WHY ZEPPELINS FEAR PARIS.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 April 1917, Page 8

WHY ZEPPELINS FEAR PARIS.

TRAINED AIRMEN ALWAYS i Waiting MEN WHO CAN JUGGLE WITH THEIR MACHINES

Although from the nearest point of the German line to Paris is scarcely 50 miles, German aircraft have troubled the French capital very little since the first month of the war. Zeppelins were never very frequent visitors to Paris, and since the raider attacked it last February was shot down on the return journey at Eevigny they have left it rigorously alone.

The danger of the homeward flight was always the rub for German aircraft as far as Paris was concerned even before the air defences of the. city had reached their state of perfection. The Germans are well aware* that any airships that succeeded in etading the local defences must run the gauntlet of swarms of aeroplanes and scores of guns on recrossing the French front; '

But Paris relies upon herself for 'her own defence from air attack. The main risk the Boche would run if he choose to face it, would come from the Sir squadrons and anti-Zeppelin gun of the city itself. In French aerodromes there are aeroplanes of every type that can be used against hostile aircraft. 'Die hugii ranges of sheds house hunting planes, armed with machine gun... and able to travel at a speed that sounds fantastic when expressed,in figures. There are machines who special business it would be to locate the enemy for the fighters. There is a very powerful machine mounting a small gun which was used in the Campaign offensive.

DEVICES FOR ALL OCCASIONS.' There are machines equipped with specials weapons for special emergencies. There is here to be seen every device :>f which one airman can make use against another, whether ho fly in a machine lighter or heavier than air.

The men who will use these weapons against the enemy in ease of need are airmen trained not only to use their machines but positively to juggle with them. They loop as naturally as a fish swims. They fly upside down. ■ They stand on thier heads or their tails anil turn round a couple of .times like dancing Dervishes before resuming the normal level of bight. And in addition to complete mastery of the art of flight they are skilled in aerial warfare and used to meeting enemy planes in the air, For the French air service does not keep large numbers of highly skilled air fighters idle in front of Paris, waiting tcr the TBoehc who does not come. Those" men are ordinary fighting aviators from the frqnt, who take a spell of .service in the Paris air defence squadrons after a turn at the front, and return to the battlefields to relieve comrades due for & period of service elsewhere after a certain time. For a Zeppelin to take Paris by surprise is almost impossible.