The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-05-20

every known anti-craft weapon send up magnificent showers of tracer bullets to arc across the sky and. sometimes, hit the radio-con- trolled, miniature plane which is the target. When direct hit is scored and the little yellow winged, red fuselaged pilotless target plane is disabled, parachute is released and the model plane floats gently to earth where its works may be picked up and Salvaged.
 Among the guns in the firing are the .30- and .50- caliber machine guns, 37-mm. and the new 4O-mm. American Bofors anti aircraft guns, and finally the big 9o-mm. anti-air- craft batteries with their compli- cated range finding and fire direc- tion apparatus which will keep a number of guns on the target, firing them automatically and leaving for the gun crews only the work of re- loading.
 CUNNING IN THE DARK
 All this anti-aircraft training is concluded with night firing, in which the crews must perform every operation without the aid of light. So familiar must they be with their guns that they can service the gun in pitch darkness and without the aid of even so occasional flashlight beam, which might give away their positions while putting the guns in readiness for firing
 Where the searchlights go through their drill in picking up night bom- bers, 40 of the big lamps, ranging five feet and more in diameter, throw their beams 10 miles into the night sky. As the lights may be widely spaced over several miles of ground, when this spectacle is viewed form distance, 1t gives the impression Of tremendous Jap anese flag pattern, the rays of light converging in binding glare on the tiny plane caught in the center of this web of light. The beams then extend up and beyond, seem ing to reach half way to the zenith, and filling huge sector of the horizon with light display that moves as the plane moves, rivaling the show of an Aurora Borealis.
 Then, when you face about to watch the anti-aircraft firing, there is an equally spectacular show. Other searchlights have caught the tar gets to be fired on. Now it is luminous sock" lowed across the sky behind plane that is piloted. Next 1t will be one of these model pilotless planes, weighing only l25 pounds and with only 13 foot wing spread, launched from a catapult, powered by miniature gasoline engine, controlled entirely from the ground by radio.
 COMMENCE FIRE"
 It climbs 1000 feet or more, and then, when it has reached a height at which its small dimensions give the proportions of a larger plane at greater altitude, the commence fire" command is given and all hell breaks out as the 100 or more guns open up, the red tracers Streaking up in little balls of fire, explosive shells bursting all around the tar get, the self destroying shells that miss going thousands or yards, miles beyond the target to burn out in futility. A target may be hit in a matter of minutes, or 1t may take half an hour or more to bring 1t down
 All such firing is at slow targets, more or less directly overhead. To simulate the 400-mile -an hour plane streaking across the front, big rock cts are fired from one side and in front of the firing line. A mere white streak across the horizon, like a shooting star, they're gone in less than a minute and of course the gunners never know whether they hit 1t or not. But it's all good prac- tice in this gaudiest of all Roman candle, skyrocket, pinwheel, star shell, fowerpot fireworks pieces ever set off for county, state or worlds fair.
 All the rattlesnakes and coyotes in the area have long since gone away from there.