The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-08-01
ALLIED AIRPLANES
TO CARRY BOMBS
General Efficiency of the Corps Will Be
Increased If Bombing Device Is
Added to the Equipment.

With the American Army in England,
Aug. Correspondence of the Associated
Press Almost every airplane used by
the allies soon viii carry bombs. Elk
perts in aerial warfare are convinced
that the general efficiency of the corps
win be increased If a bombing device is
added to every plane sent out, even
though 1t be of the type once intended
only for recognizance work, and Amer
leans now training in England are being
as carefully drilled in bombing as in
handling machine gun.
Lessons learned during the resistance
offered in the recent offensive have served
to increase the already high regard of
both British and American officers in the
air service for the low-fying, bombs
carrying craft, and, over the camps and
countryside where aviators are being
trained, planes are in evidence almost
every hour, dipping down from high in
the air and skimming the nearby coun-
try, barely missing tree tops and houses.
1t is the newer lesson they are learning,
and observers back from the front,
where the allied planes did such remark
able work not only in scouting and dis
tracing the enemy but actually in
breaking up formations and at points
checking the onward movement, have
urged concentration on that form of
training.
British trainers, detailed to American
aviation camps, have been liberal in
their praise Of the new fliers from over
seas, their only criticism being that the
Americans are "a bit too keen" Their
, tendency has been to go In for flying
stunts rather too early in training, but
even this the trainers have admitted
is valuable fault, although one not to
be encouraged.
1t has been pointed out to the Amer
leans that team work as we'll as individ-
ual efficiency is a prime requisite and the
Americans have steadied themselves to
the routine their trainers have found
makes for general advancement if not
for individual applause. Fancy flying,
the acrobatic work that once found ia
vor and drew heavy rate receipts at
aerial exhibitions in the United States,
still is taught, but the learning of that
form of flying also has come to be re-
garded merely as routine and wholly in
cident to the steady, low flying desirable
for attacking camps and troops in for.
nation.
Accidents have occurred in the camps
where the Americans are being trained
and few men have been killed but the
records show that the percentage is far
less in England than in the United
States. Those in training here are in
clined to attribute the difference more
to luck than to anything else, although
there also is pointed out the probability
that the average airplane used in Eng
land is a better made machine than the
average that has been used in the United
States.
The bombing device being attached to
virtually every plane is not the contri-
vance that was used in the earlier DAYS
of the war That used then was little
more than mechanism that released
the projectile, allowing it to fall at a
point approximately near the target.
The device now being used is one with
which the operator may with much prac-
tice become almost as proficient in
craftsmanship as an artilleryman is
with his gun. Almost every light plane
will carry bombs of at least 25 pounds
and from the heavier types there will be
hurled the huge containers of high ex-
plosive not materially different from
those used by the Germans in some of
the more recent raids.