New Britain herald., 1922-10-07
HEST NJ DEFENSE
 ON MINEOLA FIELD
Miniature Battle Ground Is Scene
 Of 'HOStiitieS'

New York, Oct 7.--In the theater
 of imaginary warfare that centered yesterday over Mitchell Field, l., l., the scout airplane again proved its utility as a vital factor In both of
 fense and defense. The war game staged there jointly by the air serv- 1 ice, the engineers and the artillery for the benefit of men Of the Officers
 Reserve Corps got off literally to a flying start.
 Battery R of the Sixth Field Artil- lery before the post bugles had sounded reveille had stolen away to a well screened spot near tn Meadow Brook club house about a mile and a half from Mitchell Field headquarters. There the artillerymen dug in." With the aid Of tree boughs and other screening the battery's position was well masked, Major Aymar Elm bury 2d and Capt, Homer St. Gaudens of the Camouflage Post of the Am erican Legion, playing an artistic part
 in this job. Battery B was the os- tensble enemy which had effected a landing on the Long Island approach
 
 It now becomes the duty of the scout airpanes to unmask the menac- ing guns and report their positions accurately. This task was essayed by three army pilots in scout ships of the Curtis and Thomas Morse types. They were Major Junius w. Jones, Lieut.. Newton w. Longfellow and Lieut. J, Cornell. In sweeping cir cles they secured the whole terrain until, not long before noon, they had spotted accurately every camou- faged gun of the enemy battery.
 Positions Noted by Radio.
 By radio the information then was sent through the air to Lieut.. Evers Abbey, who accompanied by Private Sidney w. Fox, was trailing the air scouts equipped with cameras and prepared to photograph the gun em- placements as speedily as they were located
 Abbey's ship scared above the masked battery and the cameras did their work as accurately and as speedily as the scout planes had done theirs. The lieutenant said afterward that "the results were most gratify- ing, demonstrating. as they did, the mastery of the scout plane over the menace of the masked battery" Lieut. Abbey was aid to Brig Gen. William Mitchell, of the Air Service, when the German and American warships were bombed and sunk off the Vir- ginia Capes last year,
 Airplanes Bombard Targets.
 Next came a startling demonstra- tion of what would be likely to hap pen to an enemy battery thus located l A white cloth target was stretched on l the ground It was a parallelogram | only about 4 by feet and supposed | to represent a field gun.
 Above it now sailed the deadly | Martin bombers, the same skilled | pilots at their steering sticks With smoke bombs they bombarded the mark from altitude ranging from one-half to one and one-half miles | The actual scores registered were not | disclosed, but there was a surprising number of potential hits Observers on the ground informed each pilot of a successful shot by lighting a puff bomb.
 Major Jones later in the afternoon demonstrated in his "shimmying" plane his own method of correcting shell or shrapnel fire by side or for ward or backward dips of his air. craft executed by the aerial observer. 7, This method of signaling is supposed to be useful when radio communica- ton may be rendered difficult or i'm possible through interference or other causes. .-
 At nightfall there was a new and spectacular feature of the war nrob- lem. The three scout planH now were to simulate enemy aircraft seek Ing to approach the metropolis by the sound gateway near Whitestone |c
 Fort Totten with its great battery of searchights, two of which were |e brand new and were tried out on ac- F .ual alrplanes last night for the first lime, was charged with the duty of 'pottlng these night cavalrymen of ( ne sky in time for the anti aircraft l guns Of the fort to put them out of { action or at least drive them back. r
 The men of the Coast Artillery a command were alert to their task g md directly after dark the search f lghts from Totten were thrusting C 1right pencils of light athwart the ky and swinging them from horizon o zenith in search of their prey. a
 According to unofficial reports one S frin rf l., put the other two succeeded in pene- | rating within the prescribed area without being detected. \
 Gen. Patrick on Hand. a
 Major Gen. Mason M. Patrick. com. | handing the army air service, arriv- T d on the field by automobile at II d :. m. and was received with the thir- cen gun salute and the other honors Y ue his rank. He reviewed the com II hand, watched the maneuyers, and at ? 80 p. m started back to Washing s on as passenger in the Curtiss a Heron, pioted by Major Dangue. t'
 Escorting the general in another tf lane was Capt. St, Clair Street, com 1ander of the flight from Mitchell cid to Alaska. He is now attached ! Washington to the airways depart i, 1ent of the service and has done s 1uch to develop the army airway ti Mitchell Field with Day f. on, Ohio, by way of Washington and t loundsville, Va. over which army \ lanes now fly regularly leaving here D very Thursday carrying service mes ages and small equipment parts The ound trip of 6s0 miles is commonly F overed in hours 40 minutes & Another famous hier who arrived N