Evening star., 1938-10-10
ManeuVers
Continued From First Page.)

Coast Guard station at Minnesott
Beach reported plane passing over
head in the darkness, and a. moment
later, at CrOatan, Tom Haywood. civil
liam observer, checked the coming as
sault.
Mr.. Haywood is famed as the in
ventor of the self kicker" device
which enables man to administer
unto himself a swift kick in the pants
as self-retaliation Mr.. Haywood, who
had publicly announced he would deal
himself good kicking If he missed
spotting an enemy flight, made good
very early and saved himself an ordeal
Light After Light Goes On.
Swiftly light after light went on as
one observer after another heard the
propellers of first the single recon-
Nuisance planes and later the flights
of attack and bombardment ships.
The second attack flights reached the
coast at 4:38 am. at Rocky Point and
we're picked up as promptly as the
first. Two lines of lights were wink
ing their way across the map, con-
verging toward Fort Bragg. Flight 3
crossed above the outer beach Just
at the Virginia line at 4:43 and was
promptly spotted by an observer at
Currituck and as promptly confirmed
by three more observers between there
and Elizabeth City. Flight 4 had no
more luck than its predecessors; it
was picked up at o'clock at Leech-
vile and Bellhaven almost simul-
taneously and there was no further
surprise as to its direction or speed.
BY $40 the first attacking airplane.
apparently reconnaissance, was within
20 miles Of Fort Bragg, just outside
the defensive circle of trained Army
observers and searchlights. Minutes
passed while observers all around Fort
Bragg, on an arc of roughly about 20
miles, telephoned minute -by-minute
reports as the attackers circled and
the storm grew.
Attack at Daybreak.
The first faint traces Of dawn by
now were visible and the three squad
rons Of defending pursuiters, held until
daybreak to avoid danger OF collision
with the invaders-After all, these are
peace times-began to take of by
flights.
BY this time second lighted board
at headquarters, covering the active
defense area and showing by lights
every observer, searchlight, battery and
machine gun nest, had begun to 20
into action. first with false alarms as
defending pursuiters bombed into the
defensive area and could not be i'm
mediately identified The pursuiters,
however, quickly tangled with the in
vaders, and radios reported intercept
ton first Of lone flying fortress and
then flight of six Douglas bombers
by the aerial wasps Of the defense.
Just at daybreak the storm broke,
as the first assault wave of lombard
ment, seeing that favorable moment
when there was too much dawn for
the searchlight but not enough light
Tor accurate observation and fire.
swept in on the defended area of
Fort Bragg. 1t was by now no surprise
to any one in the tensely waiting
defenses. the outer observers promptly
reported the breaking attack, coming
from the east into defense sector 2
100 Shells = Minute.
Manned by the seth Coast Artillery.
anti-aircraft, the four 3-inch guns of
the battery began pumping out 100
shells a minute at $50 am. into
bombers in echelons Of eights at the
easy range of 5000 feet altitude. Bat
teries and 2. two miles to either
side. quickly joined in. The bombers
passed over the target and came under
fire of battery to the west. Bv
6:03 the attack had passed over out
Of range and the batteries ceased
firing. having delivered themselves of
nearly 1000 rounds at the fleetine
targets. Under the ordinary rules
OF "umpiring" such events, based upon
actual experience in the World War.
Spain and China, = majority of the
bombers would have been ruled out
as casualties.
rive more assaults were delivered by
the attackers from all points of the
compass during the next half hour and
all were quickly picked up by the OBJ
servers and then by the guns. No
attack came under the fires of less than
four batteries of four guns each, one
was mauled by five batteries and one
by all six.
The Net = Success.
There was no score" kept on po-
tential casualties on either side, since
the purpose Of the maneuvers Is pri-