LONG-DISTANCE AIR RAIDS.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13269, 26 August 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

LONG-DISTANCE AIR RAIDS.

i GROWING EFFICENCY OF THE i BRITISH AEROPLANES. ) GERMANS' NEXT MOVE. t 1 (By C. G. Grey, editor of the "Aeroplane.") Those who do not yet realise the | future power of aeroplanes as weapons of war will do well to make a mental I note of the .steadily increasing radius I of action of bomb-dropping aeroplanes. Ever sinee the war began the distance covered in individual raids has been steadily increasing, thanks to the increased efficiency of aeroplanes and their engines. The first important raid of the war was that on the Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen from Belfort, and the distance covered in this case was 250 miles. The next long raid after that was on May 27, 1915, when French aviators raided Ludwigshafen, covering. 230 miles altogether. On June 28 came another i-pid, again by French aviators, on Friedrichshafen. These distances were, however, quite put in the shade by the French raid on Stuttgarf; on September 22, in which the distance covered was 280 miles. , FRANCE'S RECORD. After that there was a pause in long-distance raids till. April 14 this year, when, two British avjjatorg flew

such as Dover and Ramsgate, the totm distance is always something nnder 200 miles, so that the reason London jSj lias not so far been raided by planes is undoubtedly the respect German aviators have for the pilots m of the British flying services and for the improved shooting of the British I anti-air-craft guns. Ft is always doubtful whether the little raids' made by one or planes at a time on the eastern «fg»"r*| are merely acts of bravado on the'.,part>"J of individual aviators, or whether SRgJ are deliberate atttmpt to find out .trie full strength of the British anti-air-craft defences both in guna and in defensive aeroplanes. ■'^'SRL LOAD OF BOMUg. V % The amount of explosives which an J be carried by an aeroplane is, of course, limited by the distance the aeroplane has to cover, because the machine has to lift sufficient petrol for } the journey as well as the bombs. J Every extra gallon of petrol in the j tanks means about 71bs less weight of bombs to the carried, and thuß there arrives a point at which only the machine and the pilot can get there and hack without any bombs at . all. ' i

Before that point arrives there is the point at which the weight of the bombs carried is so small that it \w not worth while risking an aeroplaflie and its pilot in carrying them to their destination. That is* to say, one would scarcely bother to send an aeroplane on a trip of 100 miles or more for the sake of dropping about 501bs weight of bombs. When one considers the enor-

mous quantity of high explosive shells necessary to knock even a. small French village to pieces, one sees how foolish it would Ik> for either belligerent to send out small forces of aeroplanes each carrying only a small weight of bombs to make a raid on a town. Small raids merely give the enemy information as to what ithe raiders' in-™ teutious are, and they afford practice '■ for his anti-aircraft guns and for his deefnsive aeroplanes, and bo induce him to take proper s.teps for his own defence. THE "LONE-HAND." 11 is quite another matter, of course, to send one particularly fast / aeroplane with one particularly skilful pilot and a few comparatively small i bombs, or with one very large bomb, on a "lone-hand" raid on one particular objective, such an an importait bridge or a particular Zeppelin ehAl, as in the case of the successful raid on Dusseldorf very early in the war, and as in the case of the latest raid on Sofia. Even then, however, the risks of the solitary raider being shot down by lire concentrated on his machine by many guns, or by the combined attacks of many defensivo aeroplanes,

are very great. It is certainly peculiar that all the long-distance raiding has so far been done by the Allies' aviators, despite the fact that the Germans have been admitted in the House of Commons by Mr Tennant to possession the average taster aeroplanes. It may bo added in addition that it is quite evident, from the fact that the Germans U6e large aeroplanes carrying hree men and two or three machine guns at a nine, that the German aeroplanes are eai>able on the whole of lifting greater weights than ours. One is thus tempted to speculate whether they are keeping their long-distance machines for use over the Russian front or are saving them for a really important raid either o n British or French towns when the night* are too short to permit the use of Zeppelins.