The Lion's Share

Allied air blows will knock out Germany or leave the Nazis too groggy to resist invasion. So predicted ebullient General "Hap" Arnold, Chief of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Said he: "As the number of bombers increases, the percentage of losses is going to decrease. Operations from Italy are going to force the Germans to spread their defenses. . . . We hope to bring over Europe such [forces] that, with Russia, we will have 360-degree bombing of Germany--hitting her from every side."

When the numbers increase, when huge new bombers now a-making arrive in Britain and the Mediterranean, Hap Arnold's predictions may come true. Until then, the blows that count will be the blows delivered by bombers, not by prophecy.

Fifty Tons a Minute. So far, the R.A.F. can claim the lion's share of damage done to Germany. Last week Air Vice Marshal R. H. M. S. Saundby, Deputy Chief of the Bomber Command, supported the claim with figures. Said he: One-fourth of the area in German cities attacked by the R.A.F. since May 11, 1940 has been devastated. In the ruins of Hamburg, Duesseldorf and Cologne "civilized life ... is no longer possible." Seventeen major cities in northwest Germany are "liabilities . . . to the enemy war machine." Six others need only one more good pasting to join those 17. In all, 31 cities throughout Germany have been smacked since last December in 48 attacks of 500 tons or more.

In roughly comparable U.S. terms, similar air attacks would have devastated three-quarters of Los Angeles, Cleveland, Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Newark, Louisville, St. Paul. Civilized life would no longer be possible in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Buffalo.

In 1940 the R.A.F. dropped 13,000 tons of bombs on Europe. The later record: 1941--31,500 tons; 1942--50,000 tons; eleven months of 1943--150,700 tons. On May 30, 1942, the R.A.F. loosed 17 1/2 tons of bombs a minute on Cologne. On Sept. 3, 1943, the delivery rate was 50 tons a minute on Berlin. In recent raids the rate was 120 tons of bombs per square mile in an hour, or 80 times the intensity of London's heaviest attack. The R.A.F.'s goal: 200 tons a minute.

Said Air Vice Marshal Saundby: The symptoms of an approaching German collapse are "too numerous to be overlooked."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.