WAR MISCELLANY

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16267, 18 July 1918, Page 8

WAR MISCELLANY

(from ottb ows correspondent.) LONDON, May 23. MEDICAL AID BY AIR. The arrival of medical assistance by aeroplane was a feature of an aviation accident at a North-East Coast town. A two-seater was forced to land, and the occupants had a narrow escape. In response to a telephone messago, another machine, with a doctor as passenger, alighted in the vicinity, and the injured airman received attention before being removed. CAMOUFLAGE IN SIX COLOURS. Tho Ministry of Munitions gives a detailed description of a German A.E.G. bombing aeroplane which was brought down in Franco about Christmas. The machine is camouflaged in six different colours on a uniform system covering every portion. The colours are arranged in hexagons measuring about lSjn across the flats, and the colours are 6age green, reddish mauve, bluish ! mauve, "black, blue, and grey. They are not flat washes, but are softened by j being stippled and splashed with paint ! of a lighter tone. One of the air-sc ews that lias been measured is made up of laminations of walnut and mahogany of different thicknesses. The report says there is no apparent reason why theso laminations should be of different thicknesses. and it is surmised eithor that the enemy is short of timber or that he has a highly scient : fic reason, which we do not know, for this mode of construction. It is very different in construction from the Gotha type, which includes also tho Fr'edrichshnfen bomber. Whereas the latter is generally made of wood, nlywond being used to a large extent throughout, steel is almost universally employed in the A E.G V not only in the fuselace, nacelle, sub T id : ary surface, and landing gear, but also in the win ors themselves. Acetylene weldin 2 is_ freely resorted to, but the construction appears to be far from light, and the report declares that the machine, judped by contemporary British standards of dosign, is on the whole decidedly clumsy, not only in detail work but also in appearance. The performance. too. is poor. COMBATING THE "BACKWASH." All the indications suggest that our airmen are rapidly learning the art of fighting the Gotha in the dark. Until a few months ago thero was very little air fighting by night in this country, and raiding Gothas enjoyed a considerable advantage, because their object was solely to avoid attack and drop their bombs unmolested. Recent references suggest that they are no longer able to avoid attack. For one thing, the British pilots have learned to see in the dark as a result of numerous night flights in search of enemy machines, and in some instances lately they spotted G'thas at distances which -would have been considered impossible in the early stages of night raids. They have learnt, also, the positions to takt> up in which to stand the b?st chance of bringing down a Gotha, and, what is equally important, how tp keep those positions. The Gotha. being the machine, is adapted to the business of slippingaway, since, by a sudden plunge in front of the attacking scout, it can create a "backwash" and leave tho attacker struggling to right his machine. The British pilots now know how to cope with that trick, and the fights that ended successfully on London the other night lasted from a quarter of an hour to half an hour, with tho British machines only 30 or 40 yards from the raider all the time. There ar© many perilous positions round the Gotha, whose gunners can fire in almost any direction, and it is only very skilful handling of the attacking macnine that enables the pilot to keep a place in which he can carry on the fight until he hits the raider in a vital spot. FULHAM PALACE. , The Bishop of. London has handed over his episcopal palace in a London suburb as a hospital for a hundred convalescent soldiers, many being shellshock and nerve oases. For these in addition to tending tho gardens the pisgenes, and tho fowl runs, workshops are be erected, so as to provide the healing which comes from suitable occupation. Over the largest ward, formerly drawing-room, appears the word fortitude," a, virtue upon which the Bishop has always laid great stress. The drnmg-room, in which used to be hung the portraits of many venerable bishops, is now distempered a soft greyish-ereen, and possesses twelve , beds. Hitherto candles have been used in nearly all tne bedrooms, therefore special arrangemerits had to be made for incandescent x# ht T> thr<raghout house, except in the Porteous Library, with its many valuable books, where oil lamps will be ' still employed. There are two recreation rooms for the men; a billiardroom is being made; the beautiful ban-quetmg-hall, with its stained-glass ! windows is to be used for the men's { dining-room. Even the kitchen was at o" e J' n^-a^ nqnetin l -7 hall > where ' Qneen Elizabeth once dined, and which Ti- L P°, ssesse 3 an ornate ceiling. Tho . .Bishop 8 own bedroom has been given 1 up for the use of six patients, and' the only portion of the Palace which he has < Whe^cha'S 6 13 th ° Veßtr * att ** hed !

AIR CADETS: MANY WANTED. I cJin? Royal Air Force Cadet Brigade, is one of the youngest generals in the King's service. His age Brigadier-General Cntchldy, and has motto "Tails Up." -^ en ln hls are alive with boisterous youth, and anxious to fichtimr ?m " " fled ?J in 6 s " in to qualified fight ng airmen. General Critehley is j i! port f man ' who used to play polo and show horses until the war (Jled game of all. His business is to tram men to in +>»<* k ,r ° slightly different thing from train r 0 g flv en Th 0 fl /-- ny * to fly. That, in these days of flown, machines, involves no earning to drive a t takes p man to fight in the air raring nothing for his own risks and' v£n tunng all on the judicious and desperate pounce. The Royal Air Fora Pin vites all young lads of spirit tot,™ forward and offer themselves, for the adventure of the. air. They should go to a local recruiting office a month teof 18, i if

weir eyes are perfect and'their t)hvsicai cond.t.on good, they will be Sn a banco for the King's commission and as much fighting as they like. There are risks m air fighting ag j n a Ti ju 00m S 8 "^ 1 C /' tchle y w <>«ld not welcome the lad who ponders possible dan. gers. About 20 per cent, of the lads first accented make good" as fighting pilots. They get their commission of the average, fn six months. As offiWs fe r Wfl Il f, nnt ? Promotion moid. ; We don t want classical swells and Tads who think so mnoT, about a thin? t.li a t thev never dare do it," snvs tho General. "We want the food green-hpnrfc stuff,'and as mnHS of it as von like. Uur system of trammg, both on its snorting and its working side, is designed to show who are the right sort of men." INOCULATFT) TV Ttn; CAUSE OP ecnsxcE.

In a ward at New Hospital, Hampstead, lie eight men. who will be numbered as not amongst the least of tho heroes of the war. They are men over military age, who have volunteered to contract trench fever, tho disease, winch, according to a medical authority, takes > tens of thousands of men from the fichtmg line. Byams is in charge of the, investigations, which are being carried on to the origin of trench fever and the conditions under which it is soread. and the men under treatment have agreed to snbmit to certain tests which will be useful in adding'to what is already known about the disease. The first two volunteers were "W. H. : Co 1 !©, a man of 64, who was with Lord Roberts's column as pnnner during one of the Indian campaigns, and H, Q.

I Edgeor, 78 years of age, who came from America at the beginning of the war to ! see tviiat use ho could lkj to his native country. Both these men were infected with trench fever, but tliero waa no resuit. The reason attributed for this is that the skin of both has become too hard. Others who have been infected include ex-Constable E. Robinson (70), T. Bryant (71), C. Jordan (66), and J. Ward (60). As a result of their sacrifice, Major Byams and his colleague 6 hope to be able to render the blood of soldiers immune from the operations of tho fever germ. The "Daily Mail" remarks:—The courage of these old men has brought splendid result. The slow, unpleasant, and risky experiments to which they submitted themselves had led to the discovery of the cause of trench fever. Each of the veterans who fretted because he could not risk his life on the battlefield, has tho solace that by risking his life in the laboratory he has salved thousands of men for the army. Now that the cause of trench fever is known, prevention of it will follow. No human courage, perhaps, can rival that spiritual armoury that onr men mu?t gird themselves with in the presentday battlefield; but surely nearly approaching that courage of the battlefield is this bravery of these old volunteers who faced the creepy unknown of the scientists' experiment.

WOMEN'S PAET.

Mr Kellaway, M.P., announces that tho development which has taken place in women's work during the last tourteen months is quite a# remarkable as the developments at an earlier period of the war. In Juiy, 1914, there were 220,000 women engaged in munition industries. In January, 1917, that number had increased to 691,000, and today the number is. a million. The great majority of the processes in which they are engaged are those which women had never been thought capable of undertaking in the days before the war. It was due to the present Prime Minister, at the time' when he was the first Minister of Munitions, to have realised the possibilities, the great asset which this! nation possessed in its womanhood. A steady stream of trains ed women is sent into munition factories from the training schools at the rate of 600 a week. Since the Ministry started the schools they have placed between 40,000 and 50,000 trained women. Mr Kellaway asked one of the officials of the Ministry if it would be true to say that all offensive and defensive measures against the raid < on London the other day were carried out by women, - except tho actual of the machines. The official replied that it would be literally true to say that in every part of the material side at the disposal of onr airmen that night the women of this country hud mad© their contribution.