The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-09-18

stood that all these reasons will hold
good all the time. War is constantly
changing in its methods, and our out
look on war is frequently altered. We
must bear this in mind when consider
| ing the bombing Of Berlin.
The first and main reason for Berlin's
immunity from air raids is that the
Prussian headquarters are out Of mod
ern airplane range. If we had possessed
Zeppelins in the early days Of the war
they could have bombed Berlin i'm much
the same manner that the German air
ships attacked US, until we set up a
good defense.
Berlin is 45O miles from the western
battle front 500 miles from England
and nearly $50 miles from the North
sea. Thus, to make the Quincy out and
home, a minimum distance of 500 miles
would have to be travelled even if our
airplanes could start from a base in the
North sea whilst if start were TO be
made from a land base the distance
would be at least 900 miles for the dou
bic trip.
Now under war conditions. bomb
ing airplane with a reasonable load Of
bombs can hardly exceed 400 miles in
one run, and 800 miles is about the aver.
age. Thus, for raiding purposes an air.
plane can at the utmost only bomb a
place 200 miles from its base, if il is to
return home again.
SO under present conditions of air.
plane raiding, Berlin is safe from our
airplane bombs, and we are not likely
70 build Zeppelins for the express pur.
pose Of disturbing the Berliner's sleep
But this is not quite the same thing
as saying that Berlin cannot be bombed
ere the war is over
We must remember that airplaue de-
sign is going forward at a marvellous
rate Some Of the latest machines have
engines Of over 500 horsepower. and
their speed exceeds $50 miles an hour
This development i'm speed and in power
goes on with a steady development in
range of action Machines grow more
efficient They improve in load carrying
power, and thus they keep on widening
their range of travel for the whole
thing depends on the amount of petrol
they can carry
Under peace conditions il would be
quite possible to send an airplane from
Flanders TO Berlin and back without
landing. But this record.breaker would
need 10 be specially equipped for the voy.
age, and il certainly could not carry any
bombs. IL would be very heavily loaded
with hundreds of gallons Of petrol. and
it could perform few of the feats which
the wartime raider must accomplish
This latter machine must be able to fiy
very high SO as TO dodge gun fire. and ii
must trayel very fast or it will be over
taken and destroyed by enemy ma
chimes.
In aerial warfare speed IS the most
vital factor and the slow bomber ma.
little chance OF getting over It's target
High speed calls for the more extrava
CANT use OF Vtrol, and consequently ther,
is no room FOR bombs on a machine set
ting out for "a very long journey.
An airplane is a bad weightcarrier
Every pound of load must be- consid
cred. and when the fuel and oil supple.
are provided for ON fast war machir,
the capacity for bombs is small. and II
decreases, OF course. as more petrol /,
taken on board
But the change and Improvement ar,
going on all the time, and Berlin is Ger
tainly coming within bombing range
Indeed, If Poland had not been capture,
hy the Germans, Berlin would not hay,
been safe from air attacks on the Rus
sian side. There are a number OF high
ly interesting possibilities with regar,
TO Russia, but it is not opportune tc
discuss them although they have "a bear
ing on the problem before us.
However this war proceeds. il is pret
~ certain that the allies are not Iosinl
ground. on every side we are eatinl
into the territory held by the Germans
Every mile won has its importance In
relation 20 air war upon Germany.
One word about reprisals The Ger
man government viii not sue for peac,
because we bomb German babies. ant
II is the German government that W,
must reckon with in this war.
II we bomb Berlin II viii be TO wreck
the government, destroy barracks. rail
ways and munition works. and do Other
direct military damage. Soaring tn,
people will not end the war. But direct
hits at the German war machine will
bring the kaiser near to his doom.
Although Berlin is out OF our reach
for the present, we have many impor
tant German towns within range. and
when the allies get more expert In aeriai
warfare they will hit very hard at Ger
many through the air. There are the
Rhine bridges which carry all the muni
tions and food to the Germans in the
west They must be smashed ana kep,
In ruins by our bombers. They big mil
itary railway centers in the Rhine val
lev Krupps works a, Essen. and many