John E. Ellis

Graduates As Bombardier

West Texas Bombardier Triangle, April 22 -- Huge new classes of young Americans who have spent 12 weeks raining practice bombs on replicas of enemy ships, dock installations, truck convoys, oil refineries and munitions factories, today took the first step toward the real thing as graduation exercises for bombardier "Hell from Heaven Men" were held simultaneously at the three schools of the vast West Texas Bombardier Triangle.

Among those receiving silver bombardier wings and commissions as second lieutenants in the army air forces was Second Lt. John E. Ellis of Lake Dalecarlia, near Lowell. He attended the University of Illinois, and Indiana University. In 12 weeks of intensive training these bombardiers have learned, from the ground up, the art of blasting enemy objectives. They have studied the construction and fall characteristics of every known type of aerial missile. They have learned to load and fuse their own bombs. In addition to dropping hundreds of practice bombs, aiming their super- accurate bombsights at targets scattered over prairie ranges nearly equal in size to all of Germany, they have spent long hours in classroom study of the theories of scientific precision bombing.

From the bombardier triangle center, many of the newly commissioned "lords of the bombsight" will continue training at army air forces navigation schools, becoming doubly qualified for key positions in the aerial combat teams.