The Great Experiment

On 28 of March's 31 days. Allied planes were over Europe. According to unofficial estimates, they dumped some 15,000 tons of bombs on Nazi Europe, a little less than half of the tonnage planted in all of 1942. At the climax of the March raids last week, R.A.F. bombers twice again hit hard at Berlin.

In March, also, the R.A.F. celebrated its 25th anniversary. Britain's great Air Force, up from nothing since World War I (see p. 98), was strong enough in its maturity to repay Germany in kind for London and Coventry. How strong would it have to be--could any air force ever be strong enough--to knock Germany out of the war?

The R.A.F. did not attempt an answer. But, in its anniversary month, a summary of objectives attempted, results obtained, lessons learned in 1942 gave an idea of what the R.A.F. and its U.S. adjunct in Britain can hope to accomplish in 1943.

Demonstration. Said the London summary: "The force available for bomb ing Germany was enough to demonstrate what could be done, but no more." One reason it was no more: the expected stream of U.S. bombers to Britain turned out to be a trickle.

The R.A.F. began to explore the strategy and potentialities of mass raids in March 1942, with a concentrated, 30-minute, night assault on Luebeck. "It was not a vital wound or anything like it but it was an unpleasant jolt."

The R.A.F. continued its methodical, cold-blooded experiments with raids on Essen, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin. Raids by 250 planes or less did not have the necessary effect. Then, in May, 1,047 planes hit Cologne, fourth-largest German city, with 1,500 tons of explosives, thousands of incendiaries. The result was "staggering." But, said the report, Cologne did not prove that the destruction of Germany was within present Allied power. "It emphasized the distance between the existing force and the force required for victory."

The force at hand in 1942--British and U.S.--had made a start at demonstrating the potentialities of concentrated bombing (The Real Bombing of Germany--TIME, Sept. 7). At the present rate of increase in Allied air strength in Britain, the R.A.F. and the U.S. Air Forces can hope only to continue and intensify the demonstration in 1943. Only if British and U.S. plane production, and the insistent demands of other fronts, permit a vastly greater rate of increase this spring and summer, can the larger hopes of airmen be realized. Said the British report on 1942:

"The results achieved by this offensive on an overstrained industrial and economic system are very great. If the attack is maintained and intensified they may well be catastrophic in 1943."

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