FIGHTING THE OVERHEAD ENEMY

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2244, 2 September 1914, Page 6

FIGHTING THE OVERHEAD ENEMY

The'advent of the aircraft as a factor in modern warfare has necessitated the hurried development of guns capable of resisting' attacks from overhead. All the nations havo equipped themselves with several types of aeroplane, destroyers, varying from the vertically mounted Gin. gun in the forts to tho light field piece, throwing nothing heavier than, a rifle bullet, which as often as not' is mounted upon an automobile chassis. According to a musketry officer, the arm most favoured by the defence authorities is the Laird-Mentoyne-Dega-' ible'machine gun. This is of the samo calibre as the army rifle, and fires a similar cartridge on tTio principle of the Maxim gun. The magazino consists of a long slotted tube, containing 26 cartridges, which is attached .to the left-hand, side of the breach, and the cartridges are forced into position by a spring. The barrel is provided with radiating fins to facilitate cooling. When mounted on the special tripod tho muzzle of tho gun can be moved through any anglo up from the vertical, whilo the gunnel' takes his .sights through a prismatic lonso mounted in a horizontal position on the gin barrel. A full magazino of cartridges can be discharged in a few seconds by onco pressing the trigger. ' ■>■ The military authorities consider that the only practicable weapon against aeroplanes is tho quick-firing gun, or one which will spread a charge ovor a large area at a distance of 1000 yards; that is to say, an elevation of 3000 ft. The rapidly moving aeroplane at such 'an elevation is believed to bo an almost impossible target for a gunner with'an ordinary field-pioco unless tho machirio is. heading directly, to or away from his piece. For lightor-tlian-air machines, however, tho shell-throwing field gun is preferred, as a hail of riflo bullets would havo But small effect on the stability of tho lingo fabric of a Zeppelin. France has a great number of quick-firing guns mounted on motor cars, which could ho pr-cedily rushed to tho frontiers or t drawn as a cordon around any position it was wished to protect from a possiblo attack from tho air, while it is well known that both her coastal forts and those of Germany are equipped with tho latest weapons ifii atrial doience,