—35= 3,000 enemy bombers flying simutaneouslybut individually (i.e,, completely scattered)*?invaded our skies with the intention of dividing between them as targets most of the 92 American cities which contain a population of 100,000 or over (embracing together approximately 29 per cent of our total population), if eachof those planes carried an atomic bomb, and if we had 9,000 alerted fight~ ers to oppose them, how much guarantee of protection could be accorded those cities? The answer would undoubtedly depend on a number of technical and geographic variables, but under present conditions it seems to this writer all too easy to envisage situations in which few of th cities selected as targets would be-spared overwhelming destruction, € % as Ace and We, : ex ‘ ; That superiority which results in the so-calledYormand of the air" is undoubtedly necessary for successful strategic bombing with ordinary bombs, where the weight of bombs required is so great that the same planes must be used over and over again, In a sense also (though one must register some reservations . about the exlusion of other arms) General Arnold is right when he says of atomic bomb attack: "For the moment, at least, absolute air superiority in being at ail times, combined with the best antiaircraft ground devices, is the only form of defense that offers ary security whatever, and it must continue to be an essential part of our security program for a long time to come, "2 But it must be 236 The purpose of the scattering would be simply to impose maximum confusion on the superior defenders, Some military airmen have seriously attempted to discount the atomic bomb with the argument that a hit upon a plane carrying one would cause the bomb to explode, blasting every other plane for at least a mile around out of the air. That is not why formation flying is rejected in the example above, Ordinary bombs are highly immune to such mishaps, and from all reports of the nature of the atomic bomb it would seem to be far less likely to undergo explosion as a result even of a direct hit. 2h. Tbid., p. 68.