White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1919-02-09
AERIAL APRONS
GUARD LONDON
Defense System Against Hun Air
Raids Is Now Dis
closed.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
How the Gothas Were Kept Away
From London Forms Tense Chap
ter in British Mastery Over
German Air Raiders.

OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES aerial aprons, or
how the Gothas were kept away,
might form one tense chapter In a
hook about how the British baffled the
Hun air raiders. The last six months
of the war there was not a single air
raid on London, due, In part, to the
fact that the. city's defenses we're such
that they filed enemy flyers with ter
ror. Any aviator that escaped the
death traps-and theF chances were
about one In three he would not-gen-
orally was of little value thereafter for
fiying, because his nerves were shat
tered. A British aviator who by accis
dent was caught In the aerial barrage,
INT managed to land safely neal Lon
don. tossed on a bed. yerging on in
sanity for weeks, so horrible was he
experience.
Roughly, there were three chief
a for dealing with Hun air
roiders: the aerial barrage. aided by
sea%rchlights; fast, fighting scout planes
that attacked the invaders, and aerial
aprons. The Germans. IL mag be noted.
were never able TO perfect any scheme
To prevent British aviators from
bombing Rhine towns ven in the day.
time.
Aerial Aprons Queer Things.
The aerial aprons were queer
things. They reminded q of rope
portieres. Upon signal. captive bal
-. ,.ra cant alaff from tho ont-
skirts of the city. the balloons being
In pairs. These buoyed up a curtain
of dangling ropes, a half-mile or so
long. These aerial aprons served two
purposes: First. they forced the raid.
ers to fly high. and when they few
high they could not drop bombs eff.
fectively; second. any machine dart.
ing into the ropes courted destruction.
When flying high they were met by the
British fighting scouts. These aerial
aprons were shifted daily as to height
so enemy airmen could not be fore
warned.
London always had the protection
of four score airplanes during the
last year of war. These machines
could mount to 10000 feet. The avi.
ators were picked night flyers. Al
such heights Ii is difficult to see an
other alrplane at 100 yards. But al
a given signal these birdmen took to
the skies. jealousy guarding the ap
~proaches TO London. These brave fell
lows often chased a hostile machine
into the barrage and a few British
blrdmen were killed by their own
shells. But whether II was a Zeppelin
or a Gotha that was BEN on baby kill
ing the British scouts would swoop at
their foes like hawks.
The barrage was almost like drum
fire. There were two outer barrages
and one inner. Scores of guns, many
of them six-inch rifles, were employed
in this work. They generally worked
In batteries of four, each unit OF the
battery, perhaps. being a mile or two
from the other units. The four guns
would endeavor 10 get n hostile plane
In the center Of their box fire. and then
gradually close In their fire so the
enemy could not escape, the aerial
box gradually being narrowed.
The entire process depended largely
upon listening devices which could de-
tect the approach of a humming. air
plane miles away.
Efficient Defense System.
The defense system was so eff
cient that rs per cent Of the raiding
machines we're kept out of London.
And those machines that got past the
barrages had great difficulty la escap-
ing. To the terror of bursting shrap-
mel was added the confusion OF Verey
lights, some red. some blue. others
green. white. yellow and orange. and
these flashing lights. intermingled
with the terrific din of the exploding
shell, 70 confused aviators that they
lost all sense of direction and space
and many Of their machines got out of
control. becoming al easy prey. In
such cases British birdmen would APP
proach, firing on the enemy machine,
anti-aircraft guns would halt, and the
hostile plane would be brought down
by a burst from the British plane. But
often there were fierce duels. marked
by spitfre from the machine guns of
the %contending flyers.
The course which the raiders took
was traced out. minute by minute, by
the "stethoscope" operators. and d.
rections given TO searchlight crews,
anti-aircraft gunners and flashed 10
airdromes by aerial defense headquar-
terg. which conducted the battIe much
in the same way as a general n the
field.
Scarcely a Gotha got through the
outer London barrage unscathed. The
faint hearts who couldn't penetrate
the barrage often tgrned back, only to
find they were o~utnumbered four to
one by faster British machines.
Cow Has Quadrupie rs.