Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-09-15

all is well. If it has not it is neces-
sary for the artillery to again strafe
| it, in order that an infantry regiment
{ may not start an attack only to find
| The saving of life by an efficient air
! force is absolutely colossal.
| The aeroplane must descend from
| the realm of mystery it has occupied
! in the public mi ind and assume it's
| practical form. 1t should be looked
| a man through the air for a definite
purpose. and that purpose is to help
| those on the ground to go forward.
Life Of a Filler.
We have to rid ourselves of mistaken
| notions. The life of a pilot is really
far more comfortable than is possible
| for his comrades in the infantry, cav
airy or artillery. The infantry when
ua1ly and often heavily. They have to
sleep in -dugouts, somn wet, and some
| dry. They are at war the whole time,
except, of course, when they are back
at rest. But the pilot, though his
period of fighting may continue for
weeks and months at a time, has a
definite job to do each day. He
knows, when that job is over. he will
return to clean house, a clean meal
and a clean bed.
His morale is excellent. He is flying
the best machine the government can
supply. He does not see the dirty
side of the war. He does not find in
F.! the air the gas and the filth of the
ground. 1t is not to be wondered at
that he is proud to be in the air
division. A certain type of person
| writes on the dangers of flying and
the way he prevented himself from
| being killed. yet one-tenth of the I'M
told stories in the trenches would
make the air pilots story sound very
small. Yet the airman is all-impor-
tant. 1t would not matter if America
sent 100000 men to France if there
was not an efficient air service back
of them.
Fortunately. things are going well.
The United States has pilots of the
fright kind, and the material is now
going overseas in the right way. I
have been fortunate enough to see a
good deal of American flying men, of
the training which is going on in this
country, and of a certain number of
i American cadets in England. Per-
| sonally. I have nothing but praise
| have nothing but praise for the ca
| diets there.
| And how important a thorough
training is! However well pilot may
| fly, however good his machine may
| be. unless he can kill his opponent
in the air he is, to all intents and
! purposes, useless. To do that he must
have gun. use preponderance of
hre, outmaneuver his enemy, and
bring him down. There are several
cellent result. Some Germans have
been forced to land without having
been fired on others have been
brought down by machine gun fire
| in the air, and few by anti-aircraft
| fire from the ground. Again, very
small number have haan oh h.,
infantry gun-ffre from trenches. The
more Germans brought down, the
fewer sacrifices of life we have on
our side of the lines
Say German airplane has come
over our side of the lines: say he has
taken photographs of our artillery po-
slt1on; say he has photographed
trenches where we are assembling to
attack-it is perfectly easy for him,
if not interfered with, to take these
back, have them developed and is
sued to the artillery. He can also
call up batteries by wireless and
nave them train their guns on the
infantry so assembled. Hence it is
absolutely necessary that every hos
tile machine on our side of the lines
every enemy machine in the air at
all, shall be brought down whenever
;; ana Wherever possible. Only by this
means can we save our own men on
me ground, and eventually make the
cannot ride roughshod over every ma
ton in the world.
Aerial Gunnery the Key.
| With the airman came the air gum
| ner. In 1914 and the early part Of
/ 1918 pilots and observers carried
| rifles, and the pilots, at that time.
| sat behind. There were no machine
guns on airplanes. Men undoubtedly
| fought In the air. but these scraps
| generally resulted in two machines
! maneuvering around each other and
| occasionally getting in shot. Some-
! times one machine or the other was
| forced to land for lack Of gasoline. It
was extremely lucky if you could put
| the pilot or knock out the machine.
7 Not until the advent of the Lewis
| gun did aerial gunnery really begin
| to make itself felt. These handy
| little weapons I were mounted on
swivel pins on each side of the ma
| weight: This. however, though the
| beginning. was never satisfactory.
and the stoppages in the machine gun
| were frequent. In the middle of 1915
the German Aviatik had single
movable gun in the rear cockpit.
| which caused quite a lot of trouble
| to the allies.
| This was followed by the French
Newport machine, which had a Lewis
gun mounted over the top plane, and
at the same time We developed a ring
mounting in the observers cockpit, II
thus became a race not only in ma
chimes, but also in gunnery, as to who
| could bring the most effective fire to
bear on the adversary. In the autumn
of 1915 experiments were made with
| the Vickers gun firing through the
propeller. The blades were protected
by steel plates called deflectors, which
| were SO placed that when a bullet
struck the blade in glanced Off Nc
form of synchronizer gear had then
been evolved. but it was the beginning
! of a system which is now universal.
] Late in 1915. the Fokker made it's
appearance. This machine had not a
great speed. but it did have syn
| chronizing gear-that is, a gear which
enabled the machine gun to fire
through the blades of the propeller
out any loss of efficiency. 1t had quite
a success for time until the French
! got out the Spad gear and the British
! the Vickers gear. The latter was used
by us quite extensively over the lines
| but, owing to the difficulty of trainine
mechanics in its use and the small
amount that was known of it in those
days, it left quite a lot to be desired.
i This was followed by the CONSTANT
| nesco gear, which proved very salts
factory. Here, then. was a definite
progress in aerial gunnery. and today
we have on every machine two OF
three or four machine guns, two firing
| through the propeller and two being
used by the observer behind. In the
case Of two-seater. If you consider
the amount OF rounds which can be
! fired on the enemy from a machine
ron Hu understand what = menace II
.