The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-02-26

IOWeF SlUe and this necessitated extremely low flying to secure hit upon target of even large dimensions and, be- cause of the danger from anti-air- craft guns and the faster enemy pursuit planes at this low altitude raids were almost always made al night. The exception to this wal one short period from May unti September, 1917. when the Germans through temporary air supremacy and the efficiency of their new Gotha bomber were able to bomt London in the daytime. The Allies however, were able to close this gar by the autumn of the year and end this advantage.
 Value of Raids
 Considering this unseasoneo q equipment 1t is well to examine the value of the German raids upon London. The British were obliged to concentrate around the city for defensive purposes nearly 500 air. planes, 30,000 officers and men about 200 anti-aircraft guns, a large number of searchlights, and numerous balloon aprons; and even then their defenses were unable to prevent mere handful of German machines from infiicting a propor- tionately large amount of damage Reports show that London was at- tackled during the war by approx imately 13 zeppelins and 128 air. planes. About 900 bombs were dropped, which besides killing and wounding over 1000 people, destroyed 174 buildings, seriously damaged 61s more, and caused 8 monetary loss o1 some 10 million dollars. The aver age weight of bombs dropped with a few larger exceptions, was from 100 to 120 pounds, containing less than 20 percent TINT. The total weight of all bombs dropped then in nearly four years of attack was about 100000 pounds, or what fifty modern bombardhent planes could drop on one mission, and the mod- ern bombs would contain as high as 50 percent TINT. with consequent ly far higher destructive results; and they could be placed with far greater accuracy from heights prac- tically above the danger-point from anti-aircraft fire or defensive planes.
 Consider the modern bombing plane, and consider it well! For req sons of conservatism all the follow ing facts and figures arc taken from planes which are in actual service in the United States army at the present day and which for practical purposes are already vir- tually obsolete. None of these sta- tistics apply to planes under con- or undergoing tests, which are of greatly improved design and Also there is good reason to believe that various for eign powers have bombing planes in operation which make the exam pies taken look like ten year old automobile at the latest auto show.
 Modern Type Bombers
 The modern bomber, powered with two $50 horsepower motors, has a cruising speed of 200 miles per hour and radius of action of about i 900 miles, by which is meant that it carries enough fuel to attack a target 1000 miles from It's base. and then return. Contrast this with the ITS mile radius of the wartime bombardment plane whose cruising speed was about 75 miles per hour 1! It carries crew of five men con- sisting of pilot and bomber who sit in the nose of the fusilage with an unobstructed vision ahead, above, and below; 8 radio operator with a two-way radio set; and two machine gunners, one behind and above the operating crew, shooting forward and up, and another towards the tail of the fusilage shooting down and backwards. These latter two operate either 80 or 50 calibre ma chine guns mounted in tandem which fire respectively at the rate of 1900 and 400 rounds per min- ute. The ships are also equipped with 8 photographic apparatus to take pictures of damages inflicted or for general information purposes and have carrying capacity of one 2000 pound bomb. two HOO pound bombs, four 600 pound bombs, or six 300 pound bombs.
 The accuracy of an actual bom- however, naturally de- bends upon the training and ex- perience of the pilot and bomber. The modern bombing sights are about six times as accurate as those developed during the war and the 'ollowing results can reasonably be expected from a well-trained crew. Let us suppose that a bombardment squadron of nine planes, each car- wing 6 load of six 300 pound de- nolition bombs, were directed to at- ack target 900 by 325 feet from n altitude of 12,000 feet or oyer wo miles up. Of the 54 bombs dropped. about one-half would make lirect hits within the area men, toned above, and the others should III strike within thousand feet of he target. Each of the 300 pound ,ofnbs upon exploding should have he force to displace approximately 80 cubic yards of earth and make } hole about 30 feet in diameter at aaeNNnA .s4A A.n .s....s< ts~fs.A.e. ss,&kt@