communications m France in times of peace, are among the best in the world and are not easy to interrupt and can relatively be quickly restored. If the Allies in Italy, where communications are sparse and the destruction of a single bridge may be a minor catastrophe, have not been able to prevent the Germans from supplying their front it is doubtful whether they will be able to do so in France, even though the attack be on a vastlv greater scale." Captain Falls adds: " But it would appear that the offensive is meeting with a considerable measure of success and it is highly significant that the Germans frequently declined to fight. They have done this, not because they have not the power to fight, but because they lack the power to fight and at the same time hold in hand an adequate reserve to meet even greater dangers." '.' Liberator," in the ' Observer,' expresses the opinion that it would be wrong to look on the present phase of the war in the west as the air prelude, to the coming battle on land. " Not so long ago it was thought that before a land battle for Europe could be fought command of the air would have to be gained in a series of

gigantic battles. Now that ' the day ' is getting near air battles are exceptional." He adds: "The Germans are obviously saving their air force rather in the" way they refused to risk their grand fleet in the last war. This is of profound importance to the progress of Allied attacks, for the Germans can only do so by uncovering important targets. German caution enables the R.A.F. to carry out night precision bombing from a low altitude, and in this connection the authorities of the R.A.F. and the American forces might well abandon the present method of reporting air raids as if they were announcing record sale figures. What matters is the type of target attacked and that targets are hit." Captain Liddell Hart, in the ' Daily Mail,' expresses the opinion that the present operations against railway yards, airfields, ; ammunition dumps, equipment stores, and repair worksis really strategic bombing, and that the earlier bombing was grand .strategy bombing in that it was aimed at industrial targets. It is suggested that the result of the latest attacks has been to halve the prospective mobility of the German army in the west —and under modern conditions mobility is as vital to defence as to atta«t. Only the event can show whether such estimates are justified. One interesting development recently is the apparent switching of German fighers from Germany further west, as evidenced by their vigorous response to last week's attack against Mailly compared with, the light opposition which American : bombers met when they bombed Berlin on May 7 It is assumed that this is being done in the expectation that the shortening nights must restrict lt.i.F. night penetrations into Germany. But the longer days also give the Americans an increased period for day operations, which adds to the Germans' dilemma in positioning their limited air resources.