The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-09-21
SHOULD AIRSHIPS
RAID ENGLAND
Startling Picture of Destruction
of London by Night.
zEPPELINS A REAL MENACE.

Awful Havoc Could Be Wrought With
Ton of High Explosives Dropped
From the Sky-Might Destroy All
British Dreadnoushts, Says an Amer
lean Military Aviator.
The official suggestion from Berlin by
way of Sayville, n. Y, of an intended
Zeppelin raid on England is d subject
of more than passing interest in Wash
ington among army and navy experts
in aviation. That such an invasion
was not only possible, but practicable.
was generally admitted, says a dis
patch to the New York Times. Mill
tary students of aviation are satisfied
that Germany has carried the mastery
of the air far beyond any mark set by
other nations.
France has chung to the idea of using
aeroplanes in war and has a feet of
POS machines, with 145 qualified pilots.
But the aeroplane at the best carries
too little weight to possess offensive
value and is mainly effective for scout
ing purposes.
Germany has allotted in the past four
years 100000 to the Zeppelin and
Parseval factories, and at the begin
ming of the war she had feet of TWEEN
ty-four monster airships. These dirigi-
bles have the largest displacement yet
attained in airship construction, and
some of them have n lifting capacity
of twenty tons, making it possible to
carry fighting load of men and explo-
sives of four or five tons. Thus it is
possible for them to take q contingent
of seventy men, all trained specially in
the diverse duties needed on fighting
| airship.
These airshfps make from forty to
forty-seven miles an hour and can car
~ enough bombs to sink several bat
tleships.
Sky Raid on London.
at is not at all a stretch of the i'm
| agination," said one veteran aviator,
"to picture Germanys fleet of dirigi-
| bles sweeping across the English chan
mel with gas enough and hydrOlite
| enough in reserve to make u fight Of
| 500 miles and carrying upward of a
| ton OF high explosives and raiding Lon
! don. which could be practically demol-
| iShed by such an attack-at least the
| heart of the city. with its banks, great
| hotels. parliament house and other big
| buildings.
"Or it is not out of the thinking to
! imagine the German air fleet in a gi-
| gantic platoon flying out over the
| North sea after aeroplanes have scout
| ed and spied out the location Of the
| British fleet and, with nicely trained
| precision of movement, crossing and
| recroSsing the line of Dreadnoughts
until enc after another, the whole
| twenty that England boasts have been
smashed by dropping bomb and sunk
In midsea. That is what Germany is
most likely to attempt to do rather
| than try to raid London. 1t is to smite
| England's navy and sweep it from the
sea. If the twenty Dreadnoughts or
a large proportion of them could be
| sunk by the air fleet it's creation would
| have been well justified and Germany's
| battleships would have little to fear
from the rest Of the British navy.
IF raid is made on London it prob
ably will come in the nighr, and the
big feet of airships will stop their en-
| gines as they approach the object of
| attack, commands will be given by
telephone, and the result will be q vol
| ley of high explosives with their fear
| full xecution-provided they hit their
target
ION the other hand, you must re-
member one thing. All accounts show
| that the success of ordnance designed
to hit aeroplanes and dirigibles has
thus far in this war been remarkable
| indeed, it has been far beyond any
thing any military experts have ever
thought possible. Now all British for
| tihcations along the coast have these
guns. Every British Dreadnought and
| cruiser has them-in fact, many Of
| them. With these rapid fire guns and
range finders, specially designed for
use on an upward trajectory and rea-
sonably accurate, 1t is easily conceiva-
BILE that the raid might come to grief
| long before London was reached.
No Dream of the Imagination.
1.-THE whole idea is conceivable and
| possible. The German dirigibles have
a practical radius that would enable
them to reach London. They can car
| ry men enough and ammunition enough
to make the attack. They can attempt
| it at night, when it would be difficult
to get the range on them from the rap
i'll firing guns.
ut is to be remembered also that
the dirigible has great advantage In
the high air. The lights of the city
below could be seen when with the
engines they all use. shut down. the
| dirigibles might neither be seen nor
heard and might be able TO get on
| their prey before their presence was
suspected. All these contingencies are
to be thought of, and the hazards are
many times multiplied over any other
form of attack.
THE ability of the commander of