AEROPLANES IN WAR

Evening Star, Issue 22805, 13 November 1937, Page 20

AEROPLANES IN WAR

EXPERIENCE IN SPAIN There is a whir faintly heard and you look up to see three black specks in the sky. That is on the Spanish front, where insurgent Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s armies are still trying to take Madrid. Then you hear a yell, “ It’s the American planes,” writes Alex Small in tho ‘ Chicago Tribune.’ They are the most terrifying thing the Spanish war has exhibited. As for their being American—yes, they are, and they are not. It is better first to consider the effect. The French Air Ministry has carefully studied the exploits of these American bombers in Spain, and only now are some substantial facts—all on record in Paris—being revealed. The first, the most important, is their speed. They come and ,go before troops can take cover. That is the terrifying feature. With almost all others, especially tho relatively slow, lumbering, but pretty well armed French Potez-54’s_ being used by the defenders of Madrid, you feel that you stand a chance.' _ You see them coming, and take cover if any cover is available. Certainly any antiaircraft defences can get into action. And you can rely on your own scout planes to drive them off, if not bring them down. _ . . But with the American planes it is different. They come like a flash out of a cloud; they drop their bombs (“lay their eggs” is the common expression used on the Spanish front); then they have turned tail and are gone. German and Italian _ scout planes operating on Franco’s side, do not even get started before the American planes are gone. They can. outrun any scout.plane being used there—and remember that those are bombers, the kind of plane traditionally supposed to be slow if for no other reason than the weight it has to carry. ONE BIG DISADVANTAGE. They do have, however, one big disadvantage for the side using them. And the disadvantage lies in their best quality—their speed. Going as they do, making these lightning-like dashes, they can attain no accuracy. This correspondent saw them obviously trying to hit a munition dump at Ouatro Vientes. The nearest bomb which fell from the American planes was not within.3ooyds of the mark. The rest were nowhere, so far as attaining the objective was concerned. In other words, accuracy or anything like it is impossible at such high speed and under war conditions. What, then, of tho value of such fast bombers? To judge from results on the Madrid front, it is largely a moral value. It is safe to say that these planes arc the only thing which has terrified Franco’s Moors. This possible death which descends on you like a wink is too much for* them. These so7called American planes appear to be Douglas and Boeing types, probably mad© in Russia. Of course, they might have been built in America, shipped to Russia, and then reshipped to Spain, with the name plates changed. More likely, however, an American patent and model were used by the Russians and they built these planes themselves. But for the German, Italian, and other experts with . Franco’s forces these bombers remain “ American,” since they believe that only Americans could build machines attaining such terrific speed. In the testing ground which the. Spanish war has proved to bo (the forecast and miniature of any great war to come, is the common European belief), considerable information about aircraft has been gathered by the French Air Ministry. ' Besides the American fast bombers, the loyalist forces have received from Russia a number of Katiouska threeseater bombers, and some fast singleseaters which Franco’s men have called “ rats ” on account of their curious silhouette. FOUR MACHINE GUNS. The Katiouskas are formidable machines, equipped with the latest American devices. They can attain a speed estimated at 217 miles an hour, and the “ Hs’s ” carry four machine guns lodged in the wings—an arrangement which has proved to be disadvantageous. The “ rats ” are said by French experts to be “ inspired ” by an American Curtiss model; they can make a speed of 248 miles an hour (estimated); and their motors, built on. a Wright patent, are made in Russia. The Katiouskas are bombers capable of carrying a load of 1,320 lb for a trip of 620 miles both ways. Like tho “ American ” Douglas and Boeing types, they rely on their, speed to escape pursuit planes, but if forced to combat they can put up a powerful defence with their fore and aft machine guns. Of French bombing planes the loyalists have had a number of Potez 54’s, beautiful to look at, but of dubious military value. They are too slow for efficiency under modern war conditions. The French Bloch 210’s have given a better account of themselves.

French combat planes have proved of more service to the forces defending Madrid than French bombers. The Dewoitine 371 has given a good account of itself against German and Italian planes. One of the latest model Dewoitines, the 510, was brought down in Franco’s territory. The Germans were so interested in it that they promptly had it dismembered and shipped part by part to Berlin for study by the German Air Ministry. Especially were they interested in the “ air cannon” carried by this plane, the plans for which Air Minister Pierre Cot has been accused of delivering to the Russians,