THE FLYING FLEETS.

NZ Truth, Issue 483, 19 September 1914, Page 3

THE FLYING FLEETS.

War m the Air. Gruesome Anticipations Still Unrealised. Next to the impotency of the two huge fleets of Britain and Germany m the present war, the great surprise m the whole conflagration is the very Jnisigniflcant part that has been played ;by the three fleets of air-machines that have been talked about during recent years. In this direction, Prance was supposed to have a long lead, as her avlaj tors had shown outstanding initiative ! m invention and a bravery m navigat- •: ing through the new medium thatborf dered on the foolhardy. Startling de- - velopments m modern warfare were confidently expected; but, so far, .few have come to hand. Except for an oci.casional scouting flutter or a bomb or two, " DROPPED FROM ON HIGH, on an unoffending town, killing inno- ! cent ; women and children, while enjoying fair nature, m parks and gardens nothing has been heard of this' much - vaunted and much dreaded arm of of-' i fence. - It is interesting to observe how the three big nations, Britain, Germans and France, have pinned their faiths to three "different styles of aero-worl . Germany has gone m for the big.aii • ship, capable of* a speed of forty U fifty miles an hour and haying a radiii;: extending over 1500 miles. She has, probably, by this time, upwards o' thirty of these . vessels, with som =; . twenty-two air-ship depots bristliDg round her' coast. ■'„-. \ There is, no doubt that, given favorable conditions or a position of bein? able to effect a surprise "coup," Germany could swoop down over the North Sea." In fact, some little time ago , . ONE OF THESE FORMIDABLE • ENGINES ' V .. ■•'-,,- --lof destruction actually did so, and what would have happened to Sheerness, by the visit of that notorious : nocturnal visitor, can easily be conjectured. For several decades Europe has existed; as a. group of armed camps. It has a tremendous population closely -, gathered together. It has many points of manufacture and industry where enormous wealth lies unprotected. Its distances are comparatively short. All these conditions are ideal for the successful prosecution of offensive ' aerial warfare. These ships mount guns of great destructive power. A modern

light cannon, of the type with which they are equipped, does as much damage as two whole batteries accomplished m the Franco-German war. Us half-pound shell goes through inchsteel after travelling a tremendous distance. Fired from above, these light guns are as efficient as the heaviest guns firing over the ground. CONCLUSIVE TESTS HAVE BEEN MADE proving the certainty of effective marksmanship, particularly against a target on the ground. France, realising that aerial war will be war m the air, has put tremendous energy into thnt department of her defence and has pinned her faith to the aeroplane. Some thirty-five heavier-than-air machines can be constructed at the cost of one air-ship of the Dreadnought type. Whereas It is a lengthy business to build an air-ship, aeroplanes' can be constructed rapidly — at any, rate m France and Germany — m almost unlimited numbers. Obviously, therefore, one air-ship must either eclual m value thirty-live aeroplanes or must be able to execute Important services of which the latter is Incapable. The dirigiblo can certainly undertake longer voyages than the aeroplane. It ls,^however, more vulnerable, whether on air or on land. It cannot come to earth, like the aeroplane, almost any whore; it I MUST RETURN TO ITS SHED, and a strong force of trained mon is needed u> benh it safely. It can remain m tho <alr longer than the aeroplano, but its rigid, or semi-rigid, frame, presents an excellent target for projectiles, fired from the oarth or dropped from above. The air-ships, to bo out of range of fire from the ground, must fly at a height of from four to six thousand feet— a height which it cannot maintain for any protracted period — whoreus the aeroplane can fly far higher and can ascend and descend > without losing ascensional power, 1 an/1 this is not the case with the airship. Tbo aoroplace, being small and swift, presents a.dlfllcult target. Tho vital parts can bo protected by ar-mor-plating, and tho convos wings can bo riddled with shot without afiectlng the powera of the machine. Tho dirgiblo, onco it is struck by a falling bomb, IS DOOMED TO DESTRUCTION — with all aboard — by fire. The tendency In Britain is to place reliance on neither the one nor .the other of the machines nforo-menilon-cd, but to develop, to the greatest extent, the waterflyer. Progress haa been rapidly made In the making and management of this machine, which' may roughly bo defined as an aeroplane able to start from, and alight on, water. Tho advocates of this form of aerial defence hold that a fleet armed with a number of wator-ilyer scouts could successfully seek out and destroy a. fleet of alr-shlps. It is hold by authorities that tho water-flyer hap a great future before it, and. at tho beginning of this year, Britain- had, >at least, seventy-five craft available,* for servtco In charge of trained pilous.; This little handy apparatufl servos to extend' tho , patrol services of destroyers and submarines on tho coaatTA series, of stations has boon established,- extending from tho Island of. GnUn up the East Coast to tho North. Eventually t>oro will bo a long chain, or these stations on^ what tha Firat;Xx>rd. oi the Admiralty doocribcdiia lprluxla'a now frontier.

This seems to be a powerful factor m enabling the British fleet to effectively bottle up Kaiser Bill's fleet m Kiel Bay. This chain of water -flyer stations extending along, the East Coast was allowed the fleet to extend much further outward from the land and thus enlarge the area over which it can effectually operate. Looking at the North Sea, it is at once seen to bo an impossibility for marauding vessels to get between water-flyers patrolling the coast and the outer ring of the British Fleet blocking the mo.uth of Kiel CanaL Thus British aviators seem to have seized the true value of the aerial arm and to have succeeded where the German -6,nd the Frenchmen have failed, even after a huge expenditure of money and .of lives. . „^..