The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-10-14
U. 5. GETS READY To
BOMB GERMAN CITIES
Ordnance Department Is Waiting or
Airpianc Program To Begin
Hail of Explosives
FINAL WAR PYROTECHNICS
Ordnance and Aviation Officers. With
Members of Bomb Manufacturers
Association Witness Tests on Prov
ing Grounds.

Washington Oct t2-Bembs, air
bombs of high explosives from fifty
to five hundred pounds. penetrating
demolition bonn hs. gas bombs. shrap-
mel bombs. incendiary bombs that
pierce as well or scatter continuing
flame at surface contact--America has
them, in thousands. in such mum bers
that there are not airp}anes enough
to drop them as rapidly as they are
produced and the ordnance depart
ment is waiting on the airplane pro-
gram now to begin the hail of explo-
sives over Germany for the final Ply
rotechnics of the war
The manufacturers who make these
bombs. at least seventy-five per cent
Of them, from the bomb manufac-
ttfrers association, IN company with
ordinances and aviation officers of the
United States and Great Britain saw
just how their message to the kaiser
were proof read today at the great
proving grounds of the ordnance de
partmeut nj Aberdeen Md, near
Havre de Grace.
Here, with $500 acres Of old farm
land to shoot around in. some ten
Thousand men to shit the scenes, the
air fun Of planes TO drop the honl hs
and watch the projectiles' flight from
cannon. hoWitzers and trench NOR
tars. all decked In Camoufage. the
day was one long assortment of vieing
noises. from the swish of the flying
pig out of the Stokes Newton mortars
TO the growing of the large shrapnel
shells through the outraged air 10 the
point of the burst
Most of it was technical. TO show
to the manufacturers how defects
were discovered by the tests. just what
VII
casional failure occurred, the projec-
tile or bomb was defective. There
was no dramati2ation of the demon
stration-it was just a routine day in
this vast camp whose day-to day is
just one round after another OF shot
and she'll.
But almost every thing on the west
front was there. Just about as It is on
the battle line, for the conditions Of
test are battle conditions and worse
There are more than twenty types
of heavy ordnance there. in addition
to the drop bombs, and artillery is
jectiles.
Observation OF the high explosive
shells and the aerial bonn bling with
various types OF bombs, were made
from a tower about sixty feet high
and the one big thrill of the day came
when. after almost getting used to
seeing the huge black missiles come
webbing down from point appar-
emily over the top itself. one started
directly overhead and burst with high
explosive within a hundred and fifty
yards.
The tower shuddered So did the
hundred or so persons on It. Even at
that distance and AZ that height, caps
were lifted By the conclusion and one
staggered against IT. Such treme ndous
force had shattered the earth in a
deep, wide crater that finely pulver-
lied dirt sifted down two minutes
or more afterward.
This was the high explosive. but
only little one OF fifty pounds OF
r N r. not to be compared with the
five hundred pound aerial bombs.
whose charge is half the weight. And
there others. shrapnel and the spec
tacular incendiary bombs of Their
mite, whose heat is such that table
spoonful of II eats hole in armor
plate az an ember would ear through
butter This Ii the kind that is used
for buildings,
The demonstration had all the in
terest and confusion of a three ring
circus. Everything was going at once
There was the flare of the mcendiary
bombs. still burning from their deep
holes, the brown upheavals from the
banging six-inch mortar battery high
explosives, the graceful palm tree.
OF whrling gases. formed ia the yor-
tees from the penetrating r N r aer-
ial bomb. the wallowing flying pigs
in comparatively l3zy arcs and, al
ways overhead. far out of shell range,
the glinting planes soaring with new
-Buy Liberty Bonds-
Dark horses ars not always as
black as they are painted. -