BOMBS FROM AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 August 1922, Page 5

BOMBS FROM AIR.

ENEMY OF WARSHIPS, SUCCESS OF TESTS. MANY HITS MADE. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.— -Copyright. Received Aug. 2, 9.5 p.m. London, Aug. 1. Important experiments were carried out off Portsmouth to-day, in which the obsolete battleship Agamemnon was used as a target for a series of dummy bombing and machine-gun trials from aeroplanes. The Agamemnon was controlled by wireless, and travelled at speeds varying from six to 15 knots an hour. The aeroplanes used 350 new-type practice bombs, weighing 9 lb each and giving off smoke when they strike their objective. A De Havilland machine obtained six hits and a Handley Page machine one hit from an altitude of 8000 feet. Four sniping machines, attacking at point-blank range while making a speed of 120 miles an hour, secured 75 per cent, of hits. Good results were also obtained with a machinegun attack. The Daily Telegraph says the attack on the Agamemnon was carried out under perfect conditions, and proved what was intended—that modern airmen can discharge missiles from aeroplanes with such mathematical accuracy that they can hit a moving object a mile and a half below them. Apart from the hits, many bombs fell so close to the vessel that if they had been live bombs her fate would have been sealed. It remains to be seen what defence or counter-attack the modern battleship can offer.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

HORRORS OF THE FUTURE. USE OF DEADLY GAS BOMBS. BRITAIN OFFERS TARGET. BIG AIR FLEET PROPOSED. Received Aug. 2, 9.5 p.m. London, Aug. 2. The Daily Chronicle states the Air Defence force will consist of 20 squadrons, each of 12 machines, with a reserve, bringing up the total to between four and five hundred aeroplanes. The independence of a separate Air Ministry will be reaffirmed. The Daily Express understands the Imperial Defence Committee proposes an additional expenditure of £2,000,000 on the extension of the air force by at least 20 squadrons, the money to be provided by means of further economies in the navy and army. It is suggested a skeleton air organisation can thus be provided capable of immediate extension in case of need. Admiral Mark Kerr, interviewed, declared that in the air Britain must have at least a one-and-a-half-Power standard. Within three hours of the declaration of war by a Continental country against Britain, enemy aeroplanes would be over London, and our only defence consisted in our ability to make constant raids on the enemy’s air bases. Future raids would be almost beyond imagination in their (rightfulness. One nation had an acid, three drops of which would kill a man. Then there was poison gas and high-explosive bombs. Loudon was bound to suffer most, but the whole of Britain would be within air-bomb-ing range, and bombs would be rained over every city where munitions were being made.

The experimental bombing of the Agamemnon seems to have complicated the heated question of air supremacy over surface craft, and further fuel is added to the controversy by alarming statements made by Mr. Edison in an interview published in the Paris Excelsior. “I do not be:lieve an aeroplane would have any chance of playing apart at sea, except against mer- | chant ships, but I believe capital ships are obsolete,” he said.

He added: “Neither I nor any of my acquaintances have discovered any protection against an aeroplane. Even in its present stage of development, no means exist to prevent an aeroplane flotilla flying over London to-morrow and spreading over London’s millions gas which would asphyxiate all in a relatively short time. fifty aeroplanes would be sufficient for this purpose.” Mr. Edison’s reference is to Lewis- ' ite, the deadliest poison-gas produced, which is the invention of German and J&panese scientists.

Mr. Edison declares war will ultimately be suppressed by the invention of some machine so absolutely terrifying in its possibilities that mankind will renounce warfare for evermore. He added: “I believe the world is on the eve of new and appalling wars, which will threaten civilisation. Submarines will decide the next naval war."—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.