PREPARING HORRORS

Shannon News, 10 May 1927, Page 4

PREPARING HORRORS

FOR THE NEXT WAR. AIR BOMBS TO WIPE OUT A TOWN. Is the world heading fast for Armageddon; will the near future bring us to the brink of a conflict the magnitude of which will make the great struggle of 1914-18 seem almost trivial? These are questions which a great many men of wide wisdom are asking themselves. They are question prompted by the enormous and, to some extent, secret preparations that are being made by all the great Powers to-day, some details of which the "Sunday Chronicle" is able to reveal below.

Almost on the eve of a disarmament conference a great aviation showhas just been held at Paris, most of the exhibits at which were frankly military or naval models—heavy battle and bombing machines, huge naval hydroplanes, dull grey, like flying battleships, with monstrous torpedoes hanging under the body, and machines positively bristling with quick-firing guns. 5000 War Machines.

France is prepared to call up without difficulty more than 5000 war machines, apart from her reserves in civil aircraft and the potential weapon of ' her great manufacturing centres.

Germany has leaped to the forefront in the scientific development of a-erial resources, and America is particularly active in evolving giant air weapons of destruction. Some months ago there were secret ( trials in the United States of a great night bombing aeroplane capable of carrying three men and four 1000 lb. bombs. Fully loaded, this monster ! weighs 16,0001 b. It is constructed throughout of welded steel and duralumin, and driven by one Paokard motor of 825 horse-power. A distinguishing feature is a disappearing turret, which drops the machine-gunner and his platform 2ft beneath the floor of the fuselage between the wings and the tail,* per- \ mitting him to cover the ship's rear completely. When unused, the plat- j form automatically lifts itself flush j with the floor of the 'plane.. , i TO Wipe Out a Town. (

There is another gun turret on top of the body of the 'plane further aft, and a machine gun on the tip of eMh lower wing firing straight ahead -and controlled in the pilot's cockpit. The new fighter stands 20 feet high with a wing spread of 85 feet, and has a speed of 110 miles per hour, and a cruising range of 500 miles. One gas bomb of the type possessed by a certain Power would, if ; dropped in Trafalgar Square, put out of action nearly every inhabitant in the heart of London. Dropped in Leicester, Portsmouth, Oldham or Norwich, it would kill or incapacitate practically every man, woman and child. '

Revelations of how Britain Is preparing to fight an air invader were recently made by Major-General Ashmore. Naval Race. This country, he said, is working on a plan combining counter-bombing and ground defence. An observationpost system is already in operation, and Air Defence Brigade gunners are becoming increasingly efficient. Three years ago, three per cent of their shells hit the target. The percentage is now over eleven. A high-speed race for navjal supremacy is going on between the nations, and th e United States especially is actively building. New types of warships vastly different from and more formidable than the old, are on the stocks.

A' strange new ship is the British battleship Nelson, which has the largest forecastle in the world—4loft long from stem to bridge. The to-. tal length of the ship is 702 ft, so that the fore part is more than-half .'the length.

The bridge is totally unlike anything hitherto called a bridge. It Is really an armoured tower of many stories and great spaciousness, and is a regular Bluebeard's tower of secrets.

The next war will undoubtedly see the introduction of poison gas which has the persistency of mustard gas and the toxicity of phosgene.

An American inventor has succeeded in trapping deadly vapours in a canister so small that every soldier can carry one without adding more than a pound or two to his equipment. The Televisor. By the exploitation of the gases developed since the last war it will be possible to render a whole army helpless for many hours—long enough to round it up. The next war may see the employment of the televisor, which will make it possible to follow an enemy's movements when he believes himself to be in darkness. For the Invisible ray of the televisor gives the power to see in total darkness. Attacking aeroplanes approaching" under cover of night will be disclosed to the defending headquarter* 'by<the ;■■■'-' i .

electric eye ot the televisor. They will be followed by searchlights emitting invisible rays, and as these rays will be unseen by-them they will continue to approach : until, without warning, they are brought down.