Kiss, Tanks, Rays

Elegant in double-breasted blue coat and dove-grey trousers, a gentleman renowned for candor descended on Washington last week to sing anew an old song. Since 1918, when he was Commander of the A. E. F. Air Force, General William ("Billy") Mitchell has been U. S. military aviation's arch-critic. Now, as a witness in the Federal Aviation Commission's investigation, which last week turned mostly to War, Billy Mitchell looked once more upon Army aviation and found it bad. Chief target for his scorn was the Army's performance in carrying airmail. This he characterized as: "A miserable mess. . . . The worst show I've ever seen anywhere. . . . It's a wonder they weren't all killed."

Hitherto General Mitchell has confined his barbs largely to the Army air service. Last week he took a few potshots at the Navy as well. The Navy's aircraft carriers, said he, were "floating bombshells." The Shenandoah and Akron disasters were due to "gross stupidity" and "disgraceful" incompetence. For lighter-than-air craft in general he had the highest regard. Fifty dirigibles competently handled, he declared, would need only two days to destroy Japan, which he described as "our greatest enemy" (see p. 26).

Next day Colonel Edward Vernon ("Eddie") Rickenbacker, No. 1 U. S. War ace, now vice president of North American Aviation, took the stand to rebut Billy Mitchell. Rickenbacker's recipe: "I would use planes to make love to Japan. I would kiss her with a few dirigibles." Chief article in his lovemaking would be a trans-Pacific airline operated jointly by the U. S. and Japan. Less idyllic was Col. Rickenbacker's picture of engines of Death in the Next War: "Airplanes . . . will pick up fast tanks and drop them over enemy lines without landing. Planes will fire small cannon from the air, and whole armies will be moved in huge transports. Giant lenses will be taken to great altitudes and focused on the sun's rays so that cities will be burnt up."

To head off potential flying lenses, cannon and tanks, Secretary of War Dern last week announced organization of a General Headquarters Air Force--an air-mada of 1,000 bombing, pursuit and attack planes in five wings, concentrated on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts and in the Middle West. Recommended in the Baker Committee report on Army aviation (TIME, July 30), the GHQ Air Force will virtually constitute a separate Air Corps--a fighting unit distinct from the observation groups which function directly with ground troops in tactical operations.

Secretary Dern's order relieved General Benjamin Delahauf ("Benny") Foulois, Chief of Air Corps, from command of practically the entire combat air force, restricting his command in future to personnel training and aircraft procurement. Directly in control of the new combat force will be General Douglas MacArthur, Army Chief of Staff. Actual command of the GHQ Air Force probably will go to Brigadier General Charles H. Danforth of Langley Field, onetime Assistant Chief of Air Corps, who was expected to be upped in rank to major-general.

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