“SNAPPING” THE HUN FROM THE AIR.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 4 July 1917, Page 2

“SNAPPING” THE HUN FROM THE AIR.

PHOTOGRAPHIC feats by FRENCH FLIERS. The part, which aerial photography is playing in the Avar, were it devulged wmuld astound the Avorld. The French aviators in particular have developed the science to a perfectly marvellous degree, and it is no exaggeration to state that the pictures Avhich they procure are absolute kinema displays of the daily life of the fighting Hun. If a new gun is put up in a German trench one night, and any part of it shoAvs to the observer in the air, you can make a bet that the flying-men Avill get a picture of it the next day. How is it done? It is made possible by a Avonderful system of organisation in Avhich every section of the German trenches is minutely mapped out. Every photographer who “goes up” has his little bit of enemy ground to photograph day by day. He sits behind the pilot, with a large camera fixed in front of him.

The camera has a very poAverful lens and the snapshots are taken through an aperture in the floor of the chassis. The aeroplane is built more for stability than for fighting. Its business is concerned solely for photographing. It has to fly loav, and is consequently a target for the enemy guns and a prey for the enemy fighting-machines. For protection the aeroplane is attended by fast “chasers” that keep hovering near by for any sign of an enemy ‘ plane on the proAvl for the scalp of an air photographer. If he gets back safely his plates are developed. He and the experts who examine the pictures are so used to these daily photographs of the shellploughed land and battered trenches, that they can piece them together with infinitely greater ease than a jig-saw puzzle. They will detect a slight, change in the appearance of one particular trench. When the photograph has been enlarged it av ill become apparent that extensive barbed wire has been put up since the previous day. In the feAv hours during the night the Germans have made the trench strong-

Now, this particular trench, like all the other trenches, has its own history all carefully recorded in a book of pictures and records —how many times it has been shelled, how many shells fired, what damage they did, what repairs the Germans did, and so on. The experts, if they cared, could tell you the day and the exact time- that trench was last bombarded.

When they discover that the barbed wire has been fixed up, they will simply telephone to acertain battery that ‘‘looks after” this little sector, and ia two minutes all that beautiful barbed wire will be blown to pieces as small as pins. Then, a few hours later, our friend the photographer, before it gets dark, will fly out aud take another picture just to prove the barbed-wire is no more.

The battery commander will write down in his notebook how many shells —six or seven maybe—it took to do the damage, and will perhaps discover that he miglrfThave done it just as well with only five shells. Down it goes in the notebook, and the next time he has to fire at that trench he will save one precious shell. All this is made possible by the bravery of the French air photographers. It is their business, like that of our own camera-airmen to tell picture stories every day about the movements of the Huns, and there is very little of importance that can escape th ecamera when it is in the clouds.

Happily, our aeroplanes are much too numerous and have put too much after into the hearts of the Hun airmen, to enable them to take satisfactory photgraphs of our lines.