The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1918-08-13
ALL PLANES To
CARRY BOMBING
.EQU|PM PMENT SOON
Allies Plan To Equip Each
Machine for Bombing Work
As Well As Regular Work

WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN
ENGLAND, July 40 Correspondence
of The Associated Press) ALMOST ev-
cry airplane used by the Allies soon
will carry bombs. Experts in aerial
warfare are convinced that the gener-
al efficiency OF the corps will be in
creased If bombing device is added
to every plane sent out, even though It
be of the type once intended only for
recognizance work, and Americans now
training In England are being as care
fully drilled in bombing as in handling
a machine gun.
Lessons learned during the resist
ance offered in the recent offensive
have served to increase the already
nigh regard of both British and Ameri-
can officers in the air-service for the
lowflying, bomb-carrying craft and,
over the camps and countryside where
aviators are being trained, planes are
in evidence almost every hour, dip
ping down from high in the air and
skimming the nearby country, barely
missing treetops and houses. 1t is the
newer lesson they are learning, and
observers back from the front where
the allied planes did such remarkable
work not only in scouting and distract
ing the enemy but actually in break
ing up formations and at points check
ing the onward movement have urged
concentration on that form of train
ing.
British trainers, detailed to Ameri-
can aviation camps, have been liberal
in their praise of the new filters from
overseas, their only criticism being
that the Americans are "a bit too
keen" Their tendency has been to 20
in for flying stunts rather too early
in training but even this the trainers
have admitted is valuable fault, al
though one not to be encouraged.
1t has been pointed out to the Am
orleans that team work as we'll as in.
dividual efficiency is prime requisite
and the Americans have steadied
themselves to the routine their train
ers have found makes for general ad-
vancement If not for individual ap-
plause. Fancy flying, the acrobatic
work that once found favor and drew
heavy rate receipts at aerial exhibit
tions in the United States, still is
taught but the learning of that form
of flying also has come to be regard
ed merely as routine and wholly Incl.
dent to the steady, low flying desir-
able for attacking camps and troops
in formation.
Accidents have occurred in the
camps where the Americans are being
trained and few men have been kill
ed but the records show that the per-
centage is far less in England than in
the United States. Those in training
here are inclined to attribute the diff
ference more to luck than to anything
else, although there also is pointed out
the probability that the average air
plane used in England is better
made machine than the average that
has been used in the United States.
The bombing devices being attached
to virtually every plane is not the
cOntrivance that was used in the ear.
lier days of the war. That used then
was little more than a mechanism
that released the projectile, allowing
1t to fall at a point approximately near
the target. The device now being used
is one with which the operator may
with much practice become almost as
proficient In marksiianship as an ar
tilleryman is with his gun. Almost
every light plane will carry bombs of
at least 25 pounds and from the heav.
Ter types there will be hurled the huge
containers of high explosive not ma
terially different from those used by
the Germans in some of the more re-
cent raids.