The Mankato free press., 1917-11-16
They Will Do Much to Win
Conflict For Allies
REPRISALS ON GERMANY
Air = Bombardments Becoming
Most Scientific Forms of
Warfare
From Fridays Daily.

Paris, October 27.-[By Mail. j
Captain de Kerillis, of the French air
service, hero of innumerable air raids,
in an interview with The United
Press today, pointed out the great
imoortance of these enterprises and
predicted that the cooperation OF
America in these undertakings would
"shake the morale of the German
people and hasten the end of the war.
-bombardments," said the cap
tain, "are becoming one of the most
scientific forms of warfare. Every
day they are becoming more compli-
Gated. First of all, one must bear in
mind that the aviation de chasse'
and the aviation de bombardment'
are two very different things.
"The business of the former is to
attack, that of the latter to mano-
euvre. BY manoeuvre, l mean that
the function of air bombardments, is,
either to prevent concentration of
enemy air. craft, or too force it to
give battle.
There Are ReprisaI Raids.
"Then of course there are reprisal
raids, such as those we have just
lately carried out. About the effec-
tiveness of these reprisal raids, when
they are successful, there is no doubt,
and | will give you an example.
"On June 21 of last year, we un-
dertook raid on Carlsruhe as a re-
prisal for a recent raid on Bar-le-
Due. The effect of the French
raid was so salutary, that for long
time all German raids on French
towns ceased. On German aviators,
whom we captured, we found strict
orders to cease bombarding French
towns.
with the German military authori-
ties, it is entirely a question of cal
culating the gain and loss of an en-
terprise. When they decide that the
penalty for certain enterprise is
too great, they abandon it, at least
temporarily. In the case of the
German air-raids, which ceased for a
while, such a calculation had certain
ly been made.
Began Terrorizing Again.
Finally, however, the Germans evl-
IDENTIFY decided that it was worth while
beginning their terrorizizng system again,
so they started their air raids once more,
though mostly on England.
'One OF the principal ODJeclS VI THESE
raids, it must be remembered, is to keep
large portions of the British air-feet in
England to oppose the invaders. The
same problem is involved in big strategic
battles. where the principal aim of
bombarding squadrons is to keep the air
forces of the enemy busy and to disperse
them as much as possible.
1.-The results obtained in aerial warfare
have developed entirely new tactics
which must be learnt on the spot. To
train bombarding squadrons takes time
and very careful prepration.
zone of the most important things is
to acquire cohesion, or what YOU might
call team work. When an air raid is
undertaken the enemys first object is to
break up the formation of the attacking
if this succeeds, and the squadron is
scattered, it's isolated members are at
tackled and the result is generally dis
astrous for the attacking party.
Raids Into Germany.
sour raids into Germany are from
every point of view more formidable
enternrises than the German raids in
Frarce or England For in the first
place have to cover very long dis
tances to attain our objective, and,
secondly, we are obliged to descend very
low when actually launching our bombs,
as we have strict orders to bo'nbard only
such points in the enemy's territory
which are actually of military Importance,
such as barracks, stations. etc.
What we need above all are lombard
ing squadrons organized on large scale,
which can continually and Systematically
carry out raids into German territory.
with the cooperation of America, this
object should be quickly attained. This
will he the quickest means of putting a
stop to German raids In France and
England. 1t will also do more than any,
thing else 10 shake the morals of the
German nation and hasten the end of the