ZEPPELINS HARD TO HIT.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 28 December 1915, Page 8

ZEPPELINS HARD TO HIT.

! : Frail and vulnerable as Zeppelins | are, it is not so easy to shoot ono [down. At a height of JO.OOO or 12,000 {feat, at which it probably flies , except when it comes down lower to t i drop its bombs, a Zeppelin is only p. ! tiny speck; and though some anti-air-craft guns have a range of as much 'as 18,000 ft., the Zeppelin can travel jat the rate of a mile a'minute. Even at 2.G00 or 3,000 feet if can dodge guns at night or on a misty morning. And even if it is hit it lias zoorf I chances, for its gas-bag is divided into a great number of gas-tight eompartments, and it can still fly when four or five of these have been deflated. There are also various other protective devices. In two ways the problem of the anti-aircraft gunner Js easier than that of the gunner on a ship of war at sea; his calculations are not affected by the facts that he himself, as well as his mark, is travelling, and most, probably at different speeds; and he has not to score a direct hit, but to burst his shell within a certain distance of his mark. On the other hand, no warship can travel at anything like a Zeppelin's rate of speed, and the Zeppelin may be travelling in any plane. There is also the little matter of the damage likely to be done in the city below by fragments of dropping shells. In France most of the work of protecting the capital is done by aeroplane squadrons;, but. for several reasons, Paris is easier to defend than London against attacks from the air.