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Los Angeles Times In Ten Paris-146 Pages PART II-LOCAL NEWS-16 PAGES SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 12, 1936. C CITY NEWS-EDITORIAL-REALTY-SPORTS How Two Dozen Air Bombs Could Depopulate City of Los Angeles SOUTHLAND PERIL CITED Danger from Air Foe Stressed Gen. Arnold Points to need for Coast Defense as He Quits March Field The acute vulnerability of metropolitan Los Angeles to surprise air raids was again emphasized by Brig.-Gen. Henry H. Arnold yesterday as he departed from Washington to become assistant chief of the United States Army Air Corps. During the four years that he has been stationed at March Field, Riverside, culminating in his appointment a year ago to command of the First Wing of the new General Headquarters Air Force, Gen. Arnold has made a searching, unceasing study on defense of the nation's Pacific frontier. COAST VULNERABLE The Achilles heel of our west coast, he has found, is the Southern California industrial basin, vital strategic center in any future Pacific war because of its priceless facilities for aircraft and munitions manufacture, power and oil supply, food stores and transportation facilities. "Forty high-speed heavy bombers, launched from a carrier off this coast, could in a few minutes completely demoralize the Los Angeles area by the simple expedient of bombing the exposed siphons of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in Owens Valley," Gen. Arnold declared. "In so doing these enemy planes need not even approach the air defenses of Los Angeles, yet the havoc created by such a well-directed attack would be far more effective than if they dropped their bombs on the very heart of the city. CITY'S WATER SUPPLY "Some 2,000,000 people are absolutely dependent on Los Angeles' water supply, which, if cut off only for a few days, would bring pestilence to hasten the avacuation of the area, made as arid by a one minute rain of bombs as it was when Cabrillo first sighted this coast." The new Colorado River Aqueduct now building across the desert to Los Angeles will be equally vulnerable, in the opinion of Gen. Arnold, and variously exposed to enemy air raids are the trans-desert power lines, the enormous fuel-oil storage at Watson, rail tunnels and bridges through the mountain passes into Southern California. The situation has been made more critical in the last three years, he said, by the concentration of nearly one-fourth of the entire American aviation industry around Los Angeles. STOPPING PLANE PRODUCTION "Put Los Angeles water and power supply out of commission, even temporarily, and our aircraft production- absolutely vital to successful defense against a powerful enemy- would immediately be reduced to zero." Inexplanation of the situation, let it be understood that the offensive war plans of every probably enemy of the United States include most accurate data on the water supply systems, power supply, fuel storage areas, important bridges and tunnels, and similar nerve centers of (Continued on Page 4, Column 4) Women's Group [[On left: Drawing of Los Angeles]] [[Caption: Two dozen well-placed bombs could, within twenty-four hours, make Los Angeles untenable and drive out the population with an appalling loss of life and property according to a recent statement made by Brig.-Gen. Henry H. Arnold, commander of the United States Army G.H.Q air force at March Field. This is Times Staff Artist Charles Owen's conception of a theoretical enemy attack which would be concentrated upon water siphons and other public utilities which supply Los Angeles and force depopulation of the city. Two million persons would be directly affected by destruction of water supply.]]
