PROPAGANDA BY BALLOON.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1919, Page 7

PROPAGANDA BY BALLOON.

IIHB-BRJTISH LEAFLET ORGANISA- „/;,; .. jcion. (London Times), Very early in the war a distinguished engineer suggested to the War Office that literature might be distributed to the enemy by dropping it from aeroplanes. The suggestion was not acted on, and it was probably a correct interpretation of the psychology of German troops in the first years of the war to suppose that their moral would then have been unaffected by our efforts. Later on it became known that, to prevent them from surrendering too rapidly, German soldiers were sedulously indoctrinated with the belief that captured men were treated with great severity by the English and French. To counteract this, reproductions of letters actually written by German prisoners of war, photographs and descriptions of prisoners and of their camps, and similar material were prepared and distributed in quantities by aeroplanes. As the political and social, discontent in Germany increased, it was thought useful that the German soldiers should be provided with more evidence of the internal conditions in their own country than their officers would allow them to have, and leaflets prepared from German sources, as, for instance, from suppressed editions of German pamphlets or newspapers, were scattered on the lines and rest billets by aeroplanes. Early in 1917 reports obtained by the examination of prisoners and information derived from more secret sources showed that the propaganda campaign was achieving useful results, and the branch of the Directorate of Military Intelligence at the War Office, in cooperation with General Headquarters in France, made arrangements for a great extension of the work.

The Gennatis, however, were equally aware of the effect of this side of the British military effort, and retaliated by court-martialling airmen captured with leaflets on their machines. After prolonged consideration, it was decided to abandon the use of aeroplanes as disseminators of propaganda on the Western front, and other methods were experimented with. The decision was due partly to the fact that at that time the supply of machines and of airmen was far from sufficient for the primary functions of. the aerial forces, and it is interesting to note that, although the French and Italians made no definite decision against aeroplanes, and actually continued to use them occasionally, they too about the same time began to devise other methods. It may be mentioned that a few weeks before the armistice the Air Ministry found it possible to arrange for the distrlbuton of literature by aeroplane in quantities amounting to five tons a week, and that the Enemy Propaganda Committee, under the direction of Lord Northeliffe, had prepared and delievered the first stock of leaflets suitable for the purpose. The vast bulk of propaganda which reached the German troops from the spring of 1918 until the signing of the armistice, described by a picturesque German writer as "English poison raining down from God's dear sky," and bitterly complained of by ESndenburg, was released from imper balloons. The balloons and the methods of releasing the leaflets which became the standard types were settled upon after several months' experimental work. The Air Inventions Committee, the Muni tions Inventions Department, the inspectorate of H.M. Stores, Woolwich, Army Intelligence officers experienced in the use of silk balloons for other military purposes, and the manufacturers, all assisted the department of the War Office concerned in arriving at a result which proved to be effective and as nearly as possible fool-proof. Designs and apparatus were tested in the workshop and laboratory, at experimental stations near London, and on Salisbury Plains. They were taken out to France and tried under the actual conditions of war, and gradually each difficulty was overcome and each detail reduced to its simplest form. In its standard form in which it was i beinsr manufactured at the rate of nearJj 2000 a week the propayiuia balloon .waa.made of paper, cut in 10 longitudinal panels, with a neck of oiled silk about 12 inches long. The circumference was I about' 20 feet and the height, when inI Bated, over eight feet. The absolute capacity was approximately 100 cubic feet, but the balloons were liberated when not quite taut, containing flO to 95 cubic feet of hydrogen. Hydrogen readily passes through paper, and the part of the experimental work that caused most trouble was the discovery of a suitable varnish, or "dope," to make the paper gas-tight. After many disappointments, a formula was arrived at, the application of which prevented appreciable evaporation of the gas for two or three hours, and which left a balloon with some lifting capacity after 36 hours.

After several ingenious mechanical devices had been tested a method of releasing leaflets by the burning of a fuse wu adopted. A suitable length of prepared cotton wick, similar to that used Mi flint pipe-lighters, and burning evenly at the rate of five minutes to the inch, was securely threaded to a wire by which it was nUached to the neck of tha balloon. Several inches of the upper er.a were left free, and the losid. :■>{ ienfIsts ww> strung in small by rutton thread? along the length of t!:« fiisc. A«. s-eiiji a:s a balloon was in Hated and the loaded. attached the free eikl of the fuse was cut to the required length, so as to burn for five, 10, or so many minutes, before the first packet was reached, the cut end was lighted, usually from the oipe or cigarette the eoldier was smoking, and the balloon sent oft' on its jmrney. The release of each packet aciH. Ms a discharge of ballast, and the balloon, although continually losing gas, kept in the air wulU tic end of its course. The. arrangement used most frequently was desigT.ed.-foj. liberating the balloons a few miie-übe-

hind the front lines, and for »lhe .leaflets from the enemy lines t*>.ji {ew miles behind thcin. The total length •f fuse was 12 inches, yiviug on hour'*. Tun... The first six inches were left free Jnbe cut before lighting neeonlin<r to the position of the station and the strength bf the wind; the load of propaganda was arranged over the second half-hour at intervals of 2£ minutes. Much longer fuses, with the load distributed at greater intervals, were used for longer funs. Experiment showed that the lateral scattering of the leaflets, dropped from a height of 4000 feet and upwards, Was considerable. The length of the track varied with the strength of the wind.

The lifting power of a balloon is the difference between the weight of the hydrogen and the weight of the same bulk of air, less the weight of the balloon itself. The weight of the paper bllloon was just over one pound; the availabl* lifting power, varied witb-the^

degree of tautness to which the balloon was filled, and height of the barometer and the temperature, but on the average, at ground level, the balloon as inflated would just suport five and a half pounds. After a good deal of experiment the load of propaganda and releasing apparatus was fixed at four pounds and a few ounces, this allowing from 900 to 1000 leaflets, according to their size, to be carried by each balloon, the balance of lifting power being sufficient to take the balloon sharply into the air to a height of five or six thousand feet. As a balloon rises the pressure of the air falls and the contained hydrogen expands. In the earlier experiments the neck of the balloon was tied after inflation, and, to allow for expansion, the balloon was'filled only to a little over two-thirds of its capacity. This was unsatisfactory; it reduced the load of propaganda and led to many failures from bursting and to great uncertainty as to where the load would fall. It was found more satisfactory to inflate the balloon nearly to its full capacity and to liberate it with the neck open, or with a large slit cut at the base of the neck, to allow the gas to escape as it expanded. At a height of on the average from 4000 to Cf>oo feet the escape of gas had reduced the free lift to a negative quantity, and the balloon would bogin to drop slowly, but for the liberation of ballast. The unit for distribution consisted of two motor lorries, which took the men, the cylinders of hydrogen, and the propaganda loaded on releases to a sheltered position selected in the morning by the officer in charge after consultation with the meteorological experts. The vans were drawn up end to end, separated by a distance of about 10 feet, and a curtain of canvas was then stretched on the windward side between the vans, thus forming a three-sided chamber. The balloon was laid on the ground, rapidly filled, the release attached and lighted, and the balloon liberated, the whole operation taking only a few minutes.

• During the summer of 1918 over 12 million leaflets were distributed in this way, and the organisation was so carefully worked out that a leaflet, composed in English in London on a Monday morning, was translated into German," printed off, attached to releases, sent to the front, and dropped on the enemy by Wednesday evening.