TORPEDO IN THE AIR.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 218, 14 September 1908, Page 3

TORPEDO IN THE AIR.

A FORMIDABLE WEAPON

Messrs Krupp, of Essen, have acquired the patent rights of the. new air torpedo invented by the Swedish j Colonel Unge, subject'to the one reservation that the Swedish Government shall have the right to make hill use of this latest weapon in every form. ■..'.., ' i . Colonel Unge, whilst satisfying his patriotic scruples, has clone an excellent stroke of business. Messrs Krupp have paid a large sum for the patents of this air torpedo, which, is the most terrible instrument of destruction yet invented. \ • . . It will shortly be introduced into the German army and naVy, which will theroby possess a more effective equipmenb than any other army or navy in the world, with the single exception of Sweden. ■ Colonel Unge's torpedo can be fired without producing any recoil, hence the torpedo tube is light and easy lo move quickly from place to place. The air torpedo tube is conveyed on a' motor-car, which can be speedily unmounted and fixed without any elaborate preparations and much more rkpidly than field artillery can be brought into position for firing. The weapon can be used in every kind of warfare. In bombarding forttress it will exercise, a destructive effect on the most formidable defence works. In field operations the torpedo can bo hurled against bodies of troops as well as against troops in covered positions. The fact that" the torpedo can be fired without tho least noise will make it difficult for the enemy to locate the position of a torpedo battery by which it is being attacked. _ < Tn coast defence an air. torpedo could be fired in such a way as to drop on the decks of hostile battleships.

Colonel Ungo has invented an air torpedo of greater calibre for use in naval warfare, so. that henceforth warships will be liable to be torpedoed from above as well as beneath the waterline. A smaller type of torpedo is constructed for use in mountain warfare, "where it can-be employed in terrains quite inaccessible to mountain artillery of the present type. Military experts declare that the air torpedo is a truly epoch-making invention which adds one more horror to modern warafre.