HIGH ALTITUDE EQUIPMENT FOR U.S. PLANES PROPOSED

Inadequacy of planes and pilots equiped for high-altitude flight and combat is America's greatest military weakness, according to Dr. John F. Fulton '21, in an article in the latest issue of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin.

Professor of physiology at Yale since 1927, Dr. Fulton was sent to England on October 12 of this year by the National Research Council, and remained until November 5. During that period he traveled through southern England visiting R.A.F. bases, industrial centers, and hospitals which have been bombed since the Battle of Britain.

Effective Gunnery

Fulton attributes the superiority of English over German air-strength to more effective gunnery, and to equipment more adequate to meet the physiological requirements of pilots flying at high altitudes. He suggests that the United States is in a position to profit by the experiences of English investigators in the field of oxygen equipment.

Until the early part of November, Fulton reports, Nazi air-attacks had not seriously impaired the operation of English airplane manufacturing plants, or the dock facilities of southern British ports.

London itself, however, clearly showed the scars of incessant bombing, Fulton stated, with scarcely a city block in the entire metropolitan area untouched. Four types of bombs, 50-250, and 500-kilo bombs, and a heavy land-mine which descends by parachute are being used in the attacks on London, he said.

Fulton accused the Nazi pilots of deliberate attempts to bomb London hospitals, adding that every large hospital in London, almost without exception has had a direct hit, and that many of the smaller hospitals and nursing homes have been injured.

Willingness of towns outside of the London area to care for those who have been dispossessed is an indication of a morale and quiet determination "that is almost unbelievable," Fulton remarked. Almost every family in rural England, he pointed out, has at least three or four evacuees under its roof.

St. Paul's Not Destroyed

Destruction of University College, its hospital, and most of the publishing-houses in London was reported by Fulton. However, both the British Museum and St. Paul's Cathedral escaped serious harm when 50-kilo bombs crashed through their roofs.

Superiority of Britain's air-force was held by Fulton to have won the first phase of the Battle of Britain, and to have shifted the principal theatre of war away from the air to the sea, and from England to the waters of Ireland and the Mediterranean.

Warning of our own lack of planes designed and tested for high-altitude combat, Fulton advised further training of pilots for this type of fighting. He urged a speeding up of aircraft production, and accused labor unions of treason and sabotage in delaying phases of the defense program.

Fulton concluded by lauding the efforts of all parts of British society in the defense of the country, but warned that while the people of England have a good chance for ultimate victory, "we must move swiftly, for our danger is as great as theirs."