Evening star., 1938-10-02
CIVILIANS TO AID
|NA|R: RAID TESTS
More Than 100 Volunteers
to Report Positions of
Enemy Planes.
Hy the Associated Press.

9y the Associated Press.
More than 1900 civilian volunteers
In Eastern North Carolina will aid the
Army during the next two weeks IN
Americas first spectacular test OF an
elaborate air raid warning network.
On their speed and accuracy in iden-
ifying and reporting hostile" planes
depend War Department plans for the
defense Of New York and other coastal
cities.
London, Paris, Berlin and other Eu-
ropean cities already have set up warn
ing systems to detect surprise attacks
by bombers Belief that the increas-
ing range of warplanes involves fu-
ture peril to the United States brought
orders for "the largest and most i'm
portant air defense exercises yet de-
vised by the Army"
The plan of the war games, which
begin today, is basically simple. About
70 bombardment and attack planes Will
start from Langley Field, Va, on mock
day and night raids of Fort Bragg,
N. c., Just as in an actual war an
enemy air fleet might attack an Amer
lean city or munitions plant from a
carrier at sea.
800 Warning Stations.
Encircling Fort Bragg will be 300
or more warning stations, manned by
volunteers. When the planes are
sighted reports on their identity, type,
altitude and direction will be- tele-
phoned quickly to headquarters at
Fort Bragg
Waiting there will be nearly three
score defending pursuit planes and
large proportion of the Army's most
modern anti-aircraft guns, reinforced
by searchlights and mechanical spot
ting and aiming apparatus, and
manned by some $500 ground troops.
With sufficient warning, plane pilots
and gun crews are confident they could
beat off such raid in wartime. The
exercises will determine what may be
expected from the warning system.
Speed is the vital factor involved.
Modern bombers fly up to $50 miles an
hour with heavy loads of bombs. A
warning phoned while they were still
$50 miles from their objectives would
allow but 35 minutes for defense
attitudes
Four Civilians to Station.
For the two-week tests, warning
stations equipped with telephones have
been set up on a grid system all over
Eastern North Carolina, one to every
eight square miles. -Four civilians man
each.
At Fort Bragg the course Of the at
tackers may be plotted on huge maps
studded with an electric light for
each station. These lights. will flash
as hostile planes are reported.
Not since the World War, officials
said, has the Army enlisted so many
civilian volunteers for military pur-
pose. In limited fashion. the Air
Corps employed warning net, last
year in exercises at Muroc Dry Lake,
Calf. but observation posts were
manned by employees of a single large
utilities company.
In May in the Air Corps maneuvers
near New York City there was simu-
lated warning net, but the attackers
merely reported their own positions
BY radio.
II Net Over Entire Coast.
In future war Air Corps officers
envisaged warning net extending all
along the Atlantic Coast, from Boston
past Washington, and far inland. On
the Pacific Coast there would be sys-
TENS Of observation posts around the
principal coastal cities.
The test Of the civilian warning net
Is the most spectacular feature Of
comprehensive trial of the Arnys en-
tire scheme Of air defense.
Since September IA members Of
three anti-aircraft regiments have
been blasting away. for days and
nights at a time, at targets towed
by planes, using batteries of the most
modern 3-inch anti-aircraft guns the
Army possesses, and .50-caliber ma
chine guns. After the warning net
test, there will be another period of
firing October 1922.
One regiment, the 61st Coast Artil-
iery. proceeded to Fort Bragg from
Fort Sheridan. H., covering the 1900
miles in eight days. In actual war,
officials say the 400 or so anti-aircraft
guns the Army expects to have year
hence could be sped much more quick
ly to the defense of any threatened
city.
This week is to be devoted largely
TO preliminaries of the warning net
test. Next week will come the real
trial.