PROGRESS OF AIR WAR

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22246, 15 January 1944, Page 5

PROGRESS OF AIR WAR

GERMAN CITIES KNOCKED OUT ALLIED BOMBING POLICY LONDON, Jan. 13 Information about the war in the air was given by Lieutenant-Gen-eral C. Spaatz, of the United States, Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Bombing Force operating against Germany, and Air Marshal Sir Richard Peck, of Great Britain, AssistantChief of Air Staff, in radio addresses to a luncheon of news agency editors in Washington. The.speakers indicated that Berlin was already the poorest specimen of what a capital should be. How much more it was going to get depended on the success we had in placing our concentrations, as well as their size. The number of other cities in Germany to be knocked out this winter would depend on tha weather and the number of planes we got to battle. Pathfinder technique would get still better and bombs would be still more effective. Of 90 German industrial cities, about 20 of the biggest had been crippled for a long period, and the crippling of 50 others was well on the way. New German Planes Comparing United States and German planes and personnel, General Spaatz said the latest German fighters were superior to any we had encountered until now. A small percentage was of new design. If it were not for constant technical improvements on our planes and improved tactics of our pilots, the German developments could become serious. There were still many good German fighter pilots, but the quality generally was declining. They were very definitely inferior to ours. United States planes were generally better than the German planes. We were ahead in design and production and our pilots in combat were maintaining an advantage of four to one. Referring to the new rocket planes, General Spaatz said the Germans had been able to achieve a certain temporary success, but only when the planes were, used against formations of bombers which could not be escorted by fighters 'all the way to distant targets. The Germans hoped to break up our large close formations and scatter our concentrated firepower. They had not been able to do so and he did not believe that the rocket planes were as effective as the Germans had hoped. Asked whether air warfare alone would knock Germany out of the. war, Air Marshal Peck said we did not set out to win by air warfare alone. We should get the maximum number of bombers on the offensive as soon as possible. That was of the utmost importance, but however the end of the war should come r we should still want the army.