New Monster Air Battleships Dwarf Fortresses

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 208, 2 September 1943, Page 4

New Monster Air Battleships Dwarf Fortresses

PREPARATIONS TOR SHUTTLE RAIDS ON JAPAN Received Wednesday, 10.30 p.m. WASHINGTON, Sept. L “A new and revolutionary ale battleship with halt a carload bomb capacity and a flying range for the round trip from America to Europe will soon blast our enemies from the skies,” General Arnold (Chief of the U.S. Air Staff) disclosed in an article contributed to the magazine “Army Ordnance. ’ ’ He added. ‘The new bomber dwarfs the Plying Fortress. It has numerous ‘blisters’ which are really multiple gunpower turrets controlable from sighting stations, also bombsights as revolutionary as the present Norden sights. The air battleships will carry bombs of an entirely new design and may mount heavy calibre cannon of a new principle of operation. ’ ’ General Arnold also disclosed that the air forces in the near future will have new types of lighter planes which have advanced beyond recognition in shape and combat equipment. ‘‘The United States now has airfields as close to Japan as the carrier Hornet was when she loosed General Doolittle’s bombers for the raid ou Tckio,” said Lieutenant-General John Dewitt at a press conference. He expressed the view that successful Allied landings could now be made in the Kuriles, Japan’s northermost home base. Shuttle bombing trips against Japan from the Aleutians to China would be less difficult than Doolittle’s flight and such an enterprise is likely soon as the question of supply at both end of the route is solved. ‘‘The whole situation in the Pacific has changed as a result of General Mac Arthur's advances and the advances in the Aleutians. Now we cau decide wtiere to strike next. ’ ’