Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-11-11

distance bomb raids had been carried
out by the English and French. To-
ward the end of 1916 and in 1917 Ger
man airplanes raided London in day.
light. The French Air Service and
British Royal Air Force gradually in
augurated special training for long
distance bombardment for both pilots
and observers, with the result that in
the Spring and Summer of 1918 it was
! an every day event to bomb the towns,
| factories and lines of communication
of the Rhine Valley. as we'll as the
/ other important military detectives out
OF gun range.
To better carry on this work the
British government instituted the indie
| pendent force of the royal air force
for reprisal work, destruction of mate
riel and morale, which operated indie
pendently of any army front and con-
sisted OF both day and night units. I'm
portant raids performed by day and
night Squadrons or groups (French,
British, Italian and American) were
Carlaruhr- Mainz, Mannheim Ludwigs-
hoveu, Verndorf- Sarrebruek, Treves,
Briey-Longwy, Metz hienville, Cologne
and Coblentz. AS an obstacle to eco
nomic life, the almost continuous bonn
bardment of the mine districts of the
Saar Valley, the iron districts of Con-
fans, Briey-Longwy and the Rhine VAL
ley, admittedly greatly weakened the
German power Of resistance.
Try Night Flying.
1t was not until the middle of 1916
that the German aviators attempted
night hy1ng to any extent and realized
the Importance of air raids on a larger
scale against military establishments
instead Of upon open towns. During
the first months of the war the Teuton
aviation was inferior to that of the
allies, but later it was put on more
equal terms, due to its efficient organ
ization, discipline and methods used by
aircraft manufacturers Day lombard
ments by the Germans were not so fire.
quent, although they were quite numer-
GUS preceding and during the big Of
fenSive Of March, 1918. The German
monoplanes generally few in groups of
five machines, especially when they
crossed the lines; when an allied ma
chine was encountered the group
unanswered for position, then each
machine attacked in turn. Only ace
aviators were permitted to operate in
dividually. The Germans had excel
lent biplane pursuit planes. All the
biplanes and triplanes were we'll armed
and carried two or more machine guns.
On the Western front, night bonn
bardments were the rule; the objective
being looked over during the day and
the route fixed in advance. The raid
route was sometimes fixed by red lights
that could be seen and recognized from
some distance. Before landing, the air.
planes disclosed their identity by drop
ping signal of known color, which
signal was answered from the ground
The night bombarding machines did
not need excessive speed nor the climb
ing ability or maneuvering ability of
the fighting machines. Since all en-
cheering Is a compromise, by sacri-
ficing to the engineer those qualities as
essential to the day bombers, we be-
came able to carry a heavy load OF
bombs and to obtain a great radius OF
action.
The day bomber must face attack by
enemy aerial defense to which natural
conditions lend aid, showing prey
which has penetrated far into his lines
4 flying over an object with the inten-
ton OF fulfilling mission, and then
undertaking long flight to regain his
lines. The day bombardment airplane
should therefore possess the principal
qualities of the thoroughly equipped
and competent combatant machine
and have speed that will permit it tc
J escape, with excess horsepower that
will enable it to fly at high altitude
maintaining close compact formation al
these attitudes, and with armament
: sufficiently powerful to permit it to re.
. turn victorious from the fray.
Lieut. Zettel's article will be con-
cluded in this section next Sunday)