Allies on Eastern Fronts

When war burst over Europe's dam in 1939 many a wishful-thinking strategist offered a simple, temporarily sensible formula: let Allied planes load up in France, drop their bombs on Germany, land in Poland, reload, shuttle back to France.

Last week, 55 months later, no such shuttling had yet occurred, but it had become physically possible again--on two widely separated fronts:

Poland. More than 500 of Lieut. General James H. Doolittle's Eighth Air Force bombers flew 700 miles from England to hit fighter-producing factories in Posen, Poland. When they turned beyond their targets they were only 300 miles from the Polish battleground where German and Russian troops were fighting.

But instead of landing behind Russian lines they had to turn back in midair and strain their way back to England. In this and four other beyond-Berlin strikes, 31 bombers and eight fighters were lost. Toward Marienburg, East Prussia, the fighters put in their longest mission; they escorted the bombers all except the last 100 miles.

The Balkans. From Italian airfields, Fortresses and Liberators of Major General Nathan F. Twining's Fifteenth Air Force flew in even-closer support of the Russians' battle for the Balkans. On six separate raids as many as 500 bombers (finally with adequate fighter protection) struck at Nazi communication centers, some within 200 miles of Hitler's Balkan defense line.

An official summary from Naples pointed out: "The temporary destruction of railway lines and the incidental destruction of rolling stock and supplies cannot fail to influence the progress of the Russian advance into the Balkans. A secondary result is to confuse further the political situation in the puppet countries striving to avoid entanglement in the German collapse." Some observers thought the Balkan raids alone might eventually justify Allied strategy in landing in Italy.

Without doubt an understanding with Russia was reached before the Balkan raids were undertaken, lest U.S. and Russian planes conflict in bombing targets. But to be fully effective the Balkan raids depended on Russian cooperation--and Russian ability to refuel and rearm the planes once they have landed behind Russian lines.

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