Air Force the Official Service Journal - Air Force Historical Studies ...

tanks and truck-borne infantry and artillery.
There ;Igain, rockets and 7:;s were effeetil'e
in knocking out tanks, half tracks and art illcry
positions. Frag bombing and low-level
strafing stalled m;my a motorized thrust raeing
across the plains. But the [ups. unrclenting,
regrouped their forces and pushed
on.
In both the lIunan and Honan campaigns
the Japanese achieved their first olijeeti\cs-occupation
of Changsha and Ilengyang
and closing the gap in the I LmkO\I'l'eiping
railroad-despite heavy losses inflicted
bv the 14th Air Force. In their ultimate
g(;al of closing the lInukow-Cantou
railroad, occupnng Arucricun airbuses in cast
China and dri\ing a wedge between the
Communists and Nationalists, the cucmv is
making determined progress despite \aliant
Chinese resistance and ;1\'ailable air support.
In both campaigns air attack has reduced
the speed of Japanese drives and gin:n demoralized
Chinese troops the confidence to
attempt stabilization of the fronts.
In southern Y unnan, the third campaign,
American air support has enabled Chinese
troops to execute their first successful offensive
since the beginning of the Sino-Japanese
war. The Japanese in southwestern
China have been thrown back from their
positions along the Salween River, from
which they menaced American airbascs in
western China and the vital air supply
route from India, and have been driven
back to the border of northern Burma.
Air action also has been responsible for
keeping the Chinese advuncc supplied with
food and am mu nit iou and dennng some of
the entrenched [aps access to their 0\\'11
supplies, 'I'rausportx have dropped hundreds
of tons of supplies to advance Chinese units
which otherwise would be dependent upon
the trickle of coolie. horne supplies O\'CI
almost impassable trails. In attacking the
enemy supply lines, Mitchells have bombed
and burned m.mv important Japanese snpply
bases in northern Burma, started landslides
along the important Burma Road that
closed it to truck and mule traffic for weeks
at a time, while fighters luivc bombed and
strafed snpply coluuuis from Lasluo to the
front.
Since the start of the Salween offensive,
the one bright spot in the total scene,
Chinese forces have narrowed the gap between
the Y unu.m forces and the Chinese
under Ccncral Stilwell at ""lvitkvina to less
than 40 miles, and seemed territory vital to
the opening of the Ledo Road frZHn India
to China.
Yet, wit h all our snpporting attacks and
localized victories. the coufl ict in China remained
tilted in favor of the Japanese. On
September :;. the Japs had resumed one of
t heir most decisilT offensives, and it appeared
that if thcv sncceeded in dril'ing to
Kwcilin and Liucliow, thcv \I'(HJ1d clim in.rtc
om hlSCS at thcse points' and I.ingling, If
t hcv continued to French Iudo-Chiua they
\I'o;J1d lop off the entire eastern section o'f
China.
;\11 factors considered, the war for the
Chincse \I;lS brightened only Ill' the prospeers
that cvcntu.illv enough Allied strength
would be bronght np to throw the enemy
ont, and bv the long view that ultimate
vict orv was bcvond doubt. *
OCTOBER,1944
In This Issue
Lt. Frances L.
Sandstrom, 24, a
flight nurse from Opportunity,
\\-ash., is
the girl on om cover
this month. Heaven
sent her to us, via
ATC. Assigned to
the transAtlaut ic air
evacuation run. Lien.
ten ant Sa n d s t rom
happened to be in
Nc«: York City for a dav of sightseeing after
making five flights into France and thirteen
Atlantic crossings since D.da\'. \\'e \I'CIe
looking for somebody very pretty, as usual,
and when we saw I\' ursc Sandstrom walking
toward a telephone booth in the Ilotcl
Commodore lobby we did a tight Iufbcrrv
around her until she agreed to be photographed
and tell her storv. Om photographer,
T /Sgt. Roger Coster, was on fur.
lough. but we snatehcd him back Ill' phone.
The lieutenant was modcstlv without her
ribbons at the time, so we bo~rO\\ed a European
one from a major in the editorial dep.irtmcut
and sent a staff artist speeding out
to buv an American ribbon. Coster then
began' firing long hursts on his Rollciflcx,
murmuring "ccs wonderful. BOI'! ccs wonderfnl."
(I lc's a Parisian, Did 19 months in
the French Army.) After the usual studio
shots, the photographer decided to make
one outdoors, That is the picture used all
the COlTr. taken on the roof of 101 Park
.wcnuc. home of AIR FORCE.
Five members of om * staff in recent weeks
have left for parts known and unknown as
overseas correspondents for AIH FORCE, and
you will be rcading their stnff as \IT go
along, Somewhere in France with advanced
1\.\F units lie have S/Sgt. Xlark ""lmpl1\'.
who before the war was on the staff of l'-:EW
YOHKI'.H magazine, now IHHking to keep us
up to date on developments of \I'hat at press
time was the fastest mOl'ing war theater.
Covering USST.\F operations from Britain
(Lv the time vou read this probably from
France) is ",,/aj. Charles Frazer, back to the
1-:1'0 on his sccoud tour of O\'lTSeaS dutv
for us. Slated for a stop off visit with the
Mcclitcrraucan Allied Air Forces in Italv is
Capt. Larrv Bachmann. not long removed
from a scvcnmout h tom in the Pacific. who
will move on to the China. Burma. India
theater. In the Pacific \I'C h'1\T ""Iaj. lIerb
Johansen and Capt. ""Iauford Suxmau. for
some last minute cabled dispatches from our
overseas men sec P;lges 4,
:~
12 and 38.
Capt. Bob Hotz. author of the article on
l-lt h Air Force oprrat ionv. p;lgc 24. is ;1
former member of om staff and of the staff
of the old Air Forces 0:C\l'S Letter. which
preceded AIR FORC]:, Not long ago he hclped
bring a B2:; back to a China base ;lfter its
pilot had been shot up dming a lowlevel
attack, I Iotz. an intelligence officer. was scrving
as gllnner on the mission, .\Ithongh not
a rated pilot (he had once fooled around
with Cubs and Link traiucrs }, l Iotz climbed
into the cockpit (there was no copilot on
the mission) and did a lot of filing on in.
strnments with the plane all shot np. until
the pilot could ;lgain take over. \Iore rcccntlv,
he w.ts a member of a crC\l' wlucl:
had iJeen shot up during a 10\\'.IeI'e1 attack,
had to bailout from 14,000 feet at night.
Retnrning in an early * issue will be the
cartoon IXlge of Capt. (vou knell' him only
as Lt.) \ \' ill iam T. Len t. The page w.rs
held np this month for revisions which
should gi\T it more prominence.
New features this * month include "Rcndczvous"
on Page I, wlucl: gi"es cvcrv one
of vou the chance to become a contributor
to 'AIR FOHcE through your lctt crs. Space
limits us soiucwh.r}, but we'll try to print
all letters which appcar to be of gcner;11
interest. As we h'IIT reminded vou on
om back COITr message this month. how
about scnding in your comments, criticisms
and ideas?
i:r
Another nell' feature is "The Library" on
Page 53. l lcrc each mout h, through the
cooperation of the ;\,\F Tcchniral Library
Service, we wi)] keep you posted on the new
books on air subjects which arc available
through the Sen icc.
In this and forthcoming *
the Breeze" will be found
issues "Shooting
on the page facing
the imide back CO\Tr. This feature is
meant to be e,'en'thing the name impliesa
kind of tall xt orv club with branches all
OIU the globe. ""l.mv of the tales ;Jre gospel
truth, others make us winc:r: a bit. \\'e appreciate
the items that arc being sent in for
"Breeze" and mge the rest of yon to jot
down those stories von tell and hear and
send them in. \\'e tilink thcv deserve to be
told through .\lIt Fouci, so everyone in thc
A. \F can hear them.
Thanks to Lt. \\insor *
writer, and S/Sgt. Rav
II. \\'atson, Jr.,
Scheiber, photogLI
pher, both of the PRO, 36th Street Airport,
ATC, :\liami, Fla. for preparing the Ic.rturc
"Pearly Cates," Page 21, to S/Sgt. l Ioitc
Agey of the same unit for his contributions
to the article "Om Pigeon Air ],'orce," P;lgc
36. and again to Sergeant Scheiber for his
photos ;lCcompam'ing that article.
,,1,7
Lt. Col. F. L :"i~sele\', author of the
radio landings article, Page 41. \I;IS largely
responsible for perfecting and putting into
operational usc the tvpc of equipment COlcreel
in his article. lie accomp.uucd the first
cxpcruncut.il sets to Britain and conducted
demonstrations so succcxsful th.it thcv led
to the adoption of the equipment b~' the
A.\F and R.\F in Britain,
~
Incidcntallv. hovs. '~lOse two lovelies yon
obsrrvcd in 'the I'. \SS IT 00: "advertiserncnt
" on p;lge () (If the Scptember issue
were, seated from left to right. ""Iiss Jean
\\'cleh and ""liss FLnicTs \\'cstcott. both of
the John Robert PO\lUS agency, N. Y, C. * 61