Unassuaged Need

Chinese commanders at the Chekiang-Kiangsi front were plane-blind. They had to do reconnaissance on foot against an enemy who spotted their every move. Their men had to suffer strafing and bombing without hope of retaliation. They could not help falling back, ceding mile after mile of the railroad which would give the Japanese a route to central China.

Then, suddenly, came electrifying news. "Air units" had arrived. They were from the U.S. and Britain. Perhaps, thought the Chinese at the front, they would turn the tide.

But things continued to go badly. Last week the Chinese lost Chuhsien, where there was a huge airfield. This week they lost Yushan, where there was another. The Japanese advanced, bombing as they came.

The explanation came out of Chungking. The "air units" were merely ground crews, technicians, front men. They were a token of planes to come, but on the Chekiang-Kiangsi front, where the situation was desperate, the time for planes was now.

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