AERIAL TORPEDOES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 211, 22 September 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

AERIAL TORPEDOES.

BRITISH SURPRISE FOR ENEMY TRENCHES. An Associated Press telegram ffjin Berlin gives the impressions of the Anglo-French offensive reoaivoi t*y Lieutenant Danibitseh, a Germ hi officer. Speaking of the Allies' method'., Lieutenant Dambitscli says:— "At the- beginning of the artillery preparation the enemy showed us a new thing in the destruction of observation balloons. Aviators swooped \down on them and shot fire-balls on them from above, a burst of flame marking the end of each balloon hit. The bombardment of the 26th brought another surprise, in the shape of aerial mines of unheard-of calibre and thrown in incredible numbers. By the explosion of the first of those air torpedoes a massive pillar of black earth was thrown up, perhaps a hundred yards, into the a;r. and the whole neighbourhood was showered with tint, bricks, and earth. The destructive effects of this uninterrupted throw : ng of the heaviest mines were soon visible. The entrances of two bomb-proof shelters were buried within a few minutes, and the inmates had to be' dug out. Report after report arrived of 'bomp-proor' shelters demolished by these aerial torpedoes, the in mates being buried m the ruins. The bombardment continued without a break, aerial torpedoes being hurled at canges such as haw never before been heard of for nvnethrowers, while the French artillery was pounding every yar-d of the ground with an intense firs of big shells."