Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-09-06
AERIAL BOMBING EXACT SCIENCE IN
 ALLIED ARMIES
Allies Aviators "Rarelv
 Ever Miss Their Targets Way Down Below.'

Behind British Lines in France, Aug. 31 Correspondence of The Associated Press. .)-Aerial bombing is today far more of an exact science than was supposed possible year and half ago. In the early days of the war, dropping bombs was largely a matter of luck, and the straight eye of the aviator was the only factor re- lied upon for success.
 Today, however, matters are entire ly different. Accurate bcmb-sights have been produced, which carefully used, are a guarantee of the bomb falling on the object aimed at, within very small margin of error Of course, in the case of all such instru- ments, thee human element is aften- times responsible for errors of calcu- lation, and a small error on bomb- sight at 15,000 feet will send bomb far out of it's course. In the words of an American airman who has done some splendid raiding work in France:
 Tt is wonderful what you can miss with bomb"
 From this it must be thought that the majority of Allied bombs do net reach their billets in Germany or in the German lines; for earial photo graphs taken after raids have shown that they do. But emphasis is laid on the importance of the personal factor in bombing. In the excitement of work of this kind-often in the midst of heavy shell fire-a very cool head is required to manipulate an instrument as delicate as a bomb-sight. British airmen for example, receive a very thorough training in bombing before they are allowed to proceed overseas, and must obtain certain number of hits before they can graduate.
 It is thought that quite a lot of the wanton and useless destruction of pri- vate property in England by German raiders is due to sheer bad bombing. Undoubtedly the Central Powers are behind the Allies in regard to bombing gear, for on large German twin engined bombing airplane recently captured was found crude copy of an English bcmb-sight which was in- troduced more than two years ago. Aerial bombs range in size from 10 pounds up to fifty or sixty times that weight and are roughly of two kinds, incendiary and high-explosive. They are generally laid on their sides in racks underneath the airplane; but sometimes they are carried in cells specially fitted in the fuselags Cor body) of the machine. In either case they are fused and released by levers placed convenient to the pilot or ob- server, the bombs themselves being far out of reach.
 When bomb is released it does not fall directly downwards but takes a forward path as it drops, in the direct ion in which the machine is travelling. This is due to the momentum imparted to it by the speed of the aircraft. A factor of great importance in bombing is the time-length of the fuse. For example, if a railway junct- ion was being attacked, a bomb which exploded on contact would do far more damage than one with delay fuse; for the former would have a wide, low radius of action-smashing up the railway lines-while the latter would during the delay bury itself in the ground and merely make deep crater of small area.
 The reverse, however would apply in the case of munition factory. A bomb exploding on a contact would go off as soon as it toucheed the roof. doing liNle or no damage to the re- mainder of the building; but an appro- priately timed delay fuse would give the bomb time to crash through to the middle or ground floors, where it would be intimately more destructive.