Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1912-12-15
AIR SQUADRON Of
ITALY REPORTS
ON ITS SERVICE
Superiority of the Dirigible
Balloon Over Aeroplane in
Military Service Demon
strated in Tripoli.
BY Henry Wood.
(Rome Correspondent OF the United
Press)


(Rome Correspondent OF the United
Press.
Rome, Dec 14.-commander Denti,
head of Italy's dirigible and aeroplane
squadron, has just returned from
Tripoli to make his official report on
the years service rendered by these
two adjuncts of modern warfare dur
ing Italy's war with Turkey
According to Commander Dent, the
conclusion of this report-a conclu-
sion shared by all of the foreign mill
tary experts attached to the Italian
army throughout the conflict-will be
that this first year of actual warfare
service has demonstrated the great
superiority of the dirigibles over the
| aeroplanes. While tho use Of the lat
ter extended to very little beyond
4 scouting. the former not only served
equally we'll for that purpose, bu. were
of even more value in the discharge
! Of bombs. and in the collection of in
/ formation and nhotogra ihs for maps
or the enemys country
Commander Der,rs report will be
based lpon tho results Of 10 ascensions
made by the dirigibles during which
/ they flew some 10000 lSilometers, most
| OF this being over the territory of the
enemy. These flights compared with
about an equal amount of service on
the part Of the aeroplanes, showed the
dirigibles to be much safer, much more
.manabeable and more reliable.
During the year OF war, the aero
plane squadron had two serious mis-
haps, resulting in the death of one
fall t,,t1 n N,
the capture of another who, by rea-
son Of engine trouble. was forced to
descend within the enemys lines.
The nearest approach to anything of
this kind which befell the dirieibles
occur ed on June 20, the details Of
which have Just been told. The dirig
ible p - was returning from Suani
Ben Alden and the engine went dead -
The balloon fell instantly from 1000
meters to 500 meters, and the enemy
. opened fire with rifles The engine
was finally repaired, but only partly
adjusted
The aircraft sailed out of range OF
the enemy's fire but in the meantime
heavy wind had come up and against
this the crew with their crippled en-
CINE could hardly make headwaY. After
as minutes, in which the dirigibe coy
cred only seven kilometers, II Mas neal
e enough to the italian lines to permit
of n descent and was rescued by q
j, battalion of infantry before the Arabs
could get to 1t.
a The only other mishap that over
= took the diriglble service occurred a.
the very moment Of Its Inauguration
. 4 huge steel hangar had been erected
, Il at Tripoli for housing the two dirig-
ibles that served throughout the war
h when a violent storm reduced thu
structure to scrap iron
The report of Commander Denti vii
contain Interesting details thu
a possibility of photographing from
q dirigibles and Of securing the mos
q minute information relative to TIL
+ enemy's territory. for the making o
army maps and the Flaming of cam
pagns The instantaneous photo
q graphs showed every palm of an oasis
d every small hut or tent. that part o
I the ground which was merely san
a and that part which was covered wit
h heritage II was even possible To dis
n tinguish Just which tents were oceu
a pied by Turks and which by tn
n Arabs and In this manner to judg
almost accurately the force of tn
enemy.