Evening star., 1918-06-16
BOMBING At NIGHT
HAS OWN PER|LS
Sergeant.PiIot Lamb Tells of
! Thrilling 225-MiIe Flight
to CobIenz.
D0DGES B0CHEs BY TRICK

This is the first Of three articles on various
phases of warfare In the air on the western
front by Sergeant-Pilot Dean Ivan Lamb. for
Pilot Lamb is an American, who enlisted in
the war during the fall of 1914 in Canadian
battalion. Subsequently he was transferred
to the Royal Flying Corps, and spen. .nd Two
half in France and six months on the LONDON
patrol. He is credited officially with having
brought down eight German aeroplanes In his
last engagement over London. in the summer
Of 1917, he shot down a Gotha raider and was
shot down himself wounded. His articles de-
scribe only personal experience.
DY sERGEANT-PILOT DEAN IVAN
LAMB,
Royal Air Service.
The major acknowledged my salute
with a quick jerk.
"Fou are to go over to Coblenz to-
night, Lamb he said. Leave the
'drome at midnight. Is your bus ready?"
"Yes. sir"
VERY good. Carry on"
That was how I got the order for
my first night bombing raid. 1t was
in the summer of 1916, when night
bombing raids had become fairly well
ByBlSHdllScu. 1HSy "cIC uISl uHuCt
taken in 1915, and until we learned
the tricks of night flying they were
Unduly expensive. In those days sew
eral machines were sent of at once
against the objectives. with the re-
suit that members in the same squad
ron would have collisions or fights in
the air with each other. and we suf-
40
than from Fritz. Most of the early
raids were against nearby objectives,
only a few miles behind the enemy
lines, but as the size, speed and
weight- capacity Of planes
increased. longer and longer raids
were attempted with growing success.
ing away the machines for a raid at
intervals of twenty minutes or half
an hour, with instructions to fly di-
rectly to the objective, drop their
bombs and return by a different route,
30 that they would not be likely to
encounter the machines of their own
squadron following them.
Difficulties in Night Bombing.
The chief difficulty in night bomb
ing by 1916 was that the machines we
used were too fast to make landings
safely after dark. In order to solve
this difficulty the policy was adopted
OF sending up the raiders at an hour
which would allow them just enough
time to ny out and return to the air
drome and land by daylight. Until
this plan was hit upon we lost great
number OF planes by crashes in land
ing. 1t is no joke to bring down a
bus going 120 or more miles an hour
by guess work. 1t is next to impos-
sib1e. Now. however, they have spe-
cfal type machines for night bomb
ing. which go much slower than the
pursuit and combat planes Another
frequent source of mishaps in the
earIy days OF air warfare was the
cranky engines we had. Luckily for
me, managed to avoid night bomb
ing until the Rolls-Royce motor came
Into general use.
The machine in which raided Cob
lsnz was De Haviland with a a6o-
e could make 1877 miles an hour, but
I usually few at 120 miles SO that
the motor would run cool and I
hight depend upon it in emergencies.
This speed also helped me to keep
my bearings and enabled me to figure
Suite closely what place happened to
ge over at q certain moment. The De
davuand four is a two-seater, and as
old NOT carry a passenger had $50
pounds OF sand-bags fastened in the
rear OF the cockpit to maintain the
9ciance OF the machine. Besides this,
7 nad two 112-pound bombs and fuel
and oil for five hours. The bombs
we're carried in racks fastened close
20 the fuseiage under the lower planes
end were released by levers by the
puots seat. On the outside Of the
,aia.. 1aaissl.ase. within easy reach Of the
pliocs seat, was small chute for
cropping parachute flares to light up
the country below. either to help you
IN aiming your bombs or to assist in
making forced landing.
Route Is Planned on Paper.
At 11S0 o'clock the flares were
Mghted on the aerodrome field. The
9ecnanics put the bombs in the racks
and l, personally adjusted the fuses.
We tried out the engine to make sure
- was working well, and at LEO
TAXED out on the field. Five minutes
later waved goodbye to the me
cnanics c and started to climb in
when had reached 1000 feet, 1
straightened out and flew east at 100
miles an hour. My route was almost
Que east. and I had 1t planned on
paper like this:
12:00-'Drome; head east,
12:06-Oyer lines; IL miles: Arras
or miles TO S.
12:1o-ovef Douai; 20 miles; look
cut-hostfle aircraft.
observation-disclosures; A miles: rail-
way and River Schelde at r.
l22.,Estrue ex; 4s miles; lights
doubtful. Last town in France.
12:2S-Athis: SO miles; small r, r.
term; nrst town in Belgium. Lights7
,,l2;s5.Forests: 10 miles: should see
lights N e. by e. Charleroi.
12:8e-Thuin: 7s miles; sambrs
River lights N. e. by Charleroi.
12:51-Meuse river, 1o2 miles;
lights doubtful; mostly forests.
1:oo-Forests; 120 miles; lights
doubtful. mostly forests.
1:17--Forests; 154 miles; lights Of
Malmedy 10 miles to N.
1:30-Gonnersdorf; 1s0 miles; r. r.
and River Kill
1:4O-Monreal; 200 miles; r. r. and
forests beyond
1:4s--River Moselle; 212 miles; head
N. e. from here.
l:52-over forts; 225 miles; nm ?
River to east.
Compass Erratic on Airplane.
II was quite easy to plan the route,
= n m t.