The Ypsilanti Daily Press

Any Citadel Says A. Arnold

NEW YORK—(UP)—Gen. Henry H. Arnold, chief of U. S. Army air force, believes that air power can capture "any citadel!" it can reach, that it is the cheapest type of warfare and that it is by far the greatest economizer in human lives.

"We are demonstrating daily," he wrote in the U. S. Army Air Forces issue of "Flying" magazine, "that it is possible to descend from the skies into any part of the interior of an enemy nation and destroy its power to continue the conflict.

War industries, communications, power installations and supply lines are being blasted by attacks from the air. Fighting forces have been isolated, their defenses shattered and sufficient pressure brought by air power alone to force their surrender.

Shortened Tunisia Battle

"Constant pounding from the air is breaking the will of the Axis to carry on."

General Arnold said that in the battle of Tunisia air power saved "thousands of lives . . . and weeks of time, as compared with the mile by mile, village by village method of classical warfare which has always proved so costly in a war of position."

"By this action," he said, "we again proved the sky road to both Berlin and Tokyo can be utilized to the full to blast the heart of the citadel before our combined operations take over for the final drive.

Pantelleria a Symbol

He described the Liberator raid on Rumanian oilfields at Ploesti as "the most important single air blow of the war to date." Of the capture of Pantelleria he wrote,

The white cross on Pantelleria's battered airdrome before a single soldier or sailor landed is a symbol of the ability of air power to capture any citadel once its own supremacy in the skies is established and provided a sufficiently sustained and powerful air assault can be brought to bear against it.

"It is simply a matter of mathematics (or physics). While air assault is not without cost, this type of warfare is actually cheapest on all counts and it is by far the greatest economizer in human lives."