Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1943 SOFTENING THE AXIS AT BOTH ENDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 6 April 1943, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1943 SOFTENING THE AXIS AT BOTH ENDS

BOTH ends of the Axis are being progressively softened by heavy and consistent air bombing. Taking British and American attacks together the present offensive just about lasts the clock round. Day and night several points in enemy-occupied territory are chosen for attention. Britain is the aircraft-carrier for Western Europe and the air arms of the two great democracies stretch out a long way from there. “Trainbusting," “aerodrome-busting” and attacks on shipping, where it can be found, are almost daily tasks for the fighter-bombers or Coastal Command- Hitler’s submarine bases at L’Orient and St. Nazaire are pounded remorselessly. After giving Berlin two severe doses las't week the past few days have seen the “heavies" switch their attacks to targets nearer home. In daylight the Americans gave Parisians a grandstand view of a raid on the big Renault works just when they were beginning to get going again after the destructive blitz of last year. Essen, home of the huge Krupps armament factories, and probably the most difficult target in Germany, has again received the full weight of an R.A.F. concentration of 4000-pounders and incendiaries. A much-improved defence was encountered and we lost 21 bombers and their valuable crews. Rotterdam has also been fiercely raided by Flying Fortresses and the latest on the list is Antwerp. Besides these main targets there have been many lesser ones. At the other end of the Axis—what Mr Churchill termed - "the soft un-der-belly”—the British-American combination has also been unleashing an instalment of concentrated aerial fury. It is working from Malta and bases in Africa. Cagliari, main port of Sardinia, received most : devastating punishment from Flying Fortresses in the largest bombing raid of the North African campaign. It came as a surprise and both bombers and their escorts of Lightnings all returned safely. Naples has also again been a target for our Middle East airtnen. The damage wrought there was both severe and spectacular- While these operations were proceeding it is worth noting too that, far away in the South-West Pacific, fewer than a dozen of General MacArthur’s bombers could collect a good bag of Japanese warships in harbour at Kavieng, the New Ireland base. This success was achieved by an intriguing technique known as "skip” bombing, whereby planes light up their targets with ilares and then skim in very low to “skip” their bombs so that they hole the ships at the waterline. The layman will be interested to hear more about this ingenious method and its development.

From this catalogue of intense air activity it can be seen that the Allies are being as good as their word. In the Pacific air bombing is an end in itself as the type of attritional war which can most profitably be waged against Japan until a full-blooded combined offensive can be launched.

Over Hitler’s Europe there js the immediate objective of destruction of war potential and also the wider aim of paving the way for the great invasion which is being awaited with) keen expectancy. That has always been the intended sequence of A 1 - j lied offensive strategy in Europe: softening and then assault. There is no precedent by which to gauge the degree to which softening by air can ease a difficult ground path because no belligerent has hitherto had at its disposal the destructive power which is now in the hands of the Allies. Its disintegrating capacity far exceeds anything Hitler possessed when he tried so hard to knock Britain out by the air blitz of 1940. Germany alone last month received 6000 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs and that record may well be broken in April. As is to be expect-' ed, these sustained attacks have cost more planes than the Germans have lost in combating them. Over Europe the R.A.F. and Americans lost 209 planes in March against the Luftwaffe’s 130. While raiding Britain the Germans lost CO planes to our one. When considered in the light of the thousands of sorties made, some of them dangerous penetrations deep into enemy territory and over some of their hottest spots, the ratio of loss is not great compared with the number of planes engaged. Even if it were we could not let up. Allied air reserves are now considerable both in trained crews and in machines. The world is witnessing the great prelude to a European invasion from the West, which includes the Mediterranean zone. It is not expected; that air power employed in a con- I centrated form in advance will prove conclusive. The German people may be able to stand up to the worst it can bring, but can the Axis war machine continue to function efficiently against the .constant and systematic battering now being administered? Already our raids must have seriously diminished enemy fighting potential. To what extent cannot be assessed with any accuracy. The reply of Air Chief Marshal Harris to those doubters who said air bombing had never brought a nation to its knees was that it had never been tried yet. In association with the Americans and the Middle East commanders he is now carrying out the experiment. By itself the Air Force will not accomplish the job but no effort is being spared to ensure that the invasion is ushered in with the most vig-

orous. lively, and appropriate overture warfare has ever experienced.