Aboard H.M.S. Sausage

Levin Daily Chronicle, 7 February 1918, Page 4

Aboard H.M.S. Sausage

The miraculous stunts of the airplane have rather overshadowed its humbler cousin, the "kiter balloon. - The work is no less dangerous if it be less dramatic, and even more fortitude is required to hang high in the air tethered, at the end of a cable a mark for enemy guns, since there is none of the exhilaration that accompanies the dash of the flier. But H.M.S." Sausage, as the anchored balloon is called by the " Tommies, Y is) an. important adjunct to the air craft. The Ijondon ' Post' says of the value of these unhandsome craft:

They are employed along the whole length of the battle line, "spotting" for the artillery at heights and dis-tances-frdm'the firing line which expose them all the time, not only to shelllire, but.to attack from enemy aeroplanes. Picture the situation of the devoted observer, perched some thousands of feet'above the ground, swaying'hour after hour at the end of his cable like a ship at lier ' moorings and offering a tempting .and conspicuous mark for qverv airman on a roving commission over our lines. It is a duty that asks some nerve in the true performance of it, is it not'?' , ' But 1 if the kite balloon 1 is the ready prey of enemy, attack; it is not in itself d-iseonifortablc ,to ..the gccupant. Its design has, beQn vastly improved from tlie type of the old German dragon balloon which held the field at the outbreak' of -wiir. By * an - > ingenious '' and siih'plc arrangement it.iias -been tfoimd possible to make the kite balloon keep always head, to wind. ..This is the. explanation of that "bustle "-like arrangement at the end of the ship by which the wind is transformed from a disturbing into a steadying" influence. The sausage shape of the balloon is another, device for preserving steadiness and avoiding the teetotum motion to which the spherical balloon is liable. In days of high and gusty wind the sausage balloon na'ttirally pitches a gooa ( l oa l_-tlic resultant motion from j tho wind force and the resistance from the tethering cable' and the inexperienced observer, may suffer severely from seasiekness in J suclr conditions j'but in genial weather the sensation is feoothing and even luxurious, and the fiercest ground heat gives place to a delicious coolness at quite a modorato altitude. But the observer has to be trained not only to the work of observation, but to toleration, as the doctors would say, of height. ;Ho has not only to learn to watch .his pressure- gauges and-other instruments while picking, out every significant, object and portent <j>n the Iwrizon and maintaining ' constant telephone communication with the earth. Ho has also to become'accustomed to the sensaaspect of .itlvcj'landscape and its _ most .familiar objects from his new point of view. .

No one who has.not experienced it can believe what . "the bird's-eye; really is—how rare and strange the face of tho cou'ntrysidc appears at; a height of three or'four thousand feet. It is t6 accustom observers to these conditions that the old spherical bal< vloons arc still useful. That accounts for the speetaele, which is .often presented on a fine day, of several of, these spherical balloons drifting over London. • They carry probationers training for tho certificate of the Royal Aero Club, and the popular that tliise ballons arc a part tff Jjo'ndon's defences against Xlinj mou.ois sosod.md_uoijUA.tosqo joj air raids is, one fears, fallacious. 1 -The -advantages of the- Kite -balloon rccogiiiscdi The observer is in direct communication with the 'ground, while tho aoropjaije pilot is.naturally in rftpid flight, his position changing constantly and his. communication with the ground less sure and direct. The 'Post' says:

But it took some time for the*force of these considerations'to bo fully admitted. J'lie achievement and potentiality of the adropla'ne not unnaturally overshadowed everything else; and so it fell out that the kite balloon was neglected. Artillery commanders insisted' on aeroplanes for their* "spotting," and the oificers of the kite balloon see'tic;i3 'too often met with ' "greetings where no kindness is." IndeeH, it is related—though it would not be wise to take these messroom pleasantries too literally—that kite balloon officers at one time had to go down the,'line recommending their services, much in the manner of a commercial traveller'push-

: ing his : -wares. They liad to-'dine' gunner officers well to woo them to an indulgen;t tliqn insinuatingly to suggest ~ arrangement . for a trial "shoot.' 3 almost on the principle of money "returned if goods not found satisfactory." But'tlie goods'werb sat- , satisfactory that gunners quickly'came to ask for itlio kite balloon and to see that .they got it. : u , A pilot onq day was at obser.vatioij work in a high wind, when the elevator and rudder arrangements burst. Without m'ore ado —as if to celebrate' re-lease'--from ''a ha tod - bondage—the balloon looped the loop twice, .leaving . the ; .unhappy, observer hanging, to the car (ijo\v this side up, ; now that) as best .lie might. Then, exhilarated by this exercise," the balloon made a bid' for c'om'plcte' freedom' 1 -tfith an almost Rus- j sian ardour, and succeeded in snapping .j the tcthoring cable. • Again in the revolutionary , manner, it next ,conccived_ (the idea olj fraternising,with the enemy,"and drifted towards his line at a veloc- ' ity of 40 miles an hour. The airman nbt unnaturally 1: thought thßt the day of'his usefulness on earth >| was over, so he tore lip all his maps and '.'documents, sjnashpd his camora plates, and took to his, parachute... He l.ajnded safely 1,000 yards , from , the Gprman lines, with no greater injury than a bad ' shaking and some-severe cuts and contusions from falling among trees. To"day ho 4s well and at work-again: Another airmail had.the disagreeable! experience of having his kite balloon shot down, not once, but twice in one day, by eneijiy aj.rcra.ft;, and yet he' made a third ascent as soon as a new balloon could be found for him. Bemember that each timo after the des-, traction of his ' balloon this airman's only escape was by parachute, and though-'}#) strict theory and in favour-' able circumstances descent by parachute > is reasonably ;safo, it is;:vn. exploit that puts no mean strain on the nerves. To., jump into space at a height of several fept, trusting that the. little folded bag attached to you wilt pres-' ently open - out,- umbrella-wise, and "softly descend like the d.9.w. oi; the railr, '' is" a thing tliatcthe Jbardiest'men would not f.hoose twice in the same day, to say nothing of inviting a third repetition of the ordeal. ' '