The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1918-02-07
British Authorities Are Impressed
by Aviation Program of the
United States.
WOULD RAID GERMAN TOWNS
Construction of Giant Fleets of Air
planes Regarded as Best Means
of Bringing Conflict
to End.
BY JOHN LLOYD RALD6sToN.

/ stood on the Thames emDankment
and looked upwards at the most Won
derful sight that this venerable cap
ital has ever beheld. The whole sky
seemed filled with almost motiOnless
black insects, as though somebody in
the upper regions had let down a caR-
opy of dragon flies. There was con-
tinuouS thudding of distant guns, va
Tied by sharp explosions from those
nearer, and the deeper rumble of the
exploding bombs, as much noise alto
gether as during a sharp ''strafe" on
the battle front in France.
1t all seemed like a revelation of a
new and more terrible warfare. The
German machines, whose black crosses
/ could see plainly with my glasses,
scattered to escape the bursting black
balls of Shrapnel, after coming like a
flock of ducks in triangle formation,
but then they seemed to ignore the
puny efforts of the little men on the
ground to harm them, as proud eagle
soaring above a mountain top would
disdain a boy in the valley below pop
Some of my impressions were quite
false. 1t is now known that the raiders
were Gotha planes nearly three times
as large as the ordinary airplane, rs
feet long and 40 wide, and their enor-
nous size fooled all lay onlookers az
to their height. 1 thought them not
more than 1000 feet up, and gueSSeS
of 1000 and 5000 feet were common.
They never came lower than $4,000
feet, and most of the time were three
miles high, and travelling at 20 to so
miles an hour, though to the surprised
and indignant crowds below they SEEM
ed almost standing still.
What Future May Bring.
But one fact stands out clear. If
% airplaneS, each capable of carry
ing IA bombs, can come to London
and get back to Belgium with loss of
One-seventh of their number, there is
no reason why 22O planes and later q
200 cannot at some future time repeat
the journey. The bombs used ia the
raids of today on cities by the Ger
mans are comparatively harmless
they are not intended for killing peO-
pie in streets, or for firing wooden
houses, but for work against defenses,
maximum exploding power in limited
space is needed.
There are other bombs that can and
will be made, bombs scattering blaz-
ing pieces of metal for hundreds of
yards, bombs whirling shrapnel that
will kill any living thing not under COW
er for great distance from the burst
ing point.
Standing behind me was a woman,
perhaps little hysterical. She looked
for sometime at the sky full Of enc
mics, whose apparently insOlvent de-
liberation so angered the crowds.
There were some British airmen up by
this time, but those she could not dis
tinguish from the German. She ex-
claimed angrily, "Where are all those
airplanes the Americans said they were
going to send over herew Everybody
laughed, but the question set me think
ing, and this story is the result.
England has been informed by cable
that Washington proposes to build o.
625 airplanes and send them to Eu-
rope. Nothing since the registration
of ten million Americans for the army
has so impressed opinion in London.
Lesson of Recent Raids.
One great lesson taught by recent
air raids is that academic debate about
the ethics of killing women and chill
dren under the name of "reprisals"
must stop. The air situation has grown
too serious. When bombarding Ger
man communications and German bill
let's in the rear of the lines French
gunners know they often kill French
civilians, but they cannot stop shoot
ing.
Hitherto it has been said that to
drop bombs on German towns will not
stop the Germans from raiding Brit
ish and French cities, and will inflict
a moral stigma on the allied arms. The
experts now consider that the time has
come to put In a word, and they say,
'The question of killing women and
children has nothing to do with the
matter. The Germans began this form
Of fighting. They are forcing us to
keep airplanes and anti-aircraft guns
at home To make an effective de-
tense we must tie up here many times
as much fighting material as they send
on their raids. We are not compelled
for strictly military reasons, to force
them to keep many air SquadrOnS in
Germany so that some of them can
reach any one of the hundred places
that our squadrOns may choose to raid
and to arm each of their hundreds of
vulnerable points with guns.
Unless we do this, their raiding pol
icy will give them an enormous mill
tary advantage. If we begin raiding
ourselves, the advantage they gain by
tieing up our men, planes and guns
in England will be counter-bakanced by
the men, planes and guns we can make
them tie up in Germany. And when
American planes begin to arrive in
shiplOads, we can bring greater pres
sure to bear on their home territory
than they can on ours, and so infu-
ence the situation at the front to our
great profit.
Cold Military Logic.
This line of argument may not be
palatable. But have no hesitation in
predicting that it will and must pre-
vail. for it is cold military logic.
Three interesting points of view on