TERRORS OF FUTURE WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2301, 12 July 1921, Page 2

TERRORS OF FUTURE WAR.

MUCH has been heard recently of the horrors of future chemical warfare, but equally if not more terrible results arc prophesied from (he application of wireless control of aeroplanes, submarines, and torpedoes. Writing in the Review of Reviews, Mr Denis Gwynn states that French electrical engineers have demonstrated that the military and naval strategy of all countries will within a few years have to reckon with the existence of air fleets not only immeasurably swifter, more powerful, and more efficient than any machines used in the last war, but capable of Hying under the direction of wireless control exercised at great distances from the scene of their operation. Whole fleets of wireless aeroplanes capable of carrying great cargoes of high explosive or gas shells conkl be sent out hour after hour to attack towns or enemy forces, It is calculated, for instance, that a fleet of only 300 machines, each carrying some scwt. of bombs, could, within 24 hours, unload nearly 2,000 tons of bombs at any reasonable distance such as separates the chief military centres of several of the principal European Bowers, whereas the whole French air force managed to discharge an average of Joss than 20 tons a day over the German lines, even in the closing months of the war. It is the Americans who have concentrated most successfully on the application of wireless control to naval war. In one .demonstration a motor boat travelling at 23 miles an hour was steered through a crowd of merchant ships at For! Monroe under the control of an aeroplane Hying at 5,000 ft., and from two to live miles away, while the pilot of the aeroplane had no more difficulty in managing the ship than would a good pilot on board her. The introduction of torpedoes controlled by wireless is the worst nightmare of all, and it~ J fea.-ibilih has long been proved. Guided from the air and propelled by electricity transmitted by wireless, the torpedoes of the future will not only have an immensely longer range, but y will be able to change their direction and follow their victims relentlessly until they have tracked them down. These are not fantastic conceptions of experiments which are still being tried. They have a trendy been completely demonstrated, and their first successes date from three years ago.