Second Front: The Air

A significant U.S. military mission arrived in London this week. Leading it were Lieut. General Henry H. Arnold, Army Air Force Chief, and Rear Admiral John H. Towers, chief of the Navy's aeronautics bureau. U.S. pilots & planes had already arrived to bolster the R.A.F.'s second front in the air; now the nation's two air chiefs followed.

The mission emphasized what the British had just been telling newsmen: before long a raid by 300 R.A.F. planes is going to be a medium-sized show; soon the R.A.F. is going to send the bombers over 1,000 at a time.

Last week the British gave a good demonstration of what a "medium-sized show" could be. One night when there was a hint of better ceilings after several days of bad weather, the R.A.F. thundered out across Germany with close to 300 planes. The target was industrial Mannheim (pop. 275,000), railroad-veined center on the upper Rhine. The R.A.F. was after the Daimler-Benz airplane-engine (for Messerschmitts, Dorniers, etc.) works, the Lanz armament plant, the vast Badische chemical works nearby.

Opening blow was a tremendous shower of incendiaries: 40,000 thermite bombs from a single flight of bombers. Their white-hot showers reddened into smoky flames as they fired buildings. From then on, the other flights had a lighted target to shoot at. They squared away, dumped their sticks of demolition bombs, and ran for home.

When the last British plane was bedded down again, the losses counted, Britain was short twelve bombers and two fighters for that night's work (which also included a raid on St.-Nazaire). It was not a heavy price for the job done.

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