Evening star., 1921-07-17
AVZATORS WIN VERDICT I'll
~ IN THIRD BOMBING TEST
44rmy Planes Dispatch German Ship With
Greater Speed Than Navy Guns.
Observers Greatly Impressed. 7

The third problem in the Navy's
series of bombing and gunnery ex-
'periments, conducted this past week
at the Atlantic fleet practice grounds.
resulted In a very decisive swing Of
opinion. favoring the aircraft bomb
ers. in the minds of the majority of
ordnance officers. engineering experts.
civilian observers from the naval
consulting board and national ad-
visory commission on aeronautics,
congressman and the foreign military
attaches who observed the work from
the Henderson.
No complete report of the time fac
tors invoived, on the relative value
of the hits made on targets, has yet
been issued by the official board OF
observers. constituted entirely OF
naval officers. but all press accounts
agree that the Army air service.
which was given it's first crack" at
actual war vessels on the high seas
last Wednesday. distinguished itself
by the expeditions way In which It
destroyed the German destroyer.
Navy Required Longer.
Navy gunners, firing both from a
destroyer and a battleship on each OF
two other similar targets, required in
one case three times as long as the
other case. four times as lon., to sink
their enemies as did the Army bomb
ers. The vessel sunk by the Army
also was a larger and heavier (by
200 tons) vessel than those sunk by
the bluejackets.
A considerable amount of acrimo-
MUS, If subdued, dispute was mani
Tested privately. this last trip on the
Henderson, which carries observation
parties to the fleet. Civilian aircraft
to talk assuredly of '.junking $40.-
100000 battleships that took three
times as long to sink a destroyer as q
$4,000 airplane" and, of course, con-
servative Navy men promptly resented
such conclusion being drawn.
Army officers were all carefully muZ-
zled in everything that they said. by
special order Of the Secretary Of War.
Both Sides Fully Aroused.
The result has been that the past
weeks work showed both sides fully
aroused and eager to outdo the other.
All necessary maneuverS were car
ried out with skill and competence.
and the conclusion formed by OBJ
servers that the air service had the
best Of the weeks argument was simply
based on the fact that the Army made
triple the time record In sinking her
target with the newly developed
aerial science. tha: the naval craft
did with we'll drilled crews on old
established ships of thoroughly ia
mifiar type.
Some of the best judges Of ordnance
work in Uncle Sans entire military
establishment were aboard the Hem
derson and while not wishing to be
quoted, were quite free in stating that
the tremendous destructive power
and remarkable accuracy of the big
bombs were impressive and the per-
centage of hits was certainly equal to.
II not greater. than that averaged by
heavy artillery at long range"
Military attaches similarly refused
to be quoted on account of the deli
cacy" of the situation, but all ex-
pressed a definite sentiment favoring
the rapid enlargement and develop
ment of the aerial bombing practice.
the building Of airp!ane carriers for
each fleet. and the judgment that "the
airplane will probably constitute the
battleship's most deadly enemy in all
future warfare"
synopsis of Weeks Work.
A synopsis Of the weeks work. as
agreed upon by observers and all
July 13-The ex-German destroyer.
G-lo2. was attacked by Army air
service, exclusively. The target was
located eighty miles to sea, was 3l2
feet long. thirty feet wide. displaced
1.1ss tons; launched November. 1915.
by the Krupps. for active service in
the world war.
The air service attacked first with
IL S.E.-5 pursuit planes each carrying
four twenty-five pound hom6s. de-
signed to demoralize a ships crew
and stop it's anti-aircroft guns only.
These planes opened fire at $3.50 a.m..
each dropping one bomb only at a
flight over the target and the division
scoring seven direct hits in the first
twelve shots. A total of twenty hits
was obtained out of forty total shots
made. the destroyer thus theoretically
having been put out Of action within
thirty minutes work. Fourteen heavy
Martin bombers arrived by divisions
with three planes to a division and
six heavy 250-pound bombs to the
plane. and proceeded to drop their
deadly eggs" in pairs from an alti-
tude between 5000 and 1000 feet.
They opened fire at 1920 a m. and the
Kirksey-Bingham team made the first
bomb shattering the bridge and all
control mechanism and the other
tearing a great hole In the side-plates
of the target.
The boat Immediately began to sink
by the bow and with bow submerged
forward at 10:39. The stern immedi-
ately rose high in the air and the ex-
0erman sea terror went to its last
resting place at 1910 am. just one
hour and ten minutes after the "at-
tack" began. No accidents to the
land planes who participated in the
bombardment eighty miles out at sea
were reported. and all the bombers
returned safely to their home base at
Langley Field.
Navy Destroyers Take Turn.
July Is the Atlantic fleet monopo-
lized the two remaining ex-German
.destroyers for gunnre, using first the
destroyer Leary and the battleship
Florida to destroy the V-43, which
was 261 feet long, with S31 tons dis
placement, and then using the de-
stroyer Herbert and the battleship
Delaware on the ex-German destroyer
S-132. which was .272 feet long and
80 tons displacement. launched in
March, 1917.
The destroyers opened fire with
three four-inch guns on the target
side and ten rounds per gun. The
battleships used their secondary bat
teries of five-inch guns, seven guns
per ship going into action with twen-
ty rounds apiece.
The Leary opened fire on the V-43
at lis pm. and in ten minutes Of
firing obtained two direct hits with
thirty rounds, one hit going clean
through the bow, midway of the
clearboard, and another shattering the
The battleship Florida finished the
v-4s. opening fire at 4:23 and pump