2000 Super-Forts to Batter Japan

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 111, 12 May 1945, Page 5

2000 Super-Forts to Batter Japan

Air Forces Will Pave Way for Array Landings

(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyrlght.l Received Saturday, 12.50 a.m. LONDON, May 11. The hero of the first air laid on Tokio, General Doolittle, and his deputy, Major-General Anderson,! at a press conference in London! declared that they envisaged! aerial warfare in the Pacific on a 1 far greater scale than in Europe ! with the use of over 2000 SuperFortresses if Japan continued to resist. “Our basic strategy will be the weakening of the enemy from the air to enable the occupation of Japan by ground forces,” said General Doolittle. The generals were of opinion that Flying Fortresses in the Pacific would play the role of medium bombers. They disclosed that an American | occupational air force would be' left in Europe. General Doolittle said he expected that the whole of the famous Eighth United Air Force comprising 2400 bombers and 1200 fighters which has been operating from 60 airfields in Britain, would be switched from Europe to the Pacific. A Washington message states that two large fleets of SuperFortresses attacked industrial targets at Kobe and airfields on Kyushu. The air crews of 20 R.A.F. bomber squadrons volunteered to drop ten-ton bombs on the Japanese, says the Daily Express. Some of these volunteer Lan caster crews are veterans of many operations against Germany.