NEW WAR WEAPONS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 34, 16 February 1940, Page 3

NEW WAR WEAPONS

By 23/762

HE aeroplane, motor transport, and wireless were regarded as scientific wonders in the first days of the last war. To-day those wonders have become commonplace. Since 1918 the scientists have been busy inventing new weapons, most of which are secret. There is the "Queen Bee," for instance, an aeroplane which is worked by remote control. Little is known about this machine except that it is directed from the ground by wireless beams or from a mother ’plane which need not come within the direct line of anti-aircraft fire. Such an invention makes it possible to send a pilotless cargo of bombs over enemy territory without losing a man. In addition to directing the " Queen Bee" from a distance, the release of the bombs can a!so be achieved by remote control. Electric Eye Machine guns can also be operated by remote control, which means that a position can be defended by weapons unaccompanied by men. Some distant observer, watching the approach of the enemy through field glasses, will press a button and steel will do the rest. Experiments have also been made with the electrie eye (the photo-electric cell) by which the attackers themselves, coming within range of the ‘eye, release the machines of destruction which have been hidden at certain strategical points to bar their progress. The greatest advances have been made with bombing and fighting ’planes. In the early days of the last war only two men were carried in the fighting ’planes and they dropped their tiny bombs over the side, leaving chance to carry them to their targets. To-day the giant ‘planes carry crews of several men and are equipped with range finders which are marvels of invention. They automatically calculate the speed of the ‘plane, the wind force, the height, and several other factors, with the result that a bomber flying at 10,000 feet at a speed of 300 miles an hour can drop 1,000 lbs. of explosive within a few yards of a target. Science has also achieved wonders in detecting the presence of airplanes and submarines, but the manner in which this is done is a military secret. The principle is that of the supersonic wave -that is, sound waves of a length not audible to the human ear. At sea they are sent out until they strike against a submarine and are reflected back, where they are recorded by a delicate instrument. These waves reveal the position and the distance of the enemy. In the same way the presence of airplanes is detected and recorded long before they are heard by the human ear. New methods of destroying submarines and airplanes have also been invented. No attempt is made for a direct hit on the under-water craft. The idea is to create such a disturbance around it that the increase in water pressure squeezes the submarine flat and bursts it like a paper bag. The same theory is applied to the destruction of aircraft. Instead of trying for the almost impossible direct

hit the bursting anti-aircraft #hell creates such a disturbance round the ’plane that the machine is caught in that disturbance and twisted to scrap. The Shrieking Bomb One of Germany’s minor inventions, put into operation in Spain, was the shrieking bomb. By turning up the edges of the vanes which keep the bomb steady during its flight, a terrifying scream issued from the bomb as it fell. The effect on non-combatants was unnerving. There is also a new kind of incendiary bomb which breaks into hundreds of parts, each of which is capable of starting a fire up to a distance of 1,000 yards. Some idea of the increase in mechanical transport in the army of to-day can .be gauged from the fact that when the British Expeditionary Force landed in France in 1914 it had 800 motor vehicles. The present Force took with it 25,000 mechanical vehicles of every sort. Machine guns were little thought of when the last war broke out, but to-day they are one of the most important units

of an army. In addition to them there is also the Bren gun, a formidable weapon which has increased the firing power of a battalion to such an extent that it is

as much greater now than in 1918 as a broadside of a modern battleship is greater than that of one of Nelson’s ships of war.