OUR GREAT BOMBING PLANE.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 January 1918, Page 4

OUR GREAT BOMBING PLANE.

MACHINE THAT CARRIES TON AND A HAtiF OF BOMBS. London, Nov 26. The great Handlej'-Paoe biplane which in July flew in ■ eight stages from England to Constantinople and bombed the Goeben, carried five men, and althongh she bore as well tlieir baggage and bedding, spare parts and oil, bombs and machine guns, and spare propellers, shb carried them easily. It could, says s an expert, have crossed the Atlantic in 20 hours.

The great Rolls-Royce engines never faltered. They brought the airmen t 6 Salonica, and tlience to a base “somewhere nearer Turkey.” Then the great adventure began. The baggage aud bedding and spare parts were left behind. The pilot and a passenger (Squadron-Commander K. S: Savory arid Flight-Lieut H. MacClelland) sat in front and the engineer (Engineer-Lieut T. Rawlings) was free to walk his narrow cabin arid watch above and below from the machine-gun platforms. They flew. 250 miles in about, three hours, and then beneath the spreading wings saw the lights of Constantinople and all the vessels, including the Goeben, a blaze of light. Down they canie and loosed a salvo of bombs at the battle-cruiser. They circled and dropped another salvo and then made along the Bosphorus, where they sought out the German Headquarters ship and bombed her. Amid a hail of Turkish shells they found the Turkish War Office. According to a Turkish communique at the time, this was “ not destroyed,” “ bnt,” said one of our airmen, “ the bombs weielied 1121 b and we were there for half au lionr.

A representative was told by an aeroplane builder that a British aeroplane carrying a pilot, six passengers, andJUOlb of luggage has flown from Hendon to Paris in two hours, and that we have machines to carry ?>, ooolb of bombs (nearly a tbn and a half). “ Then whv do we not bomb Berlin?”

“ That is quite possible,” said the constructor, “ but it is not my department —hut something big may happen soon.”