Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-10-03
AIR BOMBING NOT
GUESS WORK NOW
Aviators Given Training Which
Makes Work Much
More Certain.

EeEinu British Lines in Erance.-(by
maiD-Aerial bombing is TODAY far
more OF an exact science tnan was
possible a year and a half
ago. In the early DAYS of III. war.
dropping bombs was largely a mater tier
VI luck. and the straight eve of the
aviator was the only factor relied ,,uon
for success.
IOday. however, matters are entire
ly different. Accurate bombing sights
nave been produced which. carefully
nsea, are a guarantee of the bomb
falling on the object aimed at within
a very small margin of error. OF
course. i'm the case of all such instru-
ments, the human element is some
times responsible for errors of calcu-
'qtion, and a small error on a ha,nb
sight at $4,000 feet viii send a bomb
far out OF its course. In the words of
an American airlnan who has done
some splendid raiding. work in France:
1T is wonderful what YOU can miss
with a bomb
From this it must not be thought
that the majority Of allied bombs do
not each their billets in Germany or
in the German lines: for aerial photo.
graphs taken after raids have shown
that they do. But emphasis is laid on
h 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
rs delicate S q bomb sight. British
for example, receive q very
thorough training in bombing before
they are allowed to proceed over seas.
and must obtain a certain number OF
hits before they can graduate.
Ut is thought that quite a lot of the
wanton and useless destruction of pri-
vat property in England by German
raiders is due to sheer bad bombing.
Undoubtedly h central powers are
behind the allies in regard to bombing
ear for on a large German twin en-
CINE bombing airplane recently cap
1ured was found a crude copy of an
English bomb sight which was intro
duced more h two years ago.
Aerial bombs range in size from 10
pounds up to so or so times that
weight and are roughly Of two kinds.
'ncendiary and high explosive. They
racks underneath the airplane: but
sometimes they are carried in cells es-
pecially fitted in the fuselage Tor body)
OF the machine. In either case they
are fused and released by levers placed
convenient to the pilot or observer, the
bombs themselves being far IL OF
reach.
fall directly downwards but takes a
forward path as it drops, in the direc-
ton in which the machine is travelling.
This Is due to the momentum impaired
to it by the speed OF the air craft.
A factor of great importance in
bombing is the tine length Of the fuse.
For example. IL a railway junction was
being attacked, a bomb which exploded
on contact would do far more damage
than one with a delay fuse; for the for
mel would have a wide. low radius of
o0fi0u emo ShirO I'm tho rafluyov 1{nAo
while the latter would during the delay
bury itself in the ground and merely
make q deep crater Of small area
The reverse. however, would apply In
the case of a munition factory. A
bomb exploding On contact would go
off as s0o as 1t touched The roof. do
ing little or no damage to the remain
der of the building; but an appro-
priately timed delay fuse would give
the bomb time to crush through to the
middle or ground floors. where 1t would
be intimately more destructive.