AIRMAN’S PICTURE.

Grey River Argus, 29 July 1925, Page 8

AIRMAN’S PICTURE.

OF NEXT WAIL (Captain Sidney Potter), In the “New Leader” (New York) Captain Sydney Potter, who served throughout the war in the British army first i.i the infantry and later as a pilot in the Royal Air Force where he had experience in bombing and “nignt flying, writes:—‘‘To write, less than seven years after the war which was to end war, an article on the next - s a cynical commentary on life. Yet war will be averted ’’either by sqptimentdlity closing one’s eyes to its likelihood nor by morbid speculations as to its inevitability. A calm and dispassionate examination of its unpleasant possibilities, however may stir the peoples into an intelligent revolt agaifist the conditions which -n--gender it. ‘‘The aeroplane is the most offensive weapon yet invented,” said the British Air Chief Marshal Trenchard, at Cambridge University, a lew weens ago, ‘‘shockingly bad weapon of defence against aeroplanes, rend it is doubtful if any other defensive weapon will take its place for a hundred years. Indeed, he continued, ingenuously, although it is necessary to have some defence in order to maintain Lie morale of our people, it is far more necessary to lower the morale of the enemy's people for nothing else can end war.’’ Since, therefore, “Boom” (as we in the R.A..F. used to irreverently to call him) has given his blessing to the civilian population it is as well that the civilian population should know what awaits it. “GROUND STRAFING.'” London was never seriously raided during the last war. The loss of life wag small although the morale of large sections of the population was severely shaken. New York never came to know what an air raid was like. But in the Rhineland the Allied raids produced a state of widespread panic, which did much to cause Germany's collapse. The squadrons engaged suffered heavy casualties, but signs were not wanting that the odds were lengthening in favour of the attackers, and to- [ day it may safely be said that the I advantage i s substantially with the raiders. There are many reasons for this. Modern aircraft attain a height and a speed, and have a w eight-carry n’g capacity which a few years back were almost undreamed-of, while greatt impro|vemcnts (have been effected in the silencing of engines. There is, too, a form of attack known as “ground strafing,’’ which has marked potentialities. It consists of attacking ground objectives by machine-gun fire from low-flying machines travelling at high speeds. Progress tn attack has not been accompanied by equal improvements in. the defensive arm. A complex system can be organized comprising searchlights, anti-aircraft batteries*, “aprons’ 1 and fast single-seater “scouts.” “Aprons” are not defences suspended from moored balloons, Put their maximum height i s 7,000 to 8,0001 feet, and attacking machines can pass over them, and once, inside, descend to discharge their cargo turn a lowed altitude, when the whole defensive organization would he IJely to dissolve in confusion.

Ipless therefoi'e, some revolution is effected in defensive preparations ( as by “heat rays”), if will be impossible to ward off any aerial attack which is made on a large scale. FIRE AND POISON.

Now these developments in the aggressive potentialities of the aerialarm would be important by themselves. But the whole situation Las been revolutionized by the really effective harnessing of chemical destructive agencies io the science of Hight. Gases and poisons can be transported in the farm of liquids or solids of small bulk and low weight and we can now drop a greater weight of bombs in one day than was dropped during the whole of the recent war.

Five hundred machines <ould drop more than three thousand tons of dichlorethyl sulphide on New York in a week, one drop of which will disable and a few drops of which will burn to death. This substance is a liquid, which not only burns, but evaporates slowly, giving of! a gas which is poisonous when breathed. Ah area contaminated by it n . y remain untenable for weeks. It is thus difficult to use in ordinary military operations when your cl ject is to dispossess your enemy < f a certain portion of territory and occupy it yourself (unless your troops are largely impervious, e.g. Negroes), bv.E it is ideal for dropping on an tn a which you wish to harm but ’not to occupy There are other agencies avtiilarie. such ag arsenic compounds (l.ev.isite), a solid which becomes a smoke, [inetrating most respirators, tnus’iig excruiciating pain, mental distress, mad ness and attempts at suicide. It was thought that these interesting possibilities might largely he averted by training the entire population in the use of gas masks. But a mask is a very unpleasant thing to wear (1 have had men v riit inside them, and many persons, women and old people particular! v, would find themselves phv,s.cully unable to use them, while the chiLculties where young children me concerned are obyioiis. In any c;i e, as mustard gai s burns as well as liu-kes, the only safeguard lies in completely insulating the body' by airtight overall, gloves and a helmet which is impracticable on a large scale. THE FLIGHT FROM THE CITY. But if modern developments have given the advantage substantially to Um attackers, I lu re is yet another development which seems to epnch

the matter. The casualties Buffered by the raiders will be high (so per cent per month, probably), and although these might be made good l v standardization and mass produetion of machines and engines, pilots are less readily manufactured, and it would be difficult on this account to maintain an intensive aerial attack for more than a few months (although it is doubtful whether that would be necessary). But now machines can be sent ever pilotless, guided by wireless. And the machines sent over might not he aeroplanes carrying a ton of bombs, but airships carrying twenty tons or more. True, airships are very vnrnerablo to attack by aeroplanes, but the wireless controlled fleet could lie escorted by scores, perhaps hundreds, of fast, heavily armed defence machines which would fight off/attackers en route. Then, all defensive armaments would be worst than useless, for the destruction of the raiders would bring little satisfaction to those on whom the cargo fell. YVe can, therefore, without difficulty visualize the nature of the aerial bombardment to which a big city will be subjected during the next war. If an ultimatum is due to expire at midnight, large masses of the population will be preparing to evacuate the city. Thousands of others will be pouring in to take shelter in subways and (underground refuges. Within a few hours of the dec] iration of war (presuming this formality is adhered to) the noise of apprcricbing enemy aircraft/will be heard or pro bably the first intimation will be the ( a 3 h of an exploding bomb. The sky will at once become a great forest of searchlight groping across the heavens for the, attacking fleet. Phosphorus and other incendiary bombs, unquenchable by water, will,begin to fall, while the artillery and defence machines are engaged in these ,other squadrons will arrive from different directions, pass over the “apron,” descent! to a lower altitude and aided by the conflagrations, proceed to drop high explosive bombs on the railway terminal, electrical power stations, and gasometers. By this time the whole scheme '< f co-ordinated effort between searchlights and dedefence machines w ill Lave broken up into confusion, THE HORROR BY NIGHT. Meanwhile the third wave will have begun to arrive, and a- ruin of gas and poison bombs will descend upon the tormented city. Ever growing clouds of vapour will drift into batter ed houses and buildings, and roil down into basements and tubes, burning, choking and destroying wherever it goes. Thousands <f frenzied peap.le will rush out of underground refuges that have become burning and poisonous death-traps' in a vain Lope of escape. Only those who have seen a panicstricken civil population in flight can imagine the scenes that will ensue Men, women and children alike will trample one another underfoot Ike wild beasts, and horror will be tmed en horror when the fourth waive arrives, and scores of scout machines scream down the streets a few hundred feet from the ground, spraying death in the form of explosive bullets from machine guns. Anti-aircraft gunners, searchlight crews and ground machine-gun tors be enveloped in clouds of smoke wi'ich will make retaliation impossible, mobile batteries and fire r.iigades will be unable to move do vn the streets, and all the while the tain of death will continue, as fresh squadrons of enemy aircraft arrive from different directions, and the de-fence-machines, deprived of the aid of searchlights, unable to distinguish friend from foe, will move helplesily across tire sky above the doomed etfv. Throughout the night the long orgy of horror will continue until the first faint streaks of dawn break upon the city, great tracts of which will be smouldering, poisoned ruins, while the streets are clicked with the dying and the dead.