AIRCRAFT IN WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10685, 4 February 1913, Page 2

AIRCRAFT IN WAR.

PART OF THE EQUIPMENT OF MODERN ARMIES. Students of military aviation have followed with interest the operations of the flying machines in the Balkan war. '' In order that we may not mislead ourselves." says " Flight," "it might be said at once that the war has not afforded much information upon one essential point in connection with the bearing of aircraft in modern warfare. It . has not, >so far as at present known, thrown any light upon what is likely to happen in tlie air when two armies are arrayed against each other, both equally strong in aerial craft. It is a question which is open to a great deal of speculation, and until tire actual shock of war in tho air comes to inform us it must remain a matter for surmise, outside of certain limits. From the soluier-student's point of view it is unfortunate that the Turkish air corps—of the existence of which we were assured before the outbreak of hostilities —has proved as effete and ineffective as the rest of their organisation. "Apart from this one aspect of failure, however, the first real test of the aeroplane in war must lead inevitably to the conclusion that the flying machine has fully justified itself as part of the equipment of the modern army in the field. The reports from the front are fragmentary in the extreme, but piecing them together and, above all, reading between the lines of such information as Ave have available, it is obvious that the Bulgarians at least have made considerable use of their aircraft, and with a great deal of success. BULGARIAN RECONNAISSANCE. "Particularly around Adrianople the Bulgarian airmen appear to have; done excellent work, and we read ot flights oxtending along the whole TnrK). : ;li front, in tho course of which n»;;t valuable information was secured. Hi.'w far the successful issue of the campaign lias been affected by the increased power of reconnaissance conferred on the Bulgarian headquarters staff by the possession of a well-organised air corps, it is impossible to say at present. Jn the light of what we already know, howover, it is not unfair to assume that the aeroplane has fulfilled all that was expected of it.

" A point which is to be noted, though it would be unsafe to assume too much from the issues of so one-sided a. campaign as the one now apparently drawing to its end. is the comparatively small casualty list. Again, too, it must not be lost to sight that there is very little in the way of reliable information to }ro upon, but so far as we know at present the Turks appear to have killed one Bulgarian aviator and captured another. ■

"This, it must be admitted, is a surprisingly low percentage, having regard to the number of flights which we know have been made, and if it represents the whole total makes out the role of the air-scout to be far Jess dangerous than has been supposed. Once more, though, it must be pointed out that all the Bulgarian reconnaissance Work has been carried out against an enemy powerless to deal an aerial counterstroke, which must necessarily make an enormous difference when the casualty returns come to bo reckoned.

" Although, as we have said, the aeroplane may be adjudged to have justified itself as an adjunct of war, even in the light of the relatively small amount of information we have at present, there can bo little doubt that when the history of the Balkan war comes to be written it will lie found that all. our present appreciation of what it has done must fall short by far of what is due on its real accomplishments. '