The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1917-06-25
~YANKEE PUNCH"IN AIR FLEETS

Game of Fighting in the Air Suits
National observation-disclosures
Are the Logical Fighting Machines
for Americars-S6 00,O0O,o0O APP
proved
Washington Cor, June Is, New York
Evening Sun.
Regiments and brigades of ewing
ed cavalry" sweeping across the Ger
man lines and inundating the German
forces under terrific storms of lead
en- hail, is the way in which Brig Gen.
Geo. o. Squier, head of the American
Army Aviation Service, would put the
<eYankee punch" into the war.
He would do it, he said today, by
having this government construct
such an overwhelming force Of air
ships as to make it impossible for
che German air service to live.
Commenting on the 100000, 900
aeroplane building programme that
is to Be laid before Congress by the
Council of National Defense, Gen.
Squier said:
"By the Yankee punch I mean
a Enthusiastically American way
of working to get big results. We
have a reputation of looking at old
things from a new angle, and there
is no reason why the American
army, when it takes the field, should
not live up to what they stand for,
The field of glory for us will be IN
the air, sending our myriads of aero
planes over the German lines to
teach Germany that we have come
to win.
"Aeroplanes are the logical fight
ing machines for Americans, be-
cause We are an imaginative people,
and when our imagination strikes
fire nothing can stop US. We are i'm
patient of plodding methods, a nation
of indiyidualists. We are willing to
send our hundreds of thousands to
the front if needs be to dig holes and
burrow in the soil for interminable
months, but we don't get, enthusiast
tic over the idea. We want some
thing that appeals to our knaek for
inventing things, for getting over OBJ
stacles in an original way. And the
air way is our way.
at might be Of interest to point
out that all of the picturesque fea-
lures in the matter of invention and
innovations of a startlingly modern
nature have been, up to now, adver-
tised exclusively by the German side
of the European argument. The talk
of coming Zeppelin raids, of artillery
ponderously magnificent, of schools
of U-boats, was spread through Ger
many. Every housewife, every butch
ers' boy in Germany impatiently
awaited the results of the Kairer's
sensational invention. And when
Count Zeppelin's monsters went at.
ter England with bombs while Big
Berthas' began dropping unbelievable
gigantic shells into Belgium, it was
a signal for the German spirit to GO
wild with patriotism.
''The U-boats were the next sen
sation for popular consumption, and
whatever their effert on Germany's
beloved freedom of the seas they
have had their stimulating effect
upon the Teutonic psychology. They
helped Prussia in a press agent way
Zeppelins, super-cannon, U-boats
have furnished the German punch
tSThe American punch must be
given through our aeroplanesr
Doesn't Doubt Yankee Nerve
sT haven't the slightest doubt O.
the Yankees nerve and ability t.
endure any hardship as we'll as
perhaps better than-the citizens O.
any other country. But what l an
considering is how to give American
qualities to our brothers in arms a
their maximum efficiency.
"The answer gained is aeroplane
and yet more aeroplanes. Ever,
young American worthy of nam
would be keen to join our flying ar
my. The game Ideally suits our ma
tional temperament. With the wealt
we can devote and our unqualifie
facilities for manu featuring there
TIC reason in the world, why We shout
not be able to produce, in com
paratively short space Of time, an ov
erwhelming aerial fleet.
Gan army in the air, regiments an
brigades of winged cavalry, mount
ed on gas driven flying horses, coul
blind the eyes of Germany until he
gunners deprived of range finder:
would be put out of business by tn
Allied artillery.
"Knock Out Germany's Eyes
t'The modern type of land war
dependent upon two things above a
others: aviation ard artillery. The
are cooperating elements in flyln
army, and against an enemy FLYNN
machine is terror and menace
big guns. That aeroplanes are pos
lively essential for directing arti
lery fire is an axiom among militar
men who have seen action in the sol
of battles being fought on the Wes'
ern front.
"The magnificently abvious thin,
then, is to knock out Germany's eye
by thrust through the air. But m
idea would be something vastly lars
er than thrust. An inundation {
aeroplanes would better express tn
idea in it's magnitude. Sweep tn
Germans from the sky, blind tn
Pussian cannons and the time woul
be ripe to release an enormous floc
of flying fighters to raid and destro
military camps, ammunition del
OTIS, military establishments of a
kinds. The firing upon troops fro1