The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1919-09-12
PARIS DESTROYED
WAS GERMAN PLAN
Heinous Purpose Of Huns
Had War Continued
To This Year


resorted to in the last war. but which
may well take its place among the
destructive agencies to be employed
in the next inevitable conflict" has
come out with this weeks revela-
lions of war secrets in the German
National Assembly. This is the
aerial flame thrower, well christened
the flying death"
a Copenhagen message. published
here by the air ministry. says the
Berlin Post has published a letter
which Herr Erzberger sent to General
Won Falkenhayn. then war minister,
in September, 1914-just a month
after the war started-wherein he
recommended that zeppelins invading
England be equipped with flame
throwers, or flame sprays, from which
liquid fire could be dropped i'm
drenching rain upon crowded cities
The alleged letter from Erzbcrger
concluded with statement OF the
writer's conviction that all humani-
tartan considerations and scruplee
relative to the violation of intcrna-
tional law should be set aside in the
fatherland's battle against her ring
Z of enemies.
Idea Was Feasible.
Unfortunately. the published letter
does not enter into the details Of how
liquid fire was to have been squirted
from a black midnight sky upon a
defenseless enemy city; but | have
been informed by an official Of the
British Air Ministry that not only is !
the idea practicable, but that the |
Royal Air Force engineers actually
had under consideration an invention |
which would carry into execution this |
very idea. But beyond giving practi- !
cal demonstrations of the appliance |
before the heads of the department !
he British flyers did nothing They !
did not hold the same views as Err |
brger is alleged to have held in re-
gard to sanctity of international law !
HOfrOfS vi Next war.
I am privileged to make the state
ment. however. that if, when the mex
great war comes it is accompanied by |
any wholesale disregard of one-time |
conventions concerning the rights OF !
such as character
lied the actions of some of the bel |
-, 10 .+v., /.
the dreadful rain of fire from the
sky may become one of the incidents
of destruction. This. with the re
ported super-pOisonous gas said to be
a secret in possession of the United !
States army and. like the aerial
flame. capable Of being dropped from
the skies, would make the wiping on.
of a race merely a matter of mathe-
NAUTICAL computation.
Hit by the stories of the war hor-
rors the graphing nations in the las;
great conflict had locked up in their
cabinets, but did not put to use, are
coming to light.
BEFORE the revelations concerning
the fire from the skies we heard a
few months ago in roundabout fash
ion of the German plan for the total
destruction of Paris which was TO
have been employed this year, but
which the armistice happily nipped
before the bloom. This was in a way
even a refinement over the Erzberger
notion of a death rain.
Light flying scouts were to pre-
cede Germany's maximum possible
fleet of bombing planes in a final
ally against the French capital. The
scouts were to be equipped with small
fire bombs of some chemical which,
when burning, defied the action of
water. These were to be shOwered
upon Paris by the hundreds, creating
fires everywhere. Then the heavier
bomkers were to follow hard after
and drop tons upon tons Of nign eX-
plosives upon the city, which lay re-
vealed by the light of its burning
The only possible defense against
sucn ar attack would have been bar
rage fire and a counter-attack By
French guarding airplanes of the
type. Bat the war demon
strated what is now counted an axiom
in air warfare, which is that neither
of these methods of defense daring
a night attack is more than stab
la tAe dark. Had such a concerted
attack by German airplanes been
made upon Paris there is no question
made upon Paris there is no question
but that the worlds most beautiful
city would have been wrecked he
yond restoration.