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Casualties. Two German deaths acknowledged were Major General Wolff von Stutterheim, 47, survivor of 17 wounds in World War I, who succumbed at last to wounds received aloft last June; and Major Helmuth Wick, 25, commander of the Richthofen Squadron of fighters. This young man, credited with shooting down 56 Polish, French and British planes in 15 months, was one of four Nazi fliers who had been given the Oak Leaves on the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. On his last foray he and his flight of Me 110s met a force of Hurricanes and Spitfires near the Isle of Wight. While Major Wick got one Briton, another swooped on his tail and got him, only to be shot down in turn by another German. According to the British story, 20 of the Germans perished, all ten of the British, leaving none to say who killed Major Wick.
Observer. Last week Major General James E. Chaney of the U. S. Army Air Corps unsealed his lips to U. S. reporters after telling his superiors in Washington what he saw as an official observer in Britain between Oct. 10 and Nov. 20. He low-rated U. S. and British warplanes in engines, armament and fire power, compared to German planes. His assay of Britain's chances sounded optimistic because he credited Britain with winning the early stages of the air war by wide margins. But of the air war's latest industry-and port-blasting phase he said nothing except to list as Britain's urgent needs: 100 more destroyers, bases in Eire, merchant ships, credits—the things of which Britain must have more & more as her own production is reduced.