Lasat Grasp?

Germany will run out of fighter planes by Christmas 1943. This was one London observer's conclusion after balancing current German losses against estimates of German production and the German stockpile.

Losses reported last week were enough to make Marshal Goering break into a cold sweat. The U.S. Eighth Air Force proclaimed that it had shot down 631 Nazi fighters during August, a record for one month. Of the total, Flying Fortresses claimed the most (541).*

Further August destruction by the Britain-based R.A.F., by the Middle East Command and by the Allied Northwest African Command, brought the total of destroyed Nazi fighters to 1,329.

Calculations did not stop there. The total did not include Germany's fighter losses on the Russian front--or wear & tear, crashes on return flights and training crackups. German fighter losses for August were beyond 2,000 by the most conservative figuring.

A recent estimate of German fighter production was 900-1,000 a month. Other estimates say production "does not exceed 2,000 a month." Nazi factories have been the object of continuous Allied attacks.

In the two years preceding the Nazis' flight from Egypt, which began almost a year ago, they may have accumulated a stockpile of 20,000 fighters. Since for normal war operations over a period of time it is necessary to figure on six planes on the ground for every one in the air, it is clear that the Nazis have been dipping heavily into that pile for the last twelve months. Some calculators in London, watching Germany's desperate effort to ward off the mounting Allied air offensive, estimate that the Luftwaffe would be bankrupt of fighters long before Christmas, that it is almost out of them now. If the calculations were correct, this was the best news of the week.

*Said British Air Chief Marshal Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferte: "It almost looks as though the Fortress type of bomber has defeated the contemporary fighter. ... A new solution to the problem of defense will have to be found."

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