1000-bomber Raids Coming for Homeland

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 208, 2 September 1944, Page 5

1000-bomber Raids Coming for Homeland

(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) Received Friday, 11.20 p.m. NEW YORK, Aug. 31.

Lieut.-General Harmon who to-day was appointed to the newly-created position of commander of the Pacific Army Air Forces, told a press conference that one result of the new command will be an intensification of the air war against Japan. Indeed, mass bombings on Japan on a scale as large as the 1000-plane raids on Germany are probable if Japan holds out long enough to make it necessary.

General Harmon pointed out: “For this task we need large land bases within 500 or 600 miles of Japan. Mass bombings of the Japanese empire can be done from the northern end of Formosa, from China or from some islands to the south of Japan, notably Okinawa and Izu. No other islands in this region have sufficient land areas. The ■onins are too restricted for bomber operations.

“Tho mass bombings of Japan may have to be carried out in the early stages without fighter escort because, excepting the China coast, we cannot get bases close enough for land-based fighters.” General Harmon admitted that the future of the Pacific air war was complicated by the lack of an answer to the vital question: Where is the Japanese Air Force? The answer to that question can hardly be as optimistic as the answer to the question: Where is the Luftwaffe? because Japan’s productive capacity has not yet felt the power of the Allied air efforts. “Indeed Japan is now producing new afid better types of planes capable of putting up a real fight. Moreover, I think Japan has more air force than she Is showing. For that reason we must count on more than a year of hard fighting before the end of the Pacific war is sighted.”