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THE WAR - WEEK Commentary on Current Events Round The Clock Air Raids Mean No Rest For Germany Evry day since Feb. 24 has Been Allied airmen over target* In Germany and Oennan-occuT>(l territory hour after hour, round the clock, comments the- New York Times. The Germans, who Initiat- ed large-scale bombing of big cities, were being blasted In the greatest air assault In history. British experts, who estimate the weight of bombs dropped on Eur- ope during 1942 at 4,00t) tons a month, assert that more than 10.- 000 tons fell in the same area last month alone. The Opening Bars Behind this growing fury were Hie slgna of a new purpose. There were strong prospects of an Allied Invasion of Europe In 1943. The Te*7 prospect of It reflected the prevailing military opinion that air blows atone would not bring vic- tory. England, despite a ten-month Jr Blitz that shook her to the ore, rallied and held firm. Be- fore a territory can be won, In tile words of Lieut. Gen. Joseph Stilwell. "a man must be sent to stand on It." But the battering bombers hay been giving German war plants, communication cen- ters tod submarine bases can dis- rupt production and soften de- fenses against the day of Invasion. Last week Captain Harold Bal- four, Parliamentary Under-Secre- tory for War 1n Britain, called the bombings "the opening bars which will rise to the crescendo of the march on Europe." Are of Combat Those opening bars were being played across a vast keyboard. Great foar-engined Lancaster!, Stirling! and Haiifazes have roar- ed each night across the arc whose radius extends 00 miles from London, enclosing the greater part of Germany's war Industries and those of the lands the Nazis have conquered. By day American Fly- teg Fortresses and Liberators iMve smashed at targets nearer botue bases. The nature of the targets sel- ,1 by the Allied Hlgb Com- o-.^ud seemed to set the pattern fcr- things to come. First of all 1 1- assault has been directed against the submarine, which has proven one of Hitler's most effec- tive weapons. Sln-e the first of Hie year Wllhelmshaven, the marl- time center whose shipyards are producing U-boats, has been bit hard three times and medieval Nuremberg, the holy place of the Nazi party and home of Diesel engine plants, once. Lorlent, chief operating base for submarines on France's western coast, has been bombed ten times while Brest and Bt. Nazalre nave been hit twice each. Factory Centers Hit War plants and rail and road networks have also been battered. Cologne QM been raided four times this year, and 113 times inre the start of 'he war; Hanim, a great rail center In Germany, has been hard hit. Essen, home of the Krupp armaments works, has been attacked heavily. Hen- gelo. In the Netherlands, where factories are turning out war ma- terials for the Germans, has been plastered with bombs. Berlin A Target Last week a fourth In Che cur- rent series of attacks hit Berlin. K was a "thunderbolt" raid, a bon sharp attack In which the full loads of the attacking planes were poured ui>on t.he city in half an hour. AccordiiiK to German re- porfs many fearsome four and two-ton block-busters, perhaps um.,1 at the near-by Potsdam railroad station, fell along Ber- lin's Unter den Linden, the wide an<l famous avenue that is flank- ed bv palatial public buildiugs, tourist and shipping offices, motor- car showrooms and jewelers' hops. In th raid Allied airmen dropped more tJian 900 tons of bombs, twice the hightest amount the Luftwaffe te estimate*! to have dropped during an all-night raid on Britain. In one twenty-four-hour period <rf the "round" the clock" bombing more than 2,000 operations flights were completed by British pilots. flijrJUs totaling 150,000.000 miles. In these operations there were fewer planes than a year ago. but ttey carried more bombs. The German Oefenset The Germans have, built defenses gainst these attacks. They have antiaircraft guns tJiat reach with remarkable accuracy the 20,000 to JO.OOO feet altitude from which British nJRht bombers make their runs over targets, and even the 30,000 to 35,000 feet from which American daytime fliers drop their bombs. German fighter planes, cautious because of the defensive power of the bombers, harry the attacking planes as they make their way to and from the targets. There are losses. The heavy op- erations of February are estim- ated to have cost the Allies 171 planes, twenty of them American. They are IOSSPS that must be p:iid In weakening Nazi defenses for ttoe Invasion to come. But they are small when i-oaiiwred with the- ever. growing iv-i-voir of Allied air strength. The exact size o,: the Ali!i-d air forces Is a military secret, but from public statements made by various officials some hints can be gleaned. America expects to have an air force of 2,450,000 men armed with at least 21,000 planes by the end of 1943. American plane production, according to a report last week from Under Sec- retary of War Robert Patterson, hit 5,500 In February, a rate that means 66,000 planes of all types and 42,900 combat planes a year. These fisun s may be conserv- ative, since British sources have estimated tJ-.at America will pro- duce 100,000 planes in 1943 and Britain 35.000. Axis Production Against this the Axis is estim- ated to have some 20,000 planes altogether, of which from 4,000 to 7,500 are German combat planes. The combined production of all the Axis nations is estimated at 2,200 a month. This figure Is ex- pected to slump by June or earlier because Germany Is taking more and more men from her factories for service on the front lines. Where Is The Luftwaffe? Is the Nazi air force short of oil or gas? asks Tbe Providence Journal. Is it no longer capable of putting up a strong flght? Has It been forced to scatter Us strength, and thus weaken Itself, because the United Nations are now in a position to hit at Hitler from nearly all points on the com- pass at the same time? Or can ohe mystery of its recent appar- ent weakness be best, explained by the theory that it has been go- Ing through a period of reorgani- zation and re-equipping and that It Is merely gathering fresh strength," as Goering says, in order to deliver surprise blows at "the rleht hour"? But now long can they wait for that hour to come "Hiere came a moment In the Luft- waffe's blitz on Britain when well- Informed sources had good reason to believe that the Brills* would collapse If the blitz continued only a week or so longer than It did. How long can the Reich stand be- tas blitzed? What will happen to German morale and production and communications and over-all abil- ity to flght If the Allied raids show no letup, but Instead mount In severity day after day, night after night, week after week, for a much more protracted period than the period of the Luftwaffe's effort to grind England !nto rubble? SCOUTING . . . Proof that Scouts do not cease to be Scouts when they join the. armed forces is seen by the num- ber who continue to assist in op- erating Boy Scout Treops where they are stationed, and who form Rover Scout Crews on their sta- tions. The latest to be reported comes from Cairo, Egypt, where former Scouts serving there have formed a Rover Scout Crew. One of the most noticeable re- sults of the recent National Boy Scout Week was increased mem- bership in many sections. In Ot- tawa, one Cubmaster was amazed to find 22 recruits waiting to join up when he arrived at his Scout Week meeting. The 6th London Pack of Wolt. Cubs, which has an enviable recip ord of war service does not d<T things in a haphazard way. The group has already announced its plans for 1943 war service, which includes donations to be made to Russian Relief, Red Cross, Queen's Fund, Community Chest Fund and Chins Up Fund for British Scouts. Last year the Pack salvasred 23 tons of waste-paper and irave $111. -10 to various war charities. Another British Boy Scout was recently awarded the British Em- pire Medal. He is Scout John David Grix, aged 15. Scout Grix, for two nights during the heavy air raids on Norwich, rode his bicycle through the heavy bomb- Ing to carry out his civil defence duties, and also directed firemen their troops, introducing many and rescue parties through the devastated parts of the city. HITCH-HIKER OF THE FUTURE Getting aboard a Sikorsky helicopter is an easy matter for a hitch-hiker or a tardy passenger who missed the taks-off. In this demonstration of the windmill plane, which currently has been devel- oped for the U. S. Army, the pilot dropped a rope ladder and caused tne craft to hover, motionless, while another man climbed up. Scouting is playing an import- ant part in cementing friendship between the people of Iceland and the American and British soldiers and airmen stationed there. Amer- ican Scouts are assisting Icelandic Scoutmasters in the operation of novel American ideas which are received with enthusiasm by the Iceland Scouu. Sweden, one of the few re- maining European countrife not under the Xazi heel ia also pros- pering in the field of Scouting. In the paat three years, the number of Boy Scouts in the country h* increased from 28,000 to 35,000, or 25 per cent. VOICE Of THE PRESS HARD TO UNDERSTAND It's difficult to understand the attitude of mind of parenu who refuse to sign consent forms for their children to undergo physi- cal examinations, particularly tu- berculosis tests, jn the health pro- gram that is being inaugurated jointly by the Board of Educa- tion and the Board of Health. Such an attitude suggests that possibly those parents are more urgently in need of examinations than their offspring mental ex- aminations. St. Thomas Times-Journal APPLE QUESTION Can you remember not so long ago when people were coaxed to help out the apple industry of Canada by purchasing and eating apples" Where arc the good apple* today at a reasonable price for the household? Oranges brought all the way from Cali- fornia are in much more popular demand than the Canadian apple. Even the Canadian black walnut has gone into the luxury class at 70 rents for a six-quart basket. St. Catharines Standard NOT SO BATTY Speaking in St. Thomas, Or. H. B. Hitchcock of Western Univer- sity, aid bats could fly with their ywi blindfolded and not strike objects, and that they also had a keen homing- instinct like the pigeon. Maybe bats are r.ot so batty after all. St. "Hicmaa Times- Journal FOOTWEAR MYSTERY School pupils in a Chicago sub- urb are operating a shoe ex- change, to which parents may bring shoes which their children have outgrown but not worn out, and receive larger ones in trade. Theoretically, it ie a fine idea, but parents around here would like to know how even the fastest growing youngster manages to have a scrap of soles and toes left by the time he gets too big for his hoes. Windsor Star o HELPING HITLER Steel workers are back at work but minus the wa;;es they have lost and the men in the armed forces will also miss the 4,000 tons of steel which would have been made each day the strike was in progress. Niagara Falls Review TWA OR THREE PERHAPS "Every U.S. soldier sent over gets a book on how to get along with the English." A man named MacTavish sent this in, with the remark that "they should gie a medal as well to the mon wha can learn that oot o' one book." Ottawa Citizen Full Government To Territories "It would be sheer nonsense ignorant, dangerous nonsense to talk about grants of full gov- ernment to many of the depen- dent territories for some time to come. In these instances it would be like giving a child of ten a latchkey, a bank account and a ahotfru " Hebert Morrison, British Home Secretary. RVING T UNITED NATIONS WITH WAR ALCOHOL ^^^ r/lll'- ^.-s-^x-;. mu r INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL IN iATTLE OH ESS MOTOR cars become tanks. Luxury liners become troop transports. And ALCOHOL becomes a vital war necessity. Narrow Indeed is the gap between the pleasurable things of peace and the fighting toots of war. Mixed with the gasoline of fighting aircraft, INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL keeps 'em flying. In the radiators of army trucks, ALCOHOL keeps 'em rolling. United with guncotton, ALCOHOL heips to provide stabilized explosives for our shells. And in our hospitals this same versatile product brings comfort and peace to wounded men . . . ALCOHOL has gone to war, and to provide it in the fabulous quantities needed, the full resources of our mighty plants have been mobilized for the duration. Until peace is won, war is our principal business. HIRAM WALKER & SONS LIMITED Bluey and Curley of the 'Who's right?" By Gurney, (Australia) IT TASTES LIKE GOOD SOUP to ME / 1HATS WHAT I SAID/ V >\\M/// BUT THE cook SAYS ITS COPttftl 7 :