PREPARING HORRORS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 3 May 1927, Page 5

PREPARING HORRORS.

FOR THE NEXT WAR. UR BOMBS TO WIPE OUT A TOWN. Is tlie world heading last for Armageddon; will the near Uiture bring us to the brink of a conflict the magnitude of which will make the great struggle ol tyU-18 seem almost trivial? . These are questions which a great many men ot wisdom are asking themselves. They are questions prompted by the enormous and, to some extent;, secret preparations that are being made by all flu: Great Powers today, some details ol which the “Sunday Chronicle” is able to reveal below.

Almost on the eve of a disarmament conference a great aviation show has just been held at Paris, most of the exhibits at which were irankly military or naval models —-heavy battle and bombing machines, huge naval hydroplanes, dull grey, like Hying battleships, with monstrous torpedoes hanging under the body, and machines positively bristling with quick-firing guns. Franco is prepared to call up without diiheulty more than oIKJO v‘ar machines, apart from her reserves m civil aircralt and the potential weapon of her great manufacturing centres. Germany has leaped to tno torefront in the sciehtilic deve'opment of aerial resources, and America is particularly active in evolving giant air u capons of destruction. Some months ago there were secret trials in the United States of a great isrght bombing aeroplane capable ot ■carrying three men and four 10001 b. bombs. Fully loaded, this monster weighs 10,000 b. it is constructed throughout of welded steel and duralumin, and driven by one Packard motor of 825 liorse-power. A distinguishing leaturo is a disappearing turret, which dro]i3 the machine-gunner and his platform 211. beneath the floor of the fuselage between the wings and the tail, permitting him to cover the ship’s rear completely. When unused, tnc platiorm automatically lifts itself flush with the fioor of the ’plane. There is another gun turret on top of the body of the ’plane further aft, and a machine gun on the tip top of each lower wing firing straight ahead and controlled in the pilot’s cockpit. The new fighter stands 20 feet high with a wing spread of 85 feet, and lias a speed of 1.10 miles per hour, and a cruising range of 500 miles.

One gas bomb of the type possessed by a certain Power would, if droplied in Trafalgar Square, put out of action nearly every inhabitant in the heart of London. Dropped in Leicester, Portsmouth, Oldham or Norwich, it would kill or incapacitate practically every man, woman and child. Revelations of how Britain is preparing to fight,an air invader were recently-made by Major-General Ashmore.

NAVAL RACE. Tills country, lie said, is working on a p’an combining counter-bombing and ground defence. An observationpost system is already in operation, and Air Defence Brigade gunner;; are becoming increasingly efficient. Three years ago, three per cent, of their .shells hit the target. The percentage is now over eleven. A high-speed 1 race for naval supremacy is going on between the nations, ami the United States especially ’is actively building. Now types of warships vastly different from and more formidable than the old, are on the stocks. A strange new ship is t l -> British battle ship Nelson, which has the

largest forecastle in the world —410 ft j long from stem to bridge. The total I length of the ship is 702 ft, so that j the fore part is more than half the ) length. j The bridge is totally unlike any- j thing hitherto called a bridge. It is I 'really an armoured tower of many j stories and great spaciousness, and is ! a regular Bluebeard's tower of secrets. The next war will undoubtedly see ; the introduction of poison gas which ; lias the persistency of mustard gas and j the toxicit of phosgene. . An American inventor lias succeed- j ed in trapping deadly vapours m a canister so small that every soldier can carry one without adding more than a | pound or two to his equipment. | THE TELEVISOR. ! By the exploitation of the gases developed since the last war it will be possible to render a whole army helpless for many hours —long enough to round it up. The next war may see the employment of the to'evisor, which will make it possible to follow an enemy’s movements when he believes himself to be in darkness. For the invisible ray of the televisor gives the power to see in total darkness. Attacking; aeroplanes approaching under cover of night will be disc'osed to the defending headquarters by the electric eye of the televisor. They will be followed by searchlights emitting invisible rays, and as these rays will be unseen by them they will continue to approach until, without warning, they are brought down.