The Strafford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY DECEMBER 22, 1917. IN THE AIR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 26, 22 December 1917, Page 4

The Strafford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY DECEMBER 22, 1917. IN THE AIR.

The further attempt to raid London by airships in great force is evidence that Germany still believes that Britain will not retaliate in like manner, but the authoritative assurances recently given make it reasonably certain that we shall effect full reprisals. The spirit of the nation demands this and it is only by sheer punishment that the brutality of the Huns may now be stayed." ft is certainly a relief to learn that England's aerial defence was good enough to practically frustrate the German effort and is indication that the air service at Home is growing stronger and better equipped. The daily reports from the Allied fronts shows clearly that the Allies have an ascendency in this important side of the warfare, when it is looked at from the purely military standpoint. In the Naval Air Service also daily reports of the suscessful operations of the naval machines in bombing enemy stations, and though encounters do occasionally occur in which our intrepid airmen suffer casualties in the great majority of cases the reports are able to state that all our machines returned safely. Along the great battlefront extending from the sea to the Vosges aerial operations on

an ever-increasing scale are almost continuous. Mr W. L. Wade, a wellknown' British aeronautical expert,! states that Britain, France and Italy possess aeroplanes of larger size and greater horsepower than the Gothas which recently visited England. It must he more than a year ago, he reminds us, that it was announced that a giant British aeroplane had flown to a height of more than 7000 feet," carrying twenty passengers in addition to the pilot—a living load of well over a ton. This machine had two engines of 250-h.p. each, and its speed was high.' It is not possible to say anything of the subsequent develop- ( inent of these machines, except that during the past twelve months every, improvement which pratical experience has suggested has been carried out. The point which matters is that we have a bombing aeroplane which is as good if not better than the Gotha, and, with concentrated production, it should be possible to drop ten bombs on German territory for every bomb planted by the Huns. Tt is in this work of aerial offensive" that America promises to give the Allies tremendous help with the 4 20,000 machines they have under construction and the aviators, five times that manlier, now in training. She has the labor, the material, and the shops. She has tens of thousands of skilled mechanics to form the personnel of almost infinite numbers of smiadrons of bombing machines: she has thousands of adventurous young men who could be trained in 'six weeks to handle their machines. "Imagine," says Mr Wade, "the effect of the arrival of, say, 3000

bomb-dropping areoplanes on the Western front, each capable of carry- ; injv a Um of bombs IW milt's inland, ! if need be, at 100 miles an I'iour, with a proportionately creator bomb load j for shorter distances- Tf each pilot and each machine were used but once in three nights, it vrnnld be possible

to hurl more than 1000 ton:; of bombs in German territory—say, K),00() 06pound bombs—every night. Each pilot would have seventy hours' rest between each raid, and that period of time would be available for the overhaul of the machines. If such an output is possihle, it is equally possible to replace the wastage in machines and men, and if the nightly rain of 40,000 bombs involved 20,000 missiles, think of the damage which would bo done by the remaining 20,000 missiles!" There is good reason to believe, that the British airmen are now in a position to operate on a large scale against vulnerable spots on enemy soil and we may reasonably look for some effective work by them.