Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 October 1941 — Page 3

Force Unoccupied France, Spain nto Axis to Forestall U. S. ion of ‘Africa. :

PHILIP SIMMS Times Foreign Editor

- 38.—Convinced that Europe will

in 1942,

Adolf Hitler wants to *force

in and Portugal to join the Axis this “according to: reports received here. ar that a huge American expeditionhe Atlantic via Bermuda to North carry fis war r to an already tottering

>

«lif, by any chance,” Gon, Weygand

“(did go on the warspath against the

Axis, Weygand would have the full

4:_|support of the United States.

To guard as best he can against

@|American - intervention and a new |A. E. F.,, Hitle upon taking ‘Gibraltar and forcing

r is said to be intent

, | Spain, Portugal and Unoccupied

France into his camp. He also has [Dis eyes on Portugal's Azores.

With all these in Axis hands,

American intervention in Europe or North Affica would be difficult if

The Straits of

by

_ tect their pilots.

This is the second of six articles based on weeks of travel and study of American warplane production.

| Km

By WALTER LECKRONE

erica sent a 1937 pursuit plane to fight a 1941 war. . It was all we had. In 1937 U. S. pursuit planes were sensational

fighting machines, fast, sturdy, agile, deadly—by 1937 standards. In 1941 they were flying death-traps in which fighter pilots no

longer dared risk battle. Newer enemy pursuit- planes—50 miles an hour’ faster—could run

away from them at the rate of"

a half-mile every 35 seconds.. Or they could stay and fight while 30-caliber U. S. bullets borinced off their steel-sheathed sides and poked useless holes in their selfsealing gas tanks. Or they could: riddle U. S.-built fighters with heavier bullets of their own, and send them shrieking down in flames from burning gasoline that poured from their shattered oldstyle tanks. The war had barely begun when every nation began to revise its fighting planes. British planes had armor plate to pro‘German planes had gasoline tanks that ‘sealed bullet holes in a moment. Each immediately adopted the advantage of the other. American

.designers were urged to adopt

both. 8 #

BY.THE SPRING of 1940, when President Roosevelt called on the nation. to produce 50,000 war planes, the Nazi Army was roaring across Europe, and the plea for planes was urgent. No time now to start from scratch and de-

—

France needed war planes at once. In all of America there was not a fighting plane with an armored cockbit, or with a self-sealing fuel tank, or with guns heavier than 30 caliber—the same size as the Army rifle and not big enough to pierce armor plate. There was not even a design for such a plane. - True, there were prophets, here and there in ‘the air industry, here and there in the War Department, whe had urged such things. They had been hushed by placid superiors, or funds for experiments had not been available in a nation that intended to stay at peace. . A few months before the war bggan the War Department did not even have paper specifications for armor plate for aircraft. It had not yet taken seriously the

| small studies one or two manufacturers had made of bullet-proof -

fuel tanks. Even in speed—proudest boast of American aircraft—the first months of combat found U. S. warplanes far behind. ” ” ”

Curtiss P40, a slightly revised version of the Curtiss P36 which was designed in 1937. The P36,

with an 1100-horsepower aircooled motor, could hit a top speed of. 309 miles an hour. The P40, essentially the same plane but with’ ja liquid-cooled 1090-horsepower motor and more streamlining, began turning up 330 miles an hour in 1939. Already there were Messerschmidts over Europe doing 375, Spitfires rated at 367. Nevertheless such planes as could be spared were rushed abroad—chiefly, at first, to France.

The P40-D . os still an overloaded, under-powered pursuit plane.

which is as far as they got before France fell. Those that got into action were hopelessly outclassed. American. engineers began an amazing year of trial and error, marked by herculean feats of engineering and manufacturing — with results about what might be expected if one took a 1937 automobile and tried to make it over into a 1942 model. = ” 2 ONTO THE existing P40 the designers now tried to graft 50-cali-ber machine guns, steel armor plate, self-sealing fuel tanks. All this added more than 1000 pounds

y virtually the same design, had

been built to carry. As weight went up landing speeds increased —since the wing area was the same as before—from a conserva« tive 90 miles an hour to well above 100. Other. quirks developed. War planes were delicate and balanced instruments. The P40 was built for a weight of 24 pounds to the square foot of wing surface. Now

it had 33. The 50-caliber guns,.

heavier than the 30-caliber they replaced, destroyeg the equilibrium and made .the plane noseheavy. The landing gear, originally built to support the P36 coming in at 90 miles an hour, now had to support an additional ton of weight coming in at 110 or 120. Its wheels were too close together, and that contributed to a

tendency to ground-loop—or stag-’

ger crazily about on the ground in landing, a common cause of acci-

dents. 8 2 2

AT ONE -TIME, a few weeks ago, half of all the P40s at Mitchel Field were reported out of commission for wing repairs as a result of such landing accidents. Now the P40 had armor plate and heavier guns and bullet-proof gas tanks. Its high landing speed, result of its too-great weight, made it next to useless for night fighting. Yet its top speed in the air had not increased. It

The P40s were redesigned dn and again. The P40-D went into

production last spring, the P40-8 followed in midsummer: They - 2 were improved. “Bugs” were taken ‘x out. But it was still an overloade ih

ed underpowered patchwork. Nevertheless Curtiss-Wrighg :~ was the company geared to the _: biggest. production, ready for the = swiftest expansion—and produce tion of the P40 went on without’ a pause, Some 1500 of them were delivered to the British and Amer~ ican armies—~months after

5

were known by both to be o 50=.

lete. were better than none. ently the British did not agree. » 2 os

THE R. A. F. STORED them - away, still in the packing cases in - which they were shipped from '~

The U. S. Army says they -¥ Appare

h - » o © - w,

America, and went on fighting in -

Spitfires and Hurricanes. Eventue ally they were shipped on to

North Africa, the Middle East and :~

elsewhere, to serve against olde model Nazi planes and inferior Italian planes. Over western Europe hot one flies today. The ‘P40 is still the model with which most U, S. fighting squade rons are equipped. The manus facturers—who after all make only what the Army tells them to make —have made the best of a bad sitdation for which they were not responsible. It is not America’s last word in fighting ships. The new ones are on the way.

)e|not = impossible. was still too slow for duels with

enemy ships.

Be Gibraltar would be a death trap sign a new fighter. That takes THE STANDARD pursuit plane | More than 100 of them rust today | to the P40—and around a ton to an land the Mediterranean, as far east- months—even years. Britain and | of the American air force was the | at Martinique, in the Caribbean, | the weight which the original P36,

5S|ward as Crete, an Axis lake. Shaky ; -

Italy could still’ be kept in line by the Gestapo and the thousands of S TRA USS SAYS:

——

NEXT—I842 War Birds.

|

SHR BVBF ERP CER IPL EL GN § RRRG FAEE t

Nazi troops now scattered through- > |out the kingdom.

Not An Easy Matter dl But the taking of Gibraltar, ar | Spain, Portugal, the Azores and -| French North Africa into the Axis | camp will not be an. easy matter: And Hitler is said to know it. ofl He is already fighting on three al | fronts—in ‘the West against Brit“1 ain, in the East against Russia, and » | against the dangerous and rising up- -| rest througholt all non-Germanic | Europe. A fourth front, in North

| Africa, might well doom him. Already the Russian frond ‘| stretches from the | Arctic. Ocean to [the Black Sea. And if Hitler succeeds, this line will tend to become _|longer rather than shorter. If he pushes the Reds back to the Caspian Sea and the Nazis turn southward nt-1to the Caucasus and the Middle rely to| East, the Eastern battlefront will s to}stretch literally from the Arctic to foe Indian Ocean.

0, S. WILL BORROW

a v BILLION NEXT: MONTH It surrounds every transaction with highly skilled fitting services and other courtesies that insure ¢ WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (U. Py—| . | 3 4 fullest satisfactions. | |} The Treasury ,today announced| ll ed 3¢ | |

an te eet vo YOU WHO ARE SELECTIVE in your requirements and desire a ittle memo of the clothes in special favor, these are they:

eo TWO-Trouser SUITS, Princetown Twists, $45 Princetown SUITS, Soft, Pedigreed SHETLAND, 37.50 Hickey-Freeman SUITS» sect conenatin ty $68 and 515 Fashion Park Famous “FIFTIES"—SUITS, $50 Speciall Two-Trouser SUITS OF TWISTS, at 32.50 TWO-TROUSER SUITS, Cambridge Gray Flannels, 27.50 CHALK STRIPE FLANNEL, Two-Trouser SUITS, at 27.50

STORE HOURS SATURDAY FROM 9 TILL 8.

ENE dds thd

2H EE BA

€5-

This is a specialty store—with a selective, rather than a general mind.

sod RRP RA BEE

Its clothing stocks are a sum total of “specialties.” As we are fond of pointing out— it concentrates on the best—and rejects the rest! It sticks to cosmopolitan clothes—it keeps its stocks ever new in the forefront of taste—

It is pledged to present. the “best at your price, no matter what the price.”

FURAN NW NRO aww

RE

Paul, Bernice Franklin. at City. Fred, Frances Davidson, at City.

NRE A SY

Lester, Zella McKinney, at 551 W. Sto rence, Ruby Carter, at 1140 8S. Keyston Zmbers, Katherine Short, at 657 Divi-

Claud Helen Brown, at 2402 Pros ope ‘Ernest, Christine {Benefiel, at 83

nate. Edgar. Florence Dulin, at 425 Toledo,

DEATHS Steines, 64, at Flower Mission,

1, at 317 Bu 37th, ure SHIA - st illaspy, 66, at 1612 Elbert, mitral enos:

one. Edward ‘Buchanan, s months, at Methodrst, broncho-pneumon [ Donald Frazier, 35, at Methodist, uremia. « Fred R Jieiny, 62, at Veterans, cerebral hemorrhag 8 Charles “Medsker, 56, at Methodist, lobar 211 pneumoni Charles E. Brumbaugh) 74, at 637 Berwick, coronary occlus lara A. Jones, 75, Non 1925 Dexter, cere=

John ki Lillie May Bochstahler,

Dg NAP Sr NP RE NP

| ~~ 4-Pc. WARDROBER SUITS, cuit xa par cover sii) $25 and 2975 hn COVERT SUITS, Wearingtons, Natural Shade Featured at $25 fre ee son Princetown COVERT SUITS, Deluxe Tailoring, at 37.50 gE =r || st The Famous SEASON SKIPPER COATS $40 | IMPERIAL GABARDINE COATS, Superfatively Fine, $45 * Wearington TOPCOATS, Fleeces and Tweeds, 19, 1d “COVERT TOPCOATS, Fly-Front and Button- Through, $25 ZIPPER LINED TOPCOATS For All Weathers, Featured at $25 | -

Lambskin leather, Shoulders and back

| would be sought next week provided no international developments disB= turbed the bond market. ACCOUNTS—in accord with conventional

practice . .

BAROMETER TODAY 6:30 a. m...29.97

precipitation 24 hrs. endin Total precipitation since Deficiency since 1

} MIDWEST WEATHER 2n Indiana—Light showers tonfght, becom- *| ing fair tcmorrow, cooler tomorrow and .| in west and nortn poriions tonight; probably rain Sunday.

«| Illinois—Partly cloudy, light showers in south and east-centra ‘portions this afternoon and early tonight, becoming fair and cooler rong and tomorrow, probably rain Sunda

a

Jan.

TAS

—The JUNIOR CHARGE ACCOUNTS—That permit moderate weekly payments . . .

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. Lower Michi Light ghowers tonight, becoming fair tomorrow; cooler. tomorrow and in west and north portions tonight; h; probably rain Sunday. “| . Ohio — Considerable cloudiness with goattered showers tonight and tomosrow, cooler | in west and north Porte tomorrow - afternoon. . Ke ntucky-_-Partly cloudy with seattered showers tonight and tomorrow; cooler | extreme west portion tomorrow Avorn Sta tfon J Weather Bar. Temp. AD he Tex, Rai 20.95 52 Bismarck, N. D....... ,

—Accounts TAILORED to - Special needs. No carrying charges—

LER GEE BE SATE AN 4 ere

‘Omah . | Por NCISCO eecvoee

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