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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 0586.PDF
l^jcBf to last, as it cannot for one moment be suggested seriously that they possess the smallest military value, and although we have felt constrained to placard them from time to time in strong terms, we have done so in good company, for papers like the TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH and other leading dailies have, if anything, been more condemnatory in their language than our selves. That we are not over-prejudiced in this direction may be perhaps gathered from the very sympathetic leader which appeared in the DAILY TELEGRAPH of Wednesday this week, upon the subject of the latest outrage, the main portion of which is as follows :— " It is worth noting that the strange chance which has associated all these raids with the murder of women and children especially is still in operation. Of the killed, one only was a man. It may be remembered that in the last air raid of which extended particulars were published by the Press Bureau—that of June 6th, on the north east coast—out of twenty-four killed, only five were men, all of them civilians. Furthermore, since the last raid the Government have informed the I louse of Commons that in all the fourteen attacks which had then been made by German aircraft on this country, twenty-four men—civilians every one—had been killed, to twenty-one women and eleven children. In the whole record of senseless assassination not one single combatant has been killed, and not one single place of military character has been so much as damaged. That is the truth about the German aircraft raids in a nutshell. By the very nature of the case, they must murder blindly. They dare not come by daylight ; the dare not even come by night unless it is fully dark, as it was on Monday night, so as to afford the maximum chance of escape from our aeroplanes and guns. The whole foul business is of a kind to sicken the very soul of any man with the faintest spark of military honour in him. It is born of a mere blood-lust, a cannibal appetite for simple slaughter, with an added delight in the helplessness of the victims which is perhaps the most repulsive of all the symploms of moral degeneracy. Those were the feelings which, quite openly and shamelessly, were manifested in all the popular jubilations in Germany over what Zeppelins were expected to do when war broke out. " It is no longer possible to doubt, we think, that the existence of this sort of sentimeni in the German public, or a considerable part of it, is the true raisou d'etre of these otherwise meaningless murder-raids. To those who give the orders for them it has long been clear that their chance of effecting anything in the military sense is practically nil, in the conditions under which they must necessarily be made. It must also, by this time, be clear to those of them who are capable of reflection that, even regarded as mere " ^rightfulness," theje attacks have an effect precisely the contrary of that they were once expected to produce. What can be said for them from the point of view of the enemy Government is that they please the public more than anything else, short of real and resounding triumph in th- field : and it has repeatedly been noted that an air raid on our coasts has been launched at a time when disappointment and depression were to be feared among the civilian population in Germany." What a contrast was the raid of our French allies upon Saarbrucken on Monday, the same day as the fresh Ger man murder raid, with their squadron of 32 bombardment aeroplanes, which succeeded in " placing "some 164 shells during their visit. This succeeded so well, no doubt, by reason of the improved tactics which accompanied the attack, of an escort of fighting aeroplanes to tackle any enemy machines which might endeavour to baulk our allies in the object of their bombardment. Apparently four of the squadron met with mishaps in some form, as that number is reported as not having returned, and in a measure their disappearance is accounted for in the German communiqui. But this is a small price to pay for the actual damage done plus the great moral effect of the raid. In all probability one material effect of Monday's Zeppelin visit will be to bring in a rush of insurance business to the Govern ment scheme. Unfortunately there is a fair sprinkling of people who think the premium too high by far, and who prefer therefore to remain out. From And National Insurance. AUGUST 13, i°i5- a personal point of view we agree that much lower rates could have been put into force with very little risk of loss. This rate could have been such that three-quarters of the people would probably have paid up and castaside anylittle worry that might have existed as to being uninsured. It was either that or the Government should have taken over the indemnification as a national liability. As it is, there is still likely to be a handsome profit to go to the war costs, and, after all, that is something to be thankful for. At the same time it would have been a much greater cause for satisfaction to have garnered in all the premiums from the big establishments and public bodies, such for instance as the Metropolitan Asylums Board, who at their meeting last Saturday decided to carry their own risk in regard to their three millions, there or thereabouts, of buildings. From every reliable source it has been German month by month increasingly evident that Adaptability the Allies'airfleets have entirely mastered Circumstances.tne German efforts at ascendancy in the ' air. Whatever we may think of the German beast as a creature outside the pale of civilisation, as a consequence of his hellish methods in the conduct of his aggressive war, we must admit the phenomenal gift for adaptability which he possesses, when circumstances require that he should alter his existing and precon ceived plans so as to meet and if possible over come any altered position of affairs which may have rendered nugatory his organisation against us. By certain information which has been coming through recently, and especially by latest facts which are materialising, the Germans have been directing very great energies towards an effort to regain if possible the control of air reconnaissance and attack, which up to the present has passed from them. They have long ago realised that larger aeroplanes, high-powered engines and bigger arma ment would probably be the most effective answer to our offensive, and it is more and more evident that it is upon these lines they have proceeded. That our own aviation departments are keeping in touch with any such new departure we do not doubt, and we have little fear that our enemy will have but a short-lived run for his efforts, directly our side lets go in the same direction. In the meantime the menace is un doubtedly one to be reckoned with. We shall await with confidence for the counter - move of our Flying Services, as although the German scientists and designers may bring forth highly - efficient mechanical engines of war, they have not as yet learnt the secrets of nature, whereby they can with equal ease produce at their sweet will pilots capable of handling their machines as effectually as those of British and French mould. This is altogether a more subtle problem, and at the finish, as at the first, is the factor which is going to win. In connection with this all-important progress, which is so apparent in communications from the front of late, we commend to our readers a most instructive article from the pen of Mr. H. F. Prevost Battersby, which appeared in the MORNIKG POST this week, and which in the main we reproduce on another page of this issue. Under the existing censorship there are so many "Defence of the Realm Act pitfalls" for innocent journalists to fall into in regard to giving information likely to be of service to our enemies, that it is quite refreshing to come across so informative an article as this of Mr. Battersby, which has been allowed to see the light of day. 586
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