Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-12
Uncle Sam Gives Public Sam
pie of Welcome That Awaits
Winged Invaders.
ANNUAL DEMONSTRATION
PRESENTED AT ABERDEEN
Heavy-Caliber Machine Guns, g.
Inch Guns and 105-MM. Guns
Fired at Targets.

winged would-be invader of the United
States at the Aberdeen, Md, proving
grounds yesterday.
Their muzzles pointed high in the air,
the best guns that have been developed
for repelling the air invader sent fusil-
lade after fusillade of solid and ex-
plosive shells into the sky at little saus-
sage-like targets towed as high as four
miles in the heavens, and when the tar
gets came down they presented a sad
picture OF what an air-invader would
resemble had he been so braSh as to
fool with the anti-aircraft defenses of
the United States.
It was all in play yesterday-that's
why the biggest guns of the Army were
Sllenced for about an hour while obServ-
ers along Chesapeake Bay shooed out
OF range harmless party of fishermen
who had selected a spot for their sport
just below where the Army gunner
were planning to explode several hun
ored pounds of explosive shells.
Target Shooting in Earnest.
But the play was in deadly earnest so
far as the sleeve" targets, lowed by
airplaneS were concerned; as the tat
terso remnants OF those targets, floating
down, fully atteSted.
The shooting yesterday, for public
edif1cation, eliminated nearly a month
OF secret testing of various forms of
antl-arcraft weapons, and opens the
way Tor more tests that are to continue
IN secret, until November is.
thorough exhibitions of the manner
IN which an air invader would be dealt
with by the coast defenses in time of
war both in day and night warfare
We're given by the forces of the Coast
ArtlIlery, the Ordnance Department, the
corps OF Engineers and the Air Corps.
Yesterday morning the 30-foot red
sleeve" targets, barely visible to the
naked eye thousands of feet in the air.
were the objects of attack by guns rang
ing from the new big machine guns
shooting half-inch slugs of copper and
steel and requiring only one man to
operate them to the big 105-millimeter
guns with gun crews of nearly dozen
men.
Searchlights Used at Night.
Last night it was at white sleeves"
the Army shot at, brought into the
range of the naked eye easily by
SOC, 000,000 candlepower searchlights
which cut ribbons of daylight high into
the velvety-black sky.
AAlC SdIIlc HHOSIhIn Oh IlflnR was uSeQ
in both the day and night tests.
The first guns shot we're two Social
Der machine guns capable of firing 500
siugs minute apiece, mounted together
and operated by one gunner in a tur-
ret mounted on fast truck. This
weapon is one of the most mobile units
OF the anti-aircraft development and
can pour a veritable hail of metal into
the path of a fighting or bombing plane
The gunner fires with the aid of a
stereoscopic sight, developed from the
was part of the paraphernalia of every
parlor, used to give depth to the pic
lures depicted on post cards,
These StereoScopic sights are among
the newest developments of anti-air-
craft warfare. The human vision. eX-
pertS explain, is not capable of retain
ing the all-important depth in sight for
the distances required to fire the big
machine guns, so the stereoscopic sight
is supplied to round out the picture Of
the target for the gunner.
Tracers Reveal Workmanship.
Tracer bullets every fifth shot in the
ammunition belt provided spectators
yesterday with means of telling just
how we'll the gunner was faring with
his target. The gunner, in his small
turret, operated the firing mechanism
of his two guns with his feet, turning
for direction with one hand and rails
ing or depressing the gun muzzle with
the other.
The next demonstration was with
four-gun battery of these .50-caliber
machine guns, which, operated sepa-
rately poured 1000 slugs a minute at
the fluttering target.
Then the big guns were put in action,
a four-gun battery of mobile 3-inch
anti-aircraft guns capable of firing rs
shells apiece every minute.
Their muzzles pointed high in the
air at the nearly invisible target at
the end of a 2,000-foot towline behind
an airplane, they sent explosive shells
screaming high into the sky, the bursts
of the shells leaving little white patches
of smoke silhouetted against the dark
target to show when the shells hit.
The 3-inch gun battery in action sets
up a continual and almost deafening
roar as it fills the sky with rapid
bursting shrapnel and high-exploslYe
shells.
Big Guns in Action.
The final show was given with the
big l05-millimeter guns, set in perma-
nent mounts and capable of propelling
shells as high as 10000 feet into the
air, at the rate of about Is shells
a minute per gun. A tWo-gun battery
was trained on the target and the
biggest anti-aircraft shells now in use
were sent whining away into the sky at
the target Bursts OF these shells
showed. to the visitors at the proving
grounds yesterday and last night, some
fine craftsmanship on the part of the
gun crews handling the big guns.
on exhibition, but not fired in yester-
DAVIS exhibition. is the newest gun re-
ceiyed at Aberdeen, 37-millimeter ma
chine gun, which is capable of firing 100
explosive shells, weighing about pound
and a quarter, every minute, with a
range of better than four miles. The
shells for this gun are equipped with
a highly sensitive explosive cap, de-
signed to explode the projectile on i'm
pact with any part of plane.
On exhibition also was varied array
of devices used in spotting the target
and directing the fire of the big guns
There were cinematic spotting inStru-
ments, which, for purposes of research
give experimenters with the big guns
accurate and detailed records of each
shell fired on a motion picture film
The brains" of the 3-inch gun bat
terry is the fire director, a small box,
mounted on truck, which is able to
move with the guns and which per-