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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 1207.PDF
DECEMBER 18, 1914. the Admiralty for the efforts they were making to complete Admiralty work :— b " His Majesty appreciates the loyal and untiring service which is being rendered to the country by the skilled workmen in the great shipbuilding and armament Grim. His Majesty greatly admires that spirit of patriotism which arouses in them the desire to «!"« and fight at the front ; but His Majesry wishes to remind them that by the work they alone can most successfully perform tmv are assisting m the prosecution of the war equally with their comrades serving by land and sea." Dr. Macnamara himself, during his speech to the workmen, said: " I have come here to say thank you in the name of the Board of Admiralty. ... By your efforts you have assisted materially in increasing the strength and readiness of the fleet. . . . To-day, you men in overalls, just as your brothers in khaki and blue, stand between the British Empire at home and abroad and the grip of a savage, relentless ruthless militarism." Again, in the course of a long letter in the Times the other day, in which he deals with the question of voluntary v. compulsory service, Eatl Selborne points out that: " If the day comes when the nation is satisfied that it must intro duce the compulsory system to finish the war, that moment will ® ® AIRCRAFT WORK IN the despatch from an "Eyewitness" present with the British Headquarters, dated December 10th, and issued on Tuesday through the Official Press Bureau there were the following references to the work of aircraft;— "A German aviator dropped six bombs on Haze- brouck (on December 6th) with little effect. " The weather has been very wet and much warmer during the last four days. There has also been a high wind during most of this period, but our aviators have succeeded in making several valuable reconnaissances." In the supplementary despatch from " Eyewitness," dated December 13th and issued on Wednesday, there was the following :— " The weather has on the whole been rainy and very windy, though Saturday was one of the finest days we have had for some time. Over large areas, also, the clouds have hung as low as 400 ft. "Since the German anti-aircraft guns make fairly accurate shooting up to a vertical range of 8,000 ft., to say nothing of the rifle and machine-gun fire, it can be appreciated that the conditions have not been ideal for aerial reconnaissance. " On the other hand, a low-lying layer of clouds may not be such a disadvantage to errands of destruction. It may be thick enough to prevent the observation and identification of comparatively small objects, such as those whose presence it is usually sought to discover, but « ® The Roll of Honour. IN the list of casualties in the British Expeditionary Force, issued on the nth inst., there were the following officers of the Royal Flying Corps :— The following officers not previously reported as prisoners are n )w reported through the United States Embassy to be prisoners of war : — Lieutenant V. S. E. Lindop. Lieutenant H. G. L. Mayne. Lieutenant K. Rawson-Shaw. The Lights of London. THE following announcement was issued through the official Press Bureau on Monday:— l/jlOHT The Secretary of State's Order for the Metropolitan Police District and the City of London, which was about to expire at the surely be a critical moment. It it perfectly impossible to obtain compulsory service by, as it were, merely pressing the Tarlia- mentary button, without producing chaos in our national organisa tion. There are very many men doing work to-day at home which i> quite as essential for the success of our arms as service in the ships or in the trenches. No tkilltd man ought to be taken away from any of those trades which manufacture the equipment of war, battleships, guns, rifles, aeroplanes, cartridges, \c, nor can pur man be spared who makes soldiers' boots or soldiers' clothing. Only a certain proportion of the men can be taken from the rail ways or the coal mines, and I make no pretence of otTeiing an exhaustive list. What men can or cannot be taken under a compul sory syttem is, in fact, not a simple but a very complicated quest ion, and what I urge is that the whole of that question should Uc 1 fully studied by the Government." Thus, the point we have for some time urged i* becoming more widely accepted, and, in view of this, we cannot see how the Admiralty and War Office can hold back from deciding to issue to those civilians who are doing their full share of National Service some badge to indicate to the public that, although they have not enlisted as soldiers or sailors, it is because they are doing equally valuable work as members of the necessary Industrial Army. After His Majesty's message there need be no delay in issuing that badge. ® ® AT THE FRONT. not to hide the features of the country, such as towns, villages, and rivers, and so prevent an aviator orienting himself by sight. "When this is so he can fly above the cloud bank until he arrives over the point which he wishes to attaek, and then drop his bombs unseen from below, or he can descend and drop them from a lower altitude. " It is easier to discern large objects on the ground through cloud than it is for those below to see an aero plane through the same. The moral effect of ' bolts from the blue,' or rather from the blank grey, is some what greater than when the destroyer is actually seen." A French official message issued in Paris on Wednesday stated :— " In spite of the weather our air squadrons during the last two days flew over the enemy's lines at less than 3<,2&o ft. altitude, successfully dropping several bombs in the region of the wood of Houthulst (nine miles north- north east of Ypres) and elsewhere." In an official narrative of events, in connection with the operations of the 3rdCavalry Division in France, published in the Times of December 16th, there was the following :— "October 14th.—Shortly after leaving Ypres this brigade, assisted by rifle and revolver fire from every body in Ypres, succeeded in bringing down a Taube aeroplane. Its pilot and observer escaped into some woods, but were captured later on in the day." ® ® end of the present month unless renewed, has been superseded by a fresh order. This differs from the previous order in two particulars only ! 1. The use of any lights whatever for outside advertising, or for the illumination of shop-front*, is now prohibited. Formerly only " powerful" lights were prohibited, and the uncertainty as to what lights were " powerful " led to evasions of the order. a. An entirely new provision is inserted, requiring all vehicles to carry, in addition to any headlights which the existing law requires, a lamp which shows a red light to the rear. Experience has shown that this is necessary in the present condition of the streets to protect vehicles from being run into from behind. It should be particularly noted that this requirement extends to cycles and handcarts as well as to other vehicles. The red-glass "reflectors" which are so largely used by cyclists are no longer sufficient, but a lighted lamp must be carried which shows red to the rear. I207 •
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