South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1913-08-18
Airship Fleets,
BY \. +. FERGUSON.

swat the flyer"
That is the battle cry Of the modern
dreadnought battleship. The flying
machine is today the greatest terror
OF the men who go down 10 the sea
in S15,0OO.O0O floating forts.
The fact is that the navies OF the
world are feverishly trying on the
other hand, 10 find a way 20 avoid
the bird machine and, on the other
hand. building as many war aero
planes as they can.
IN considering the effect Of an
aeroplane in battle. too many people
are apt 10 pit single plane against
a battleship. How easy TO put one or
two or half a dozen flyers out OF bust
ness,
But navy men have not fallen into
this error They know IT would be
just as foolish for naval commander
20 send one aeTCplane against a bat
tie ship as IL would for a military
commander TO send one machine gun
against a brigade Of troops. They
know that their problem figures out
about as follows:
battleship costs from 100000 600
10 SIS, 100000; it carries a crew OF
1000 men.
An aeroplane costs from $1,000 70
$4,000 carries a crew of not more
than two men.
Therefore. 10 be sure Of success
against-a battleship. the proper tao
tics would be To send "A fleet of from
% TO 100 aerOplanes, or even 200, in
10 the fight
Suppose there were 100 in our fleet
and so Of them would be destroyed
and their crews drowned II isn't
altogether probable that this would
happen. but suppose il did. In men
q In
than a million.
But at that, there isn't chance in
the world that the battleship would
escape. So the count against the
airship loss would be the destruction
of S15,000,0O0 battleship, the loss
of 1000 lives.
1t would take at least a year to
build another battleship while the
loss Of the 80 aeroplanes would be
replaced in month or two
The aerOplane would be the hardest
sort OF a mark 10 hit from the deck
of rolling ship. But how about
hitting 100 aeroplanes2
The protection afforded the ship by
It's deck armour wouldn't be very
great in a rain of high explosives
such as "A fleet of aeroplanes could
drop on it. 1t was proven by the
work Of the air scouts in Turkey that
the piercing OF wing two or three
tunes by a bullet does not put an
aerOplane out Of action.
4 TripOH. Italian airmen were able
TO drop bombs in Turkish camps and
do tremendous execution and then
get away. So far in warfare there
have been two men killed and several
severely wounded while flying.
In trial in Paris an ex-American
army officer demonstrated device
which shoots as accurately from an
aeroplane as the big guns of a war
ship shOot-70 per cent of hits
Now suppose we send our fleet of
100 air craft against "a battleship and
each ship drops two bombs with 20
per cent Of hits. That it 140 bombs
out Of 200 landing. one would be
enough 10 wreck the ship. So we can
readily believe that these little craft
that carry but two men and cost so
little will become the terror of sea
fighting.
First. because of the deadly nature
OF the bombs carried by the airmen.
Second, because there are SO many
air craft against each individual shin
Third. because no ship has vet.
been built or ever will be built that
can get away from an aeropIane fleet
that Is once started after it.
An aeroplane could give a battle
sP'u 80 miles start and catch her be
&c she had been goiny half an hour.