The Luftwaffe was designed to cooperate with the Germany Army, first, by destroying any air force that opposed it, then by blasting the path for the advance of the Panzer divisions. One result of the bomber offensive by Britain has been to smash cooperation between the German Army and the German Air Force, compelling each to fight by itself in a manner for which the Oberkommando of the Wehrmacht had laid no plans. The German armies in Italy are without adequate air cover or air support. The order of battle of the Luftwaffe shows that this must be so on the eastern front.
Even these figures of relative strength of the German Air Force on three different fronts—one-half on the Western front, one-third on the Eastern and one-sixth on the Mediterranean, with fighters in the west outnumbering those in the east by four to one—give no complete picture of the extent to which the air offensive in the west has disorganized the plans of the German air staff and with them the plans of the German Army. To a considerable extent the aircraft of the Luftwaffe is interchangeable in function: bombers can serve as night fighters and fighters as bombers. Therefore the proportion of bombers to fighters in the Luftwaffe does not expose the full extent to which the Germans have been forced onto the defensive in the air.
To get this large defensive fighter force the Germans have not only had to cut their bomber production and convert many factories to making fighters; they have also had to convert many actual bomber types into defensive fighters. All of the twin-engined fighters which until recently provided almost the whole of the air defense of Germany by night were originally bomber types. The Junkers-88 and the Dornier-217 were essentially bombers, while the Messerschmitt-110 is a very efficient fighter-bomber and would be used as such if it was not required to guard the industrial cities of Germany.
Two years ago Hitler was already so much alarmed by the prospect of the great air offensive which was then threatened from the west that he personally gave an order for the production of fighters to be given priority over all other weapons. Since then fighter production has greatly increased, but at a cost of violently wrenching the whole German aircraft industry away from the production of the offensive weapons with which Germany originally planned to win the war.
After two years of ceaseless effort, combined with a policy of starving Germany, even at the height of the Russian offensive, of really effective air cover and support, the Germans have now built up a very formidable defensive air force, which the two bomber commands of the RAF and of the United States Army Air Force in Britain have to face.
There have been moments, especially during the battle of Hamburg, when the German air defenses seemed on the point of collapsing. There have been other moments, especially during February, 1944, when sudden reductions in Anglo-American bomber losses proved how near the Luftwaffe was getting to exhaustion after fighting a whole run of defensive battles both by day and by night.
Arthur “Bomber” Harris, commander-in-chief of the Bomber Command RAF, shown here in 1943.
This exhaustion comes more quickly nowadays because the pressure of the Anglo-American bomber offensive caused the Germans in the summer of 1943 to give up the old plan of keeping their twin-engined fighters for use by night and their single-engined fighters for use by day. At present the RAF’s night bombers have to contend with a considerable number of single-engined as well as twin-engined fighters. Especially over Berlin there are crack squadrons of flying Focke-Wulf-190’s and Messerschmitt-109G’s, Germany’s best single-engined fighters, whose specialized task is to intercept night bombers while actually over the target. The day bombers of the USAAF also encounter numbers of twin-engined night fighters equipped with rocket projectiles which they fire at massed bomber formations in an attempt to break them up.
In this way many German fighters have worked double time, and after a whole series of battles the crews get more quickly exhausted while aircraft becomes more rapidly unserviceable.
The decline of seventy-nine RAF bombers missing in the attack on Leipzig on the night of Feb. 19 to twenty-four missing from an equally heavy attack on Augsburg on the night of Feb. 25 reflects the strain put on German air defenses by successive coordinated Allied attacks. But these figures also show how necessary it is to outmaneuver the enemy’s great force of fighters at every stage, to deceive and perplex the German air staff by a multiplicity of attacks, to vary the tactics of the offensive on every possible occasion.
APRIL 20, 1944
KOHIMA SIEGE ENDS
British at Imphal Also Gain Against Enemy At Three Points
By The United Press.
SOUTHEAST ASIA HEADQUARTERS, Kandy, Ceylon, April 19—British and Indian troops, in bayonet fighting, have broken through Japanese road blocks and relieved Kohima where a surrounded English Home Counties regiment held out against enemy attacks for a week, it was announced tonight.
Tanks and artillery reinforcements for the Kohima garrison were reported moving down the road from Dimapur after the initial break-through to the East Indian base was accomplished by an Indian Rajputi patrol and British specialist units.
A strong artillery barrage, fired from 700-yard range against a 150-square-yard area of the siege ring, paved the way for the relief attack, and when the infantrymen broke through they found many of the Japanese dead or too dazed to offer effective resistance.
Sixty miles to the south, tankled British Imperial troops were driving the Japanese invaders of Manipur farther beyond the Imphal plain, seizing three enemy defensive positions and threatening to throw the entire Japanese expedition to India into reverse.
FOE FIRM TO SOUTHWEST
Only at a point southwest of Imphal, where the Japanese had developed a threat to Imphal’s dirt road connection with the Assam-Bengal railroad, was the enemy still maintaining strong pressure. A battle had been under way in that sector for two days, but the British were holding firm.
Belated dispatches from the Kohima front revealed that the garrison was relieved over the weekend after fighting for a week against repeated Japanese attacks from all sides. Fighting was particularly heavy in the western quarter of the city where the British, barricaded in the ruins of English colonists’ houses atop a 500-foot ridge, threw back waves of artillery-supported Japanese.
With the breaking of the siege from the northwest the Japanese pulled back their exposed flank, but military observers said they probably would attempt to reestablish their forces across the forty-six-mile road to Dimapur.
The Japanese infiltration tactics, which proved so successful in the initial stage of the drive into India, were of no use to the enemy when he reached the Imphal plain. One enemy column had reached the Nunshigum hill feature on the edge of the plain northeast of Imphal, but exposed itself to Imperial artillery, which killed 400 Japanese as British and Indian infantry swept forward and regained the position.
Sharp fighting continued in the Indo-Burmese border area east and south of Imphal. In one clash Gurkhas killed more than 250 Japanese.
ATTACKS NEAR PALEL FAIL
Japanese attacks Monday night on Allied positions near Palel, road junction, twenty-five miles southeast of Imphal, were repulsed, it was announced. Enemy planes dropped bombs on the Imperial defenders, but intercepting RAF Spitfires shot down one of the enemy aircraft and damaged four. Allied fighter-bombers destroyed three more Japanese fighters and damaged three others over the Tamu area, thirty miles southeast of Palel.
In northern Burma, meanwhile, Lieut. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell’s Chinese forces continued their successful advance southward in the Mogaung Valley, driving beyond Tingring, twenty-two miles north of Kamaing.
American heavy bombers made a successful daylight raid yesterday on oil plants at Yenangyaung, southwest of Mandalay, while medium bombers blasted a sixty-mile stretch of the railroad north of Mandday, scoring at least thirty-five hits on the track.
Not a single Allied plane was lost during the past two days.
The Battle of Imphal-Kohima: An M3 Lee tank crosses a river north of Imphal to meet the Jap
anese advance, March 1944.
APRIL 20, 1944
CHINESE CENSORSHIP DEFENDED BY OFFICIAL
Tells Correspondents Caution Has Been Necessary in War
CHUNGKING, China, April 19 (AP)—Chinese censorship was defended by Information Minister Liang Han-chao today on the ground that it had been necessary to “exercise a good deal of caution and precaution in the interests of national survival, particularly since the outbreak of Sino Japanese hostilities.”
He told foreign correspondents, who have become outspoken in their dissatisfaction with restrictions on their dispatches, that censorship in the interest of security existed elsewhere, and cited the recent censorship controversy in Australia and England’s action in imposing restrictions on diplomatic pouches.
The foreign correspondents have protested, however, that the Chinese restraints are not confined to news likely to be of military value to the enemy, but apply also to criticism of the government and its policies, exposition of the Communist differences with the government, and coverage of events tending to suggest military or political disturbances.
APRIL 23, 1944
BRITISH ISLES GUARD VITAL INVASION SECRETS
Drastic Measures May Conceal Time And Place But Not Allied Purpose
By RAYMOND DANIELL
By Wireless to THE New York Times.
LONDON, April 22—Some day an Anglo-American Army from Britain is going to descend on the Continent, which for four years has been under German domination. That much is known to Hitler and his general staff. It has been shouted from the housetops of all Allied capitals since Teheran. Strategic surprise, therefore, is impossible, but the success or failure of the expedition might well depend upon that slight advantage which always goes to the army which enjoys tactical surprise. That is just another way of saying that, while Hitler and his generals have been told what they probably had figured out for themselves, they still don’t know when or where the blow will fall.
That they do not find out that vital secret of war is one of General Eisenhower’s chief concerns. It isn’t easy to keep such a secret these days when huge masses of supplies and equipment, such great armadas of ships must be assembled almost under the eyes of enemy observers in reconnaissance craft. But some things cannot be seen from the air and there are others which when seen may merely serve to confuse the enemy: unless he has agents working for him here to interpret the meaning of the preparations and tell him such important secrets as what kind of weapons and how many of them are being gathered for use against him.
GREATEST IN HISTORY
The invasion, when it comes, will be the greatest expedition of its kind in history. Upon its outcome the fate of the world for generations may well depend. Not since Wellington landed his army in Portugal has anything comparable been attempted from this island and even then the British General was assured of landing on friendly soil. This time the Anglo-American armies must batter a hole in the wall of Hitler’s fortress against the greatest defensive armament ever known and they must take with them not only food and ammunition but gasoline and every other conceivable thing they may need, down to locomotives, rolling stock and track for railroads.
In his undertaking General Eisenhower will be attempting in reverse a feat which Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror managed to bring off successfully but which Napoleon and Hitler at the crucial moment found beyond their power. All the hazards and difficulties which caused these two would-be rulers of the world to hesitate—twenty miles of salt water, the fog and swell of the Channel, and the peril of landing on a hostile shore—have been considered and as far as can be told in advance, surmounted.
Even if all the statesmen who have proclaimed Allied intentions of invading Europe had held their peace, the Germans would still have known the assault was coming. It is the only way the Nazi hold on Europe can be completely and finally broken. Nor could the approximate time be kept entirely secret, for it is impossible to gather an army big enough for the job in hand without knowledge of the enemy. But while German reconnaissance pilots can probably see themselves when British harbors are glutted with ships, and huge stockpiles disclose themselves in spite of elaborate camouflage, only a mind reader can tell when those supplies have reached the point which the Commander in Chief himself regards as sufficient.
Despite this fact, however, there are weather conditions, the state of the moon, the tides and the season, which any prudent military man would have to consider. The Germans know that as well as we do, and so they probably know when it is safe to relax and when it is advisable to stand on guard. But it is a large coast line that they are defending and unless they are told they cannot tell just where we will strike.
UNPRECEDENTED PRECAUTIONS
The British Government has made an elaborate effort involving drastic and unprecedented action to insure that no leak from here imperils the safety of the expedition. These precautions begin at supreme headquarters and affect every individual on this island. Only a handful of men close to General Eisenhower know just what is being planned. Everyone in the services has been impressed with the necessity for keeping his lips buttoned up and not even making guesses aloud for the sake of his own safety.
The garrulous soul who might be tempted to so much as mention anything to do with military matters in a public place is restrained by the knowledge that he is likely to have an anonymous note passed to him by the bartender, waiter or tram conductor, reading something like this: “Do go on with your story. We’re all listening. So is Hitler.”
Not to emphasize the seamy side of life but for the sake of the record it is true that among those ladies of the evening with whom soldiers, sailors and airmen sometimes spend their leisure there are many who came to this country from the Continent with other refugees some years ago. Scotland Yard has not overlooked them and those whose loyalty, regardless of virtue, is doubted have been placed beyond temptation. There has been a general checking up all over the country until officials now are reasonably sure that all those who might want to help the enemy are either under surveillance or where they cannot do any damage.
Much that has happened on this island in the past few weeks must be regarded as part of the general campaign to make this country spy-proof. The recent round-up of labor agitators was not undertaken solely in the interest of industrial peace and harmony but was partly dictated by security considerations. Of course, at the time when the crucial battle begins, strikes and other stoppages cannot be tolerated and the Government has taken strong action to discourage them. But a good deal of the fanfare about agitators was designed to make the public even more security-minded than they were.
KEEPS ENEMY GUESSING
Many of the things that have been done were of the nature that Germany in the past has left to the last moment before attacking some unsuspecting neighbor. But for the British to adopt the same policy and wait for zero hour would be a sure way of notifying the enemy that now at last the hour had struck. So, in accordance with Prime Minister Churchill’s policy of keeping the enemy guessing with many feints and false alarms, the necessary steps have been taken one by one and nobody on either side of the Channel knows from day to day whether the event that the whole world is waiting for so anxiously is near or far away.
In this category falls the ban on travel to coastal areas by any but those who have good reason for being there. So, too, does the warning to the public that if they embark on long rail journeys they may find themselves cut off from the rest of the country for days and weeks. The repeated warnings to the people of the Continent to prepare for invasion helps keep the Germans guessing.
The recent American note to Eire calling on that country to close German and Japanese legations provided the British with a good excuse for tightening restrictions on travel and communication with that neighboring neutral member of the British Commonwealth of Nations after President de Valera had rejected this demand. Now it is almost impossible for anyone to travel between the two countries; telephonic communication
is cut off and the mails are slow. It is true the border between northern and southern Ireland is open but it is about as well controlled as it would be if it were closed.
The most drastic action this country has taken to insure against leakage of military secrets was the order restricting movements of foreign diplomats, making diplomatic bags subject to censorship, and directing that all cables and messages to their Governments be sent in plain English or in British code. Only those dominions fighting at Britain’s side and the United States and Russia are exempt from the order abrogating the privileges diplomats have enjoyed since earliest times. Not even those other foreign Governments which are members of the United Nations were exempt from the order which is designed to prevent secret information from reaching Germany by accident or design. It will cause some inconvenience to many neutral and Allied Governments but where so much is at stake the British are confident their action will be understood and accepted with protests.
APRIL 26, 1944
EISENHOWER TELLS PUBLISHERS OF AID ON INVASION NEWS
Message Says Correspondents Are Part of the Great Team Seeking Early Victory
By FRANK S. ADAMS
A message from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower declaring that public opinion wins wars and pledging his help in facilitating the flow of news from the invasion was read yesterday at the opening session of the fifty-eighth annual convention of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, held at the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria.
“Public opinion wins wars—that is as true now as ever,” said the message, which was read by Buell W. Hudson of The Woonsocket (R.L) Call, chairman of the session. “In order to facilitate the flow of news to the public in the impending operations we are drawing upon past experiences and hope to profit from them.
The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945 Page 114