AIR WAR PRACTICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 84, 9 April 1925, Page 5

AIR WAR PRACTICE.

800 SHOTS FROM SHIPS AND NO HIT. LOS ANGELES, March 20. The United States fleet, cruising 70 miles off the Californian coast, turned loose the full force of its anti-aircraft puns at targets towed by planes, at an altitude of 0000 ft. Forty-four guns, aboard 11 battleships, fired a total of 800 shots without scoring a hit. The trial occupied six minutes. Admiral Coontz, the Commanrler-in-Chief, watched the proceedings aboard the California. Later the big guns fired at targets 10 miles away on the sea. The results were not revealed. Xeavly CO -warships took part. As a result of the failure of the antiaircraft test firing by the United States fleet off the Californian coast, the commanders will recommend that all destroyers should be supplied with small single-seated fighting seaplanes.

Experts now say the failure to hit any of the moving targets shows that defending aeroplanes are the only means of successfully combating enemy aircraft. During the tests the aircraft "bombed" the battleships with impunity.