Tremendous Cost Of Outing Luftwaffe

Northern Advocate, 16 March 1944, Page 6

Tremendous Cost Of Outing Luftwaffe

NEW YORK, March 15

“Americans do not realise the magnitude and heavy cost of the air battles over Europe.” said Major Deseversky writing in the “New York Times.” “Too many Americans think it is a picnic or walkover. During the week February 20 to 26, Allied airmen knocked out 644 enemy planes compared with Allied losses of 387 bombers and 37 fighters. Superficially this sounds satisfactory, but closer analysis reveals a grimmer picture because the downed enemy planes were almost all fighters weighing 11,000 pounds each, so we destroyed a total of 7,000,000 pounds manned by about 700 fliers, probably half of which parachuted over their own soil. On the other hand Allied losses were overwhelmingly bombers, probably totalling 22,000,000 pounds manned by 4000 airmen who were all lost in the sense that survivors were taken prisoner. This means that the rate of personnel loss was 12 to 1 in favour of the enemy. Moreover, reported Allied losses do not include losses suffered at other points beyond the enemy lines. “These figures should drive home the fact that we are engaged in a tremendous battle involving tremendous losses which, however, are fully justified by the crucial objective of demolition of the Luftwaffe on the ground and in the aii\