How the U. S. Navy Is Training Aviation’s Toughest Fighters" By William J. Wheatley. Into the widespread battlefronts, scattered in almost all areas at the globe, the Navy is now infiltrating in increasing numbers the “flghtlnest” group of youth- ful aerial combat men any nation has produced. The first of them are made up of college men, but in a few short months there will be literally thousands of young high school graduates proudly wearing the wings of a naval aviator on their tunics, backed by a stamina harden- ing process and a fund of accurate shoot- ing and aerial combat training drilled into them by a habit-forming process, going into the battle zones, with the determination to kill and success their only goal. This determination to kill and to ac- complish their objective by any known means is instilled in them from the time they report at the naval preflight schools, until they are graduated to the various fleets and task forces. It starts in the sports program in which each cadet gets five hours of intensive work- out each day. No Holds Barred. On the field of sport the formal rules are cast aside by the instructors, all of whom are men who have become out- standing in some field of the sport world in colleges and schools throughout the country. The fouls and roughn*3s now practiced by these eager youth which bring smiles from the former college coaches would have made them scream to high heaven before the referees. But students are impressed with the fact that they are now in a school which is teaching them to engage in a serious game with an enemy that knows no fair play and who rides to victory on foul play and treachery, and to preserve themselves and their country they must meet fire with an even hotter fire. I have just completed a 2,000-mile trip by air as a guest of the Navy which carried me through all of the phases of the training to produce these youthful naval aviators out of high school grad- uates. I was so impressed with the eagerness of these young Americans to learn everything about their jobs ahead and their restless determination to get through the schools and out with the fleets that I was well on the way to being lulled into a sphere of complacency with the observation that the situation is go- ing to be well in hand when the schools reach their full stride of production. The personnel will be there, and given the planes and the ammunition, this force spells finis at least for those fighters of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito who dare to pit their prowess against the naval armada manned by these youths. Building Brains and Muscles. The development of alertness and quick thinking goes along in stride with the development of the body muscles which will enable these young aerial fighters to sum up a situation pre- sented by the enemy, make a decision and carry it into successful effect in the matter of seconds. It is for this rea- son that the body-building and muscle development program is carried out through the field of heavy sports. For, as Capt. John P. Graff, commandant of the Preflight School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N. C., said no one ever had his mind de- veloped by a few body-bending and muscle-twisting motions as carried out in the formal Swedish setting-up exer- cises. They pit the students against one another in games where they must use their strength and muscles to carry out their decisions which they make in the heat of a tussle for a goal. In the military science instruction, which they receive along with their sports at Chapel Hill, there is one fact which impresses the observer with the necessity of quick decision. It is in the recognition of airplanes and surface ves- sels of both the Allies and the enemy. Each day the student is shown pictures of two planes. They are described in detail, but the student is impressed with the fact that he must recognize them as a unit, and not by some particular fea- ture, such as low wings, long fuselage, short engine nacels, etc., because he may not see them at such an angle, in aerial combat, which will permit him to observe only certain characteristics. This usually takes five minutes of the hour. In the Wink of an Eye. Then for the remainder of the hour, the instructor places slides of the differ- ent planes, in various angles of flight in a projector, and flashes them on a screen at one-seventy-ftfth of a second. That’s just about the wink of an eyelid, and if you don’t believe it. just take your camera and look through the lens as you trip the shutter lever. In that short wink the student is supposed to name the type of plane and the country to which it belongs. While I was in the classroom there was not a miss. Everything that is required of the young students during that time that they are at the preflight school is done for the sole purpose of developing him to an all-around air fighting man. For instance, the time of the students from the moment that they arise in the morning until they dig in at “taps” is occupied to such an extent that there is little time to read newspapers even if they had them. However, if they want the news they must work for it, and at the same time improve them- selves. During the day the clerks in the ad- ministrative offices transcribe the news from radio broadcasts. Then in the evening at a set period when the young men are in their rooms, a radio oper- ator gets at a master key and sends the news in dots and dashes. If the student desires it, he must put on the head phones in his room and copy the dots and dashes. All the while he is developing his receiving ability which will serve him well at some later time when he is in the air on the fighting front. The Obstacle Course. But it is the heavy sports program which builds in to them agility of body and alertness of mind, and strengthens that stamina which will enable them to itay through the hardest of the fights that may be theirs in the future. The obstacle course which they must Mass calisthenics at a Navy Pre-flight School—oociai United Slates Navr Photo. run once a week would try the heart of any man, and if there was any in- herent weakness that had not been dis- covered by the medicos in examining them for admission it would show up. It is up hill and down dale, for well over a mile, swinging by vines over deep ravines, through a “monkey fence” which is a series of cages over the top and into which the man must go on the run, then hand-over-hand up a rope, and by the same method for 40 feet along a horizontal line, and down a line at the other end. Then on his hands and knees through a culvert, up a high wall by means of a cargo net and down the other side in the same manner, ending the course in a high hurdle. On another day, there is boxing; an- other wrestling; another day must be spent in the gymnasium and then the swimming pool where the men are taught all means of saving themselves, including how to get aboard a ship at sea and how to jump off in the event of abandoning the vessel. Then, too, they are taught how to get out of a plane cockpit, in the event they crash into the water. A contrivance has been developed, sim- ilar to a cockpit in which a man is strapped in the same manner he would be if a pilot. The cockpit is lowered into the water and turned over. He must unstrap himself and get out in 2 minutes. He must learn to be a tumbler like those you pay money to see in the circus and is taught all of the fine arts of self- defense against the enemy with knife or gun at close hand. When he quits this school he has been trained in all of the fine arts of quickly disarming, maiming and killing his adversary. During all of this intensive training each man is under the watchful eye of an officer, who watches for any weakening points which mark him as unfit to go out in combat. For instance, during the boxing, if he covers up too much in the ring and doesn’t push the fight to his adversary he is not considered good enough fighting material to go out against the enemy and he is finished in so far as becoming an aerial fighting of- ficer is concerned. Our Men Not Soft. There has been much talk all over the country about the softness of American youth, but this is not borne out by a study of this cross section which may be found at the preflight school. Strangely enough, only about 3 per cent “wash out” during this period. On the other hand, they are the cream of the crop, as many are eliminated during the earlier cadet stages before they reach preflight, laregly because of the fact that they do not show that they have inherent ability for flying. It is really a tough course that these young men go through, so intensive and so violent that even an older man watch- ing the program may find himself breath- ing just a little faster from watching them. And all of it is in the spirit of competition for the men are divided into 12 groups for sports competitions, each named after a famous plane and each having its own pennant. Each week the winning pennants are flown at a yard arm on the campus, with the winners getting a few extra privileges for excel- ling during the week. But I do not believe there is a man that would give it up. I talked to a number of those in the class which was about to graduate and all expressed themselves as pleased with what had been done for them while there, and they were eager to get out and into the next step, which is another chance at the planes. For dur- ing their time at Chapel Hill there is not even a plane ride, much less any op- eration. Combat Flying. Then on to Pensacola, on the Gulf Coast of Florida they go, for the first introduction to combat ffying and more navigation school as well as gunnery. This is really the next biggest event in the career of a naval air cadet, for at the end of his tour of duty there, if he Three "Kingfishers” in perfect echelon formation over Pensacola Bay. ■—OffleUl United States Harr Photo. continues to maintain hls grade and In- terest, and they all do, he gets hls com- mission as so ensign In the Naval Re- serve and Is designated a naval aviator which permits him to wear on hls left breast the distinctive gold wings of the combat flyer. He Is Introduced to the intermediate trainers, and the Catalina flying boats, and It is here, too, that he selects the type of plane which he expects to handle during the current conflict, be it flying boat, torpedo bomber, bomber or dive bomber. He lives it seven days at a stretch from the break of dawn until the stroke of midnight. The drone and roar of motors hour after hour Is always In hls ears, until it becomes second na- ture. But there are other things than flying that he gets while here. The instruction in self-preservation in the water is con- tinued, and here, too, he receives in- struction in high altitude flying, but right on the ground. Huge pressure tanks have been provided, and he Is given a course of instruction under surgeons of the Navy on the recognition of the symptoms of the lack of oxygen at high altitudes and how and when to use oxygen appa- ratus are instilled into him. They are taken into the huge tanks at sea level, and the Intricate machinery can "lift” them in a matter of minutes to simulated thousands of feet, with the accompanying freezing temperatures which he will meet when he actually gets to such altitudes in the planes. During the periods that they are in the tanks they are under the watchful eyes of doc- tors and hospital corpsmen, both inside and outside. Delicate insrtuments tell just what is happening, and every safe- guard is thrown around the student to protect hls life and health while under- going this instruction. Final Training. But having gotten his "wings” and the coveted commission witJPrthe accom- panying designation of a naval aviator, the student, for he is still a student de- spite the fact that he has received his commission, goes to the operational sta- tion at Jacksonville on the Atlantic Coast of Northern Florida. Here he goes A squadron of scout observation planes on the line at a Naval * Air Station. —Official United States Navy Photo. through a period of intensive training, which is the polishing off process before he receives his orders to go out to one of the fighting units. Operating from fields scattered along the east coast of Florida, the field de- pending upon the type of flying for which he is to be trained, he lives with planes and guns. He learns here to do almost by second nature everything that he would be expected to do when he is in the air and sees a Zero bearing down on him. The officers put him through a course which would permit him to take to the air in actual combat from the time he reports to a carrier or base in the war zone. For while here he does every- thing that he would do there, except per- haps get shoti at by live ammunition. At Jacksonville, as well as at Pensacola, he receives his instruction not from men with a theory of aerial combat, but from hardened veteran officers who have ex- perienced the sting of an enemy bullet,,, the blast from his bombs and guns, and „, who, for heroic conduct against the enemy wear one, two and sometimes as many as three stars on their service rib- bons. v; Up to these the young cadets and stu- , dents look as idols, but idolatry is not practiced or preached. They are im- pressed with the fact that it is a grim game, a game with no rules like the sports at pre-flight school. The object is to win first; the method is not to be questioned there or in any other place as long as this conflict lasts. They are instilled with the fact there, as at pre- flight school that they are not in this field of combat to win medals, but only a part of a great effort to get the enemy flat on its back, hj which they are to be important cogs. Why the Flying Fortress Is the Finest FighteiHE4ane-tn the World By Walter McCallum. "She’s the finest fighter airplane in the world.” Capt. Spencer Treharne patted the sleek, camouflaged aluminum skin of the big bomber. “She has the fire power to dish it out and the speed and armor to take it.” Few people think of the B-17, the Fly- ing Fortress of the upper air lanes, as a fighter airplane. They see the four- motored, sweetly streamlined ship fly- ing majestically overhead, motors roar- ing in unison, her big vertical fin stick- ing up like the dorsal of a fish, the apotheosis of air power. Nearly five thousand horses live in the engines of a B-17. She has the power to handle any situation, in her engines and in the quick firing guns which stick out like porcupine quills all over her stream- lined periphery. And the B-17, with all her tremendous power for destruction, and her position as the top (so rated by the British) heavy bomber in the air arsenal of any nation, is “the last of the small air- planes.” The quotes are from a recent speech by Gen. H. H. (Hap) Arnold, commanding general, Army Air Forces. There is no secret about the fact that bigger, faster and better models of heavy bombers of the B-17 type, proven in combat, with greater fire power and more bomb-carrying capacity, are About to come off production lines at the Boeing factory. The new'"heavy bombers, so it is reported in the Air Force, will be big- ger than the present improved model F of the Flying Fortress, the heavily armed and armored model which has fought so well in combat areas all over the world. They Can Take It. Any one who has seen the movie “Air Force” must absorb some of the spirit of the men who fly the Fortresses and their love for the big thunderbirds of the air. In this picture you saw "Mary Ann,” the B-17 about which the film was built, take beatings that would have driven lesser planes to the ignominy of death on the ground. You saw Mary Ann almost pounded to bits, torn by bullets, attacked furiously by swarms of enemy aircraft. And you saw Mary Ann knock enemy ships out of the sky in spinning, blazing ruin and come back for more. How the B-17 Surpasses. Majestic. Impregnable. Impervious to enemy attack. All these adjectives are used by the men ^ho fly the B-17. They apply equally well to the B-24, the other four-engined airplane used as a heavy bomber by the United States Army Air Forces. Yet, among the bomber crews you’ll find the B-17 the sweetheart of the Air Force, the air- plane that goes out, accomplishes its mission despite enemy opposition, and comes back to fight again. From a purely civilian point of view there may be little to choose between the B-17 and the B-24. Both four-engine heavy bombers are good ships. Both the Fortress and the Liberator have proven their effectiveness over Europe and Africa. Both can carry plenty of trou- ble. absorb lead and dish it out. But in the air they're different. The B-24 is a good airplane, but in flight it lacks the graceful, swallow-like lines of the B-17. It has the same majesty, the same look of Impregnability and the same impression that here is an airplane that will go a long way toward Berlin, blasting a path of destruction as it goes. But the Fortress is different. It is no disparagement of the B-24 to say that where the 24 is the flying freight car of the air the 17 is the graceful swan. There is so much difference in their looks, from the esthetic angle. Both have power, climbing ability, the right to the upper altitudes where much of the heavy bombing and fighting of this war is being carried on. Both have tremendous fire power and tremendous bomb carrying ability. At the Controls. An airplane (any airplane) is a highly technical, tremendously complicated piece of machinery. But the big bombers are more complicated, by Iar, than the speedy, comparatively light little fighter planes, or even than the medium bomb- ers, such as the B-25 and B-26, the former the type which bombed Tokio and the latter the type which did a com- plete job of 100 per cent destruction on the Japs in the Bismarck Sea. A bomber is one of the most compli- cated pieces of apparatus ever conceived and put together by the hand of man. Yet, to the pilot, it is the mo6t responsive, sweetly handling piece of machinery imaginable. I was permitted, on a recent flight in a B-17, to take the controls for a few minutes, with the pilot, of course, standing by ready to take over at any moment. Prom the maze of instruments on the complicated panel facing the two pilots, I was told to watch three only. The en- gines were in tune, manifold pressure was right, oil temperature was O. K. and the pilot check had shown everything func- tioning properly up there at 8,000 feet. The B-17 is most responsive to the slight- est movement of the wheel. Even a slight pull back on the wheel and she rises. The slightest pressure on the wheel to right or left and she turns. You might have had ideas a fast speedboat is the most responsive piece of machinery you ever handled. A B-17 is fully as respon- sive and much faster. Mary Ann and her more modern coun- terparts fly through the air as gayly and far more speedily than the man on the trapeze. Two hundred and fifty miles an hour is just a breeze for the B-17. Her armament, of• course, is a military secret. But tucked up there in the Plexi- glass nose of the ship is enough fire power to take care of any enemy fighter or group of enemy planes that may at- tempt head-on to stop the progress of this majestic airplane. Ordinarily B-17s fly in formations of three planes, their guns bristling at all angles, tossing so much lead that the Japs and Nazi fighter ships'cut aerial didoes all over the sky but don't dare to come within range of the Portress. Need No Escort. Time after time, Fortresses have gone out over Nazi Europe unaccompanied by a fighter escort. Disdaining the usual umbrella of fighter protection they have sallied forth into the lair of Goering’s yellow-nosed fighter planes, have brushed them off over Lorient and St. Nazaire and have dropped their eggs from 30,000 feet, returning to bases in Britain. You get the impression, watching a flight of B-17s, that nothing can knock them out of the air. And the impression is partially true. Nothing but many hits by cannon fire can do the job. Repeat- edly they have limped home, an engine shot away, hydraulic gear torn out, con- trols damaged, unable to put their wheels down, making a belly landing and a safe one. * At Sebring, Fla., I flew in a formation of 12 B-17s, at the great four-engine school where fledgling B-17 pilots come from the two-engine schools to take over the bigger and faster Portresses, weighing more than a score of tons, a lot of airplane to take off and land. If some of the pilots had kept their wings a little further apart when rising cur- rents of air tossed even those big air- planes around I would have been hap- pier. But nothing happened. They train good pilots there. Such men as Capt. Trehame and Maj. Russell P. Reeves are counterparts in flying skill of the tanned lanky Texan who commands the school. The famous B-17 “Flying Fortress” rated by the British as the top heavy bomber in the air arsenal of any nation. _w** world Photo. In the Air Forces Col. Carl B. McDan- iel, commandant of the four-engine school at Sebring. is becoming a legend, for his flying ability, his knack of turn- ing out good B-17 pilots, and his fatherly attitude toward the men who tool the Fortresses through the upper air. Many times Col. McDaniel has helped to a good landing a B-17 whose wheels didn’t function, or who got into trouble up above. He has gone into the air him- self in a smaller airplane, assayed the possibility of a safe landing by a B-17 in trouble, and has brought it down safely. Well-Rounded Training. The range of the B-17 is extraordinary. Part of the training schedule at Sebring calls for a 1,700 mile cross-country flight by all pilots, through good weather and bad, sometimes flying on instruments. That kind of flying (instruments) is just a routine part of the work. So are three-engine and two-engine landings, as they might have to be if enemy ack- ack shot away one or more of the four power plants that drive the plane. “If the boys get into real trouble in the air.” said Col. McDaniel, “we tell them by radio either to fly until their gasoline is exhausted, or to fly to a designated field where they can land and where third echelon repairs can be made.” Third echelon work, in Army Air Force language, means major re- pairs. The landing spot happens to be about 1,000 miles from Sebring. But that is just a toss for the B-17, which has much greater flying range. The Sebing School used to be a train- ing school for B-17 crews. It still is, in a way, although Col. McDaniel says it now is a transient training school for pilots. But, of course, the flight crew, usually non-commissioned officers, train along with the pilots. A B-17, despite her han- diness in the air and her grace, still is a lot of airplane, and needs a crew to handle her. McDaniel, incidentally, is a stickler for team work. He says, rightly, that all ele- ments of a heavy bomber crew must click like a highly geared football team to in- sure the success of the mission. “If they don’t they might as well stay home,” he says. The two pilots, sitting up in the glass nose, are the chauffeurs. The senior pilot, of course, is the captain, with the final word on everything. If the order comes to abandon ship, he gives it. If decisions of vital importance to plane and crew are made, he makes them after consultation with the technicians under his command. Pilots Take Orders. But on a bombing mission, the pilots take orders. They take the airplane off the ground, and by the way, a B-17 leaves the ground at about 120 miles an hour, a lot of speed in any contrivance. Once in the air the navigator takes over, telling the pilots the course to take to bring them over the objective. Nearing the spot where they are to lay their deadly eggs the bombardier, away up in the peak of the nose, peering through his bomsight, takes charge. “Keep her level and about 5 degrees right,” he tells the pilot by the interphone. “Bombs away.'V he says, as he pulls the levers which drop the big bombs Then the di- rection of the ship goes back to the navigator, who sits under a hooded lamp pouring over his flight plan and his charts. Meanwhile, enemy aircraft may have risen up in the stratosphere where the t B-17s do their best work, to engage the y big bomber. Then all crew members turn to the guns to repel attack. The tail gunner, sitting in the cramped quarters at the rear of the ship, blasts the enemy with twin machine guns. Prom the belly turret,' suspended below the belly of the plane, pours a deadly hail of fire. Prom the top turret other guns chatter, while from many positions in the nose machine guns mow down enemy planes attacking head-on, and the waist gunners, their weapons protuding through open win- dows, add to the fire power of the air- plane. That is what Trehame means when he calls the B-17 the finest fighter air- plane in the world. You can sum it up in one phrase: Fire power. And you can make it more concrete when you see three of these big babies tooling their way through the upper air, guns bristling to cover all avenues of fire. They stay in formation to concentrate fire on attach from any direction. It’s part of their in- vulnerability. The Fortress Crew. The crew of the Fortress numbers nine... Usually they’re young men, tanned and fit with plenty of air and airplane savvy. They have roving eyes and the swivel, neck’s you’ll find in many air men, from,. looking for enemy pursuit. They have an esprit, from captain down, an affection for their ship, that, goes beyond mere words. There are the pilot and co-pilot, the navigator, bomba- dier, all specialists in highly technical lines. There are the waist, ball turret and top turret gunners, the radio opera- tor and the flight engineer. All of them except the pilots take over guns when enemy aircraft attack. And if the pilots happen to catch a bullet others in the ship are equipped to take over and bring her home safely. We flew many miles out to sea on a leg of the homeward flight from Florida which carried us to 10,000 feet to get over / high clouds, over territory which a year ago was pretty thick with submarines-. We felt no apprehension up there over a., lot of water many miles from land. Those big engines, turning over at half speed and still driving the airplane more than 200 miles an hour create a feeling of confidence. Some of us went to sleep. The big bomber is an airplane that seems so in- capable of any harm, so like a Pullman' car, you can get no sensation of speed or height. And this, says the Air Force,., is the last of the small planes. The bigger ones to come will have to be good to beat the one which built the original reputation.
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How the U. S. Navy Is Training Aviation’s Toughest Fighters" By William J. Wheatley.
Into the widespread battlefronts, scattered in almost all areas at the globe, the Navy is now infiltrating in increasing numbers the “flghtlnest” group of youth- ful aerial combat men any nation has
produced. The first of them are made
up of college men, but in a few short months there will be literally thousands of young high school graduates proudly wearing the wings of a naval aviator on
their tunics, backed by a stamina harden-
ing process and a fund of accurate shoot-
ing and aerial combat training drilled into them by a habit-forming process,
going into the battle zones, with the
determination to kill and success their
only goal. This determination to kill and to ac-
complish their objective by any known
means is instilled in them from the time
they report at the naval preflight schools, until they are graduated to the
various fleets and task forces. It starts
in the sports program in which each
cadet gets five hours of intensive work-
out each day.
No Holds Barred.
On the field of sport the formal rules
are cast aside by the instructors, all of
whom are men who have become out-
standing in some field of the sport world
in colleges and schools throughout the country. The fouls and roughn*3s now
practiced by these eager youth which bring smiles from the former college coaches would have made them scream
to high heaven before the referees. But students are impressed with the fact that they are now in a school which is teaching them to engage in a serious game with an enemy that knows no fair play and who rides to victory on foul
play and treachery, and to preserve themselves and their country they must meet fire with an even hotter fire.
I have just completed a 2,000-mile trip by air as a guest of the Navy which carried me through all of the phases of the training to produce these youthful naval aviators out of high school grad- uates. I was so impressed with the eagerness of these young Americans to learn everything about their jobs ahead and their restless determination to get through the schools and out with the fleets that I was well on the way to being lulled into a sphere of complacency with the observation that the situation is go- ing to be well in hand when the schools reach their full stride of production. The personnel will be there, and given the planes and the ammunition, this force spells finis at least for those fighters of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito who dare to pit their prowess against the naval armada manned by these youths.
Building Brains and Muscles.
The development of alertness and
quick thinking goes along in stride with
the development of the body muscles
which will enable these young aerial fighters to sum up a situation pre- sented by the enemy, make a decision and carry it into successful effect in the matter of seconds. It is for this rea-
son that the body-building and muscle development program is carried out through the field of heavy sports. For, as Capt. John P. Graff, commandant of the Preflight School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N. C., said no one ever had his mind de- veloped by a few body-bending and
muscle-twisting motions as carried out in the formal Swedish setting-up exer-
cises. They pit the students against one another in games where they must use their strength and muscles to carry out their decisions which they make in the heat of a tussle for a goal.
In the military science instruction, which they receive along with their sports at Chapel Hill, there is one fact which impresses the observer with the necessity of quick decision. It is in the recognition of airplanes and surface ves-
sels of both the Allies and the enemy. Each day the student is shown pictures of two planes. They are described in detail, but the student is impressed with the fact that he must recognize them as
a unit, and not by some particular fea- ture, such as low wings, long fuselage, short engine nacels, etc., because he may not see them at such an angle, in aerial combat, which will permit him to observe only certain characteristics. This usually takes five minutes of the hour.
In the Wink of an Eye. Then for the remainder of the hour,
the instructor places slides of the differ- ent planes, in various angles of flight in a projector, and flashes them on a
screen at one-seventy-ftfth of a second. That’s just about the wink of an eyelid, and if you don’t believe it. just take your camera and look through the lens as you trip the shutter lever. In that short wink the student is supposed to name the type of plane and the country to which it belongs. While I was in the classroom there was not a miss.
Everything that is required of the young students during that time that they are at the preflight school is done for the sole purpose of developing him to an all-around air fighting man. For instance, the time of the students from the moment that they arise in the morning until they dig in at “taps” is occupied to such an extent that there is little time to read newspapers even if they had them. However, if they want the news they must work for it, and at the same time improve them- selves.
During the day the clerks in the ad- ministrative offices transcribe the news from radio broadcasts. Then in the evening at a set period when the young men are in their rooms, a radio oper- ator gets at a master key and sends the news in dots and dashes. If the student desires it, he must put on the head phones in his room and copy the dots and dashes. All the while he is developing his receiving ability which will serve him well at some later time when he is in the air on the fighting front.
The Obstacle Course. But it is the heavy sports program
which builds in to them agility of body and alertness of mind, and strengthens that stamina which will enable them to itay through the hardest of the fights that may be theirs in the future.
The obstacle course which they must
Mass calisthenics at a Navy Pre-flight School—oociai United Slates Navr Photo.
run once a week would try the heart of any man, and if there was any in- herent weakness that had not been dis- covered by the medicos in examining them for admission it would show up. It is up hill and down dale, for well over a mile, swinging by vines over deep ravines, through a “monkey fence” which is a series of cages over the top and into which the man must go on the run, then hand-over-hand up a rope, and by the same method for 40 feet along a horizontal line, and down a line at the other end. Then on his hands and knees through a culvert, up a high wall by means of a cargo net and down the other side in the same manner, ending the course in a high hurdle.
On another day, there is boxing; an- other wrestling; another day must be spent in the gymnasium and then the swimming pool where the men are taught all means of saving themselves, including how to get aboard a ship at sea and how to jump off in the event of abandoning the vessel. Then, too, they are taught how to get out of a plane cockpit, in the event they crash into the water.
A contrivance has been developed, sim- ilar to a cockpit in which a man is strapped in the same manner he would be if a pilot. The cockpit is lowered into the water and turned over. He must unstrap himself and get out in 2 minutes.
He must learn to be a tumbler like those you pay money to see in the circus and is taught all of the fine arts of self- defense against the enemy with knife or
gun at close hand. When he quits this school he has been trained in all of the fine arts of quickly disarming, maiming and killing his adversary.
During all of this intensive training each man is under the watchful eye of an
officer, who watches for any weakening points which mark him as unfit to go out in combat. For instance, during the boxing, if he covers up too much in the ring and doesn’t push the fight to his adversary he is not considered good enough fighting material to go out against the enemy and he is finished in so far as becoming an aerial fighting of- ficer is concerned.
Our Men Not Soft. There has been much talk all over the
country about the softness of American youth, but this is not borne out by a
study of this cross section which may be found at the preflight school. Strangely enough, only about 3 per cent “wash out” during this period. On the other hand, they are the cream of the crop, as
many are eliminated during the earlier cadet stages before they reach preflight, laregly because of the fact that they do not show that they have inherent ability for flying.
It is really a tough course that these young men go through, so intensive and so violent that even an older man watch- ing the program may find himself breath- ing just a little faster from watching them. And all of it is in the spirit of competition for the men are divided into 12 groups for sports competitions, each named after a famous plane and each having its own pennant. Each week the winning pennants are flown at a yard arm on the campus, with the winners getting a few extra privileges for excel- ling during the week.
But I do not believe there is a man that would give it up. I talked to a number of those in the class which was about to graduate and all expressed themselves as
pleased with what had been done for them while there, and they were eager to get out and into the next step, which is another chance at the planes. For dur- ing their time at Chapel Hill there is not even a plane ride, much less any op- eration.
Combat Flying. Then on to Pensacola, on the Gulf
Coast of Florida they go, for the first introduction to combat ffying and more
navigation school as well as gunnery. This is really the next biggest event in the career of a naval air cadet, for at the end of his tour of duty there, if he
Three "Kingfishers” in perfect echelon formation over Pensacola Bay. ■—OffleUl United States Harr Photo.
continues to maintain hls grade and In- terest, and they all do, he gets hls com- mission as so ensign In the Naval Re- serve and Is designated a naval aviator which permits him to wear on hls left breast the distinctive gold wings of the combat flyer.
He Is Introduced to the intermediate trainers, and the Catalina flying boats, and It is here, too, that he selects the type of plane which he expects to handle during the current conflict, be it flying boat, torpedo bomber, bomber or dive bomber. He lives it seven days at a stretch from the break of dawn until the stroke of midnight. The drone and roar of motors hour after hour Is always In hls ears, until it becomes second na- ture.
But there are other things than flying that he gets while here. The instruction in self-preservation in the water is con- tinued, and here, too, he receives in- struction in high altitude flying, but right on the ground. Huge pressure tanks have been provided, and he Is given a course of instruction under surgeons of the Navy on the recognition of the symptoms of the lack of oxygen at high altitudes and how and when to use oxygen appa- ratus are instilled into him.
They are taken into the huge tanks at sea level, and the Intricate machinery can "lift” them in a matter of minutes to simulated thousands of feet, with the accompanying freezing temperatures which he will meet when he actually gets to such altitudes in the planes. During the periods that they are in the tanks they are under the watchful eyes of doc- tors and hospital corpsmen, both inside and outside. Delicate insrtuments tell just what is happening, and every safe- guard is thrown around the student to protect hls life and health while under- going this instruction.
Final Training. But having gotten his "wings” and the
coveted commission witJPrthe accom- panying designation of a naval aviator, the student, for he is still a student de- spite the fact that he has received his commission, goes to the operational sta- tion at Jacksonville on the Atlantic Coast of Northern Florida. Here he goes
A squadron of scout observation planes on the line at a Naval *
Air Station. —Official United States Navy Photo.
through a period of intensive training, which is the polishing off process before he receives his orders to go out to one
of the fighting units. Operating from fields scattered along
the east coast of Florida, the field de- pending upon the type of flying for which he is to be trained, he lives with planes and guns. He learns here to do almost by second nature everything that he would be expected to do when he is in the air and sees a Zero bearing down on him. The officers put him through a
course which would permit him to take to the air in actual combat from the time he reports to a carrier or base in the war zone. For while here he does every- thing that he would do there, except per- haps get shoti at by live ammunition.
At Jacksonville, as well as at Pensacola, he receives his instruction not from men
with a theory of aerial combat, but from
hardened veteran officers who have ex-
perienced the sting of an enemy bullet,,, the blast from his bombs and guns, and „, who, for heroic conduct against the enemy wear one, two and sometimes as many as three stars on their service rib- bons. v;
Up to these the young cadets and stu- , dents look as idols, but idolatry is not practiced or preached. They are im- pressed with the fact that it is a grim game, a game with no rules like the sports at pre-flight school. The object is to win first; the method is not to be questioned there or in any other place as long as this conflict lasts. They are
instilled with the fact there, as at pre- flight school that they are not in this field of combat to win medals, but only a part of a great effort to get the enemy flat on its back, hj which they are to be important cogs.
Why the Flying Fortress Is the Finest FighteiHE4ane-tn the World By Walter McCallum.
"She’s the finest fighter airplane in the world.” Capt. Spencer Treharne
patted the sleek, camouflaged aluminum skin of the big bomber. “She has the fire power to dish it out and the speed and armor to take it.”
Few people think of the B-17, the Fly- ing Fortress of the upper air lanes, as a
fighter airplane. They see the four-
motored, sweetly streamlined ship fly- ing majestically overhead, motors roar-
ing in unison, her big vertical fin stick-
ing up like the dorsal of a fish, the
apotheosis of air power. Nearly five thousand horses live in the engines of a
B-17. She has the power to handle any situation, in her engines and in the
quick firing guns which stick out like
porcupine quills all over her stream-
lined periphery. And the B-17, with all her tremendous
power for destruction, and her position as the top (so rated by the British)
heavy bomber in the air arsenal of any nation, is “the last of the small air-
planes.” The quotes are from a recent
speech by Gen. H. H. (Hap) Arnold, commanding general, Army Air Forces.
There is no secret about the fact that
bigger, faster and better models of heavy bombers of the B-17 type, proven in
combat, with greater fire power and more
bomb-carrying capacity, are About to come off production lines at the Boeing factory. The new'"heavy bombers, so it is reported in the Air Force, will be big- ger than the present improved model F of the Flying Fortress, the heavily armed and armored model which has fought so
well in combat areas all over the world.
They Can Take It.
Any one who has seen the movie “Air
Force” must absorb some of the spirit of the men who fly the Fortresses and
their love for the big thunderbirds of
the air. In this picture you saw "Mary Ann,” the B-17 about which the film was
built, take beatings that would have driven lesser planes to the ignominy of death on the ground. You saw Mary Ann almost pounded to bits, torn by bullets, attacked furiously by swarms of enemy aircraft. And you saw Mary Ann knock enemy ships out of the sky in
spinning, blazing ruin and come back for more.
How the B-17 Surpasses. Majestic. Impregnable. Impervious
to enemy attack. All these adjectives are used by the men ^ho fly the B-17.
They apply equally well to the B-24, the other four-engined airplane used as a
heavy bomber by the United States Army Air Forces. Yet, among the bomber crews you’ll find the B-17 the sweetheart of the Air Force, the air- plane that goes out, accomplishes its mission despite enemy opposition, and comes back to fight again.
From a purely civilian point of view there may be little to choose between the B-17 and the B-24. Both four-engine heavy bombers are good ships. Both the Fortress and the Liberator have proven their effectiveness over Europe and Africa. Both can carry plenty of trou- ble. absorb lead and dish it out.
But in the air they're different. The B-24 is a good airplane, but in flight it lacks the graceful, swallow-like lines of the B-17. It has the same majesty, the same look of Impregnability and the same impression that here is an airplane that will go a long way toward Berlin, blasting a path of destruction as it goes. But the Fortress is different. It is no
disparagement of the B-24 to say that where the 24 is the flying freight car of the air the 17 is the graceful swan. There is so much difference in their looks, from the esthetic angle.
Both have power, climbing ability, the right to the upper altitudes where much of the heavy bombing and fighting of this war is being carried on. Both have tremendous fire power and tremendous bomb carrying ability.
At the Controls. An airplane (any airplane) is a highly
technical, tremendously complicated piece of machinery. But the big bombers are more complicated, by Iar, than the speedy, comparatively light little fighter planes, or even than the medium bomb- ers, such as the B-25 and B-26, the former the type which bombed Tokio and the latter the type which did a com-
plete job of 100 per cent destruction on
the Japs in the Bismarck Sea.
A bomber is one of the most compli- cated pieces of apparatus ever conceived and put together by the hand of man. Yet, to the pilot, it is the mo6t responsive, sweetly handling piece of machinery imaginable. I was permitted, on a recent flight in a B-17, to take the controls for a few minutes, with the pilot, of course, standing by ready to take over at any moment.
Prom the maze of instruments on the complicated panel facing the two pilots, I was told to watch three only. The en- gines were in tune, manifold pressure was right, oil temperature was O. K. and the pilot check had shown everything func- tioning properly up there at 8,000 feet. The B-17 is most responsive to the slight- est movement of the wheel. Even a slight pull back on the wheel and she rises. The slightest pressure on the wheel to right or left and she turns. You might have had ideas a fast speedboat is the most responsive piece of machinery you ever handled. A B-17 is fully as respon- sive and much faster.
Mary Ann and her more modern coun-
terparts fly through the air as gayly and far more speedily than the man on the trapeze. Two hundred and fifty miles an hour is just a breeze for the B-17.
Her armament, of• course, is a military secret. But tucked up there in the Plexi- glass nose of the ship is enough fire power to take care of any enemy fighter or group of enemy planes that may at- tempt head-on to stop the progress of this majestic airplane. Ordinarily B-17s fly in formations of three planes, their guns bristling at all angles, tossing so
much lead that the Japs and Nazi fighter
ships'cut aerial didoes all over the sky but don't dare to come within range of the Portress.
Need No Escort. Time after time, Fortresses have gone
out over Nazi Europe unaccompanied by a fighter escort. Disdaining the usual umbrella of fighter protection they have sallied forth into the lair of Goering’s yellow-nosed fighter planes, have brushed them off over Lorient and St. Nazaire and have dropped their eggs from 30,000 feet, returning to bases in Britain.
You get the impression, watching a
flight of B-17s, that nothing can knock them out of the air. And the impression is partially true. Nothing but many hits by cannon fire can do the job. Repeat- edly they have limped home, an engine shot away, hydraulic gear torn out, con-
trols damaged, unable to put their wheels down, making a belly landing and a safe one. *
At Sebring, Fla., I flew in a formation of 12 B-17s, at the great four-engine school where fledgling B-17 pilots come from the two-engine schools to take over the bigger and faster Portresses, weighing more than a score of tons, a
lot of airplane to take off and land. If some of the pilots had kept their wings a little further apart when rising cur-
rents of air tossed even those big air- planes around I would have been hap- pier. But nothing happened. They train good pilots there. Such men as Capt. Trehame and Maj. Russell P. Reeves are
counterparts in flying skill of the tanned lanky Texan who commands the school.
The famous B-17 “Flying Fortress” rated by the British as the top heavy bomber in the air arsenal of any nation. _w** world Photo.
In the Air Forces Col. Carl B. McDan- iel, commandant of the four-engine school at Sebring. is becoming a legend, for his flying ability, his knack of turn-
ing out good B-17 pilots, and his fatherly attitude toward the men who tool the Fortresses through the upper air.
Many times Col. McDaniel has helped to a good landing a B-17 whose wheels didn’t function, or who got into trouble up above. He has gone into the air him- self in a smaller airplane, assayed the possibility of a safe landing by a B-17 in trouble, and has brought it down safely.
Well-Rounded Training. The range of the B-17 is extraordinary.
Part of the training schedule at Sebring calls for a 1,700 mile cross-country flight by all pilots, through good weather and
bad, sometimes flying on instruments. That kind of flying (instruments) is
just a routine part of the work. So are
three-engine and two-engine landings, as they might have to be if enemy ack- ack shot away one or more of the four
power plants that drive the plane. “If the boys get into real trouble in
the air.” said Col. McDaniel, “we tell them by radio either to fly until their gasoline is exhausted, or to fly to a
designated field where they can land and where third echelon repairs can be made.” Third echelon work, in Army Air Force language, means major re-
pairs. The landing spot happens to be about 1,000 miles from Sebring. But that is just a toss for the B-17, which has much greater flying range.
The Sebing School used to be a train- ing school for B-17 crews. It still is, in a
way, although Col. McDaniel says it now is a transient training school for pilots. But, of course, the flight crew, usually non-commissioned officers, train along with the pilots. A B-17, despite her han- diness in the air and her grace, still is a
lot of airplane, and needs a crew to handle her.
McDaniel, incidentally, is a stickler for team work. He says, rightly, that all ele- ments of a heavy bomber crew must click like a highly geared football team to in- sure the success of the mission. “If they don’t they might as well stay home,” he says.
The two pilots, sitting up in the glass nose, are the chauffeurs. The senior pilot, of course, is the captain, with the final word on everything. If the order comes to abandon ship, he gives it. If decisions of vital importance to plane and crew are made, he makes them after consultation with the technicians under his command.
Pilots Take Orders. But on a bombing mission, the pilots
take orders. They take the airplane off the ground, and by the way, a B-17 leaves the ground at about 120 miles an
hour, a lot of speed in any contrivance. Once in the air the navigator takes over, telling the pilots the course to take to bring them over the objective. Nearing the spot where they are to lay their deadly eggs the bombardier, away up in
the peak of the nose, peering through his bomsight, takes charge. “Keep her level and about 5 degrees right,” he tells the pilot by the interphone. “Bombs away.'V he says, as he pulls the levers which drop the big bombs Then the di- rection of the ship goes back to the navigator, who sits under a hooded lamp pouring over his flight plan and his charts.
Meanwhile, enemy aircraft may have risen up in the stratosphere where the t B-17s do their best work, to engage the y
big bomber. Then all crew members turn to the guns to repel attack. The tail gunner, sitting in the cramped quarters at the rear of the ship, blasts the enemy with twin machine guns. Prom the belly turret,' suspended below the belly of the plane, pours a deadly hail of fire. Prom the top turret other guns chatter, while from many positions in the nose machine guns mow down enemy planes attacking head-on, and the waist gunners, their weapons protuding through open win- dows, add to the fire power of the air- plane.
That is what Trehame means when he calls the B-17 the finest fighter air- plane in the world. You can sum it up in one phrase: Fire power. And you can make it more concrete when you see three of these big babies tooling their way through the upper air, guns bristling to cover all avenues of fire. They stay in formation to concentrate fire on attach from any direction. It’s part of their in- vulnerability.
The Fortress Crew. The crew of the Fortress numbers nine...
Usually they’re young men, tanned and fit with plenty of air and airplane savvy. They have roving eyes and the swivel, neck’s you’ll find in many air men, from,. looking for enemy pursuit.
They have an esprit, from captain down, an affection for their ship, that, goes beyond mere words. There are the pilot and co-pilot, the navigator, bomba- dier, all specialists in highly technical lines. There are the waist, ball turret and top turret gunners, the radio opera- tor and the flight engineer. All of them except the pilots take over guns when enemy aircraft attack. And if the pilots happen to catch a bullet others in the ship are equipped to take over and bring her home safely.
We flew many miles out to sea on a leg of the homeward flight from Florida which carried us to 10,000 feet to get over / high clouds, over territory which a year ago was pretty thick with submarines-. We felt no apprehension up there over a., lot of water many miles from land. Those big engines, turning over at half speed and still driving the airplane more than 200 miles an hour create a feeling of confidence.
Some of us went to sleep. The big bomber is an airplane that seems so in- capable of any harm, so like a Pullman' car, you can get no sensation of speed or height. And this, says the Air Force,., is the last of the small planes. The bigger ones to come will have to be good to beat the one which built the original reputation.
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