World War II Chronicle: May 5, 1943
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On today’s front page: Lt. Gen. Frank Andrews is among 14 American servicemen to perish when a B-24 Liberator bomber crashed on Iceland. Andrews replaced Lt. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower as chief of European Theater of Operations at the beginning of the year. Maj. Gen. William S. Key, current provost marshal and European Command’s most senior officer, will hold down the fort until a replacement is found.. Meanwhile, Chief of Army Ground Forces Lt. Gen. Leslie J. McNair has returned to the United States for treatment after being wounded on the North African front…
The story of “Torpedo 8” continues on page 26… Sports section begins on page 42… The back page features United Aircraft Corp.’s monthly “report.”
Roving Reporter by Ernie Pyle
NORTHERN TUNISIA (By Wireless) — Unaccustomed as I am to air superiority, I must say that after a brief association with this notorious stranger I find him one of the most pleasantest companions I’ve ever dealt with.
When you’ve got air superiority you can sit down in your tent and just keep on sitting, without running out every time you hear a plane for a cautious checkup. When you’ve got air superiority you can drive along in your jeep and not hit the ditch every time you see a bird soaring in the distance. When you’ve got air superiority you can hear great droning formations approaching and know automatically that they’re our’s not theirs.
You don’t even fuss if you do see a German plane, because you know the skies are so full of our patrolling Hawks that they’ll get him before he can do much damage.
We have air superiority in Tunisia these days, and how! A week ago we were supposed to have a five-to-one advantage, and the odds are growing every day as the Germans withdraw some planes and others bite the eternal dust.
Our ground troops have at least known the exalting experience of fighting all day without a single Stuka diving on them. As our air strength grows and the enemy’s dwindles you almost begin to feel sorry for the poor troops on the other side who are now tasting the bitter brew from the skies.
I’ve recently been living again with some of our American fighter pilots, and the shift in balance has done as much for them as for our ground troops. They’re flying themselves punch-drunk in this big push, yet they fly with a dash they’ve never known. For at last they are on the upper end of things.
We are making hay while the sun shines. The ground crews are working like fiends keeping the planes flyable. Pilots are going at a pace they couldn’t stand very long. Some fighter pilots are flying as many as five missions a day, where one used to be tops.
The fighters are doing all kinds of work — escorting, ground-sweeping, dogfighting, and even light bombing.
Let me tell you how air superiority works. In the old days we’d send a cover of fighters along with the bombers, but there were hardly ever enough of them. Now — just listen — we not only send an enormous cover but we send a second layer to cover the cover. A sort of double insulation, you might call it.
We didn’t even stop there. We send out groups of fighters known as the “free lances,” far out of sight of our bombers, just to intercept anything that might be wandering around. And to wind it all up we send out fresh planes to meet the bombers just after they leave the target, in case the regular cover of fighters might be having trouble or running low on gas. These are called “delousing missions,” and they scrape off any pests that get tenacious.
But I think here is the ultimate in air superiority. Both sides, you know, have kept constant airdrome patrols in the air all winter — from two to half a dozen planes circling each airdrome constantly from dawn to dusk, to be already in the air if enemy planes appear.
Well, we are still patrolling, but we have also taken on a little extra work. We are patrolling the German airdromes too!
Our fighters actually patrolled one whole afternoon over a big German drome, just flying back and forth and around, and prevented every single German plane from ever taking off. Of course that was an isolated case, and I’m not trying to make you believe we patrol all the German dromes all the time, but the fact that it can happen at all is practically phenomenal.
Yes, air superiority is a wonderful thing. It’s one of life’s small luxuries to which I am eager to become more accustomed.
Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 5 May 1943. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1943-05-05/ed-1/