NOTES TO TABLE 53

The pattern of ammunition expenditure differed from that for rocket expenditure, as a comparison of the above table with Table 52 will illustrate. Airfield targets consumed a higher proportion of the strafing efforts of carrier aircraft than of their rocket expenditures. The reverse appeared to be true in the case of land-based aircraft. In the case of shipping targets also, carrier aircraft appeared to rely more on strafing than rocket fire, while for military land targets rockets were used more heavily. These tendencies probably reflect the larger rocket loadings generally carried by CVE planes against military targets, plus extensive strafing of parked aircraft, airfield A/A and ship A/A by fast carrier VF. The heavy use of rockets against harbor areas, versus strafing against transportation targets, by land-based planes, may also be noted.

Carrier planes devoted their principal strafing to airfield targets, with other military targets second. Land-based planes put military targets first, merchant shipping second, and airfields a poor third. The remarkable strafing record of land-based planes against small merchant vessels reflects principally the work of PB4Ys, which during 1945 expended 1,679,000 rounds in missions against merchant vessels of under 500 tons, including 436,000 rounds in July 1945 alone.

The comparative data in the bottom lines of the table show trends in strafing between 1944 and 1945. Major increases from 1944 to 1945 may be noted with respect to airfields, harbor areas, and small vessels, and a decrease with respect to military targets. Part of this decrease, and part of the airfields increase, may have resulted from differences in classification, since in 1944 airfield buildings and guns were sometimes classified under military targets. The growing importance of harbor areas reflects the movement of the war to sectors where substantial ports and facilities were found.