The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-04-15
SPANISH WAR IS. EUROPE'S TUTOR
Change of Views on Some of Latest Implements
 Used in Struggle
BY RALPH HEINzEN

United Press Staff Correspondent
 Paris, April 15-(UP)-Nearly 21 months of war in Spain, which foreign nations made proving ground for the latest implements of warfare, have changed some of the views held by the general staffs of European armies and caused them to revise their plans for the next war"
 The most vital lessons are:
 l. Anti-aircraft defense has pro- gressed as rapidly, if not faster, than the airplane, which can be fought effectively in raids on cities or infantry lines. The belief that no European capital is safe from dan- ger of destruction in war is no longer held.
 2. Modern tanks are not invul- nerable weapons. Defense armament here again kept pace with offen- sive implements. Tanks are an easy target of the latest type of anti tank guns. Tanks are of importance in advancing only through open, unfortified country, it is agreed.
 Bombing Planes
 The one outstanding revolution ary development has been the use of bombing planes in large scale of- fensive tactics, to supplement or even supplant the old artillery bar rage.
 The picture of European capi- tai leveled to the ground by an air assault in the next war has not been supported by the 19-month siege of Madrid. The best aircraft the Nationalists had was directed against Madrid.
 But the former Spanish capital developed its anti-aircraft defenses so that Nationalist planes were un- able to fly low enough to bomb the city with any degree of accuracy.
 What success the nationalistS have had in bombing Barcelona was due to the surprise element, mili- tary observers assert. The planes came suddenly in from the sea from the islands of Majorca. Neil ther airplane ground crews nor an- ti-aircraft gunners were prepared for them.
 New Style of Planes
 The recent peace which Barce- Iona has experienced from air at tacks coincided almost exactly with the arrival in Barcelona of two new types of Swiss anti-aircraft gun.
 One is 8 20-millimetre (.79 inch) gun something like machine gun. One shell in each 10 is luminous and 30 to 40 of these shells in the alr at one time give sufficient light for gunners to sight accurately at airplanes at night.
 The other shoots 105-millimetre (4.1 inch) shell. It is electrically operated, automatically fed. It shoots with astonishing rapidity to an altitude of 26,000 feet-nearly 5 miles straight up. So fast do the guns fire, in coordinated batteries of four, that gunners can keep up with fast planes at high attitudes.
 Quantities of these guns reached Barcelona a few weeks ago and, &C., cording to French reports, they were such a success that the Ma tionalists were glad to meet British and French protests" against the bombing of Barcelona.
 Anti Aircraft DefenseS
 There are also good anti-aircraft Gefenses at the French frontier along the railroad which takes sup plies into Spain. The border rail- road station has been bombed at least 40 times in recent months. The station has been hit several times, and wrecked. Tracks have been torn up-to be "eplaced in few hours. Not once has the actual target, the tunnel that starts there, been struck. A big gun could hit it the third try.
 General staffs have decided also that ground defense is the weapon against airplanes. It takes five nin- utes to warm up a plane and live minutes more to get it up to 10000 feet. In those 10 minutes bombing plane can get 30 to 40 miles away.
 The German airplanes in recent months have used new airplane bomb which general staffs respect. It is an explosive bomb of much greater destructive power than any known. The bombs are penetrative. Used against Barcelona, they would go down through an old building and explode deep inside 1t so ter rifically that the building was lifted off it's foundations and dumped in ruins.