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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0211.PDF
FEBRUARY 21, 1918. windows. It was also urged that the flight to refuges may- lead to accidents in the dark, and that it is much better for invalids and small children to be at home. All these views were pressed by the military authorities, and were finally accepted by the municipal authorities, especially as Freiburg, Trier and Saarbrficken, which were described as " specially menaced by night raids," have abandoned their former practice of giving alarms at night. - •.•••.-• AT long last an Order in Council, under date Feb. 18th, has been issued prohibiting exports of linen manufactures other than wearing apparel, to all destinations, without a war trade licence. WHEN we first came across " aeridheacht," in connection with a Sinn Fein meeting, we wondered what sort of a machine it was, but the Irish member of our stag says " Shure it's Irish for ' meeting.' " RAIDS AND RUMOURS. THE BIRTH OF TALL STORIES. By CLARENCE WINCHESTER. " I have it on the best authority," said the loud-voiced man in the Underground train. "My sister-in-law has a distant relative who is a third-class—no, I mean a first-class —air mechanic at Blanket - aerodrome, and he knows." The Interested One edged closer to the loud-voiced man. " Yes," he said, " I suppose he would get to hear of these things—a first-class air mechanic, too ! " " Ah, my boy, the Huns will have to answer for it the next time they come over here, I can tell you. It's the greatest stunt—yes, that's what they call it in the R.F.C.—on record. And let me tell you, it's a strict secret. You see, we shall let the Gothas cross the coast and come up the Thames a bit. When they get within the range of the new guns they will be fired—the guns, not the Gothas—and the electric shells will burst near the enemy airmen, who will at once collapse from electric shock." " It sounds simple enough," remarked the Interested One. " Simple ? It's as easy as, kiss your hand," replied the loud-voiced man. " But that's not all. If the Boche doesn't take to electricity, there's the new aerial magnet waiting for him. They are fixed all along the Kentex coast at different intervals. At the warning they point skywards and when the raiders come the magnetic power attracts the steel parts of the Gothas and draws the enemy down to the magnet. Like the Gothas, these magnets are gigantic things." At this stage of the conversation the man who proudly imparted "the hot-air knowledge to his companion stretched - his legs, and bellowed, " That also is a strict secret. The whole art of air warfare is based on its element of surprise." •" An aerial magnet would be a surprise to the Hun," unconsciously remarked the Interested One. " And so would the electric shell! " Two young Royal Flying Corps pilots on the opposite side of the carriage smiled sardonically. Said one to the loud- voiced man, "I suppose you have heard of the new camou- flage buses that we are flying now ? " The loud-voiced man had not. " Well," continued the pilot, " they are covered with cotton wool in imitation of clouds and when the Huns see them they put their Gothas into the sheds in fear of rain 1 And so raids on London grow fewer." " Now, that's something like an idea. Upon my soul, my sister-in-law's distant relative must have forgotten to tell us that," bellowed the Voice. Not to be outdone the other pilot joined in. " Then, of course," he said as seriously as circumstances allowed, " there is another expert scheme. Balloons are sent up all round London. They are connected by chains and when the Gothas come along they trip over them, with sad results to the poor old Boche. We have also the 'mobile guns,' seen only by one's friends but never by one's self. You hear them rattling about the streets on raid nights, but you never see them. That's just one of their funny ways. They never will be seen. You might not think a 15-mile-an-hour mov- able gun could chase a 90-mile-an-hour Gotha along the street, but some people think so ! " The car pulled up with a jerk at Leicester Square Station and the pilots rose to make their way along the carriage. "Don't forget that they're strict secrets," called back one eaglet to Rumour with the Loud Voice. How the aeroplane can fill an emergency want is empha- sised in the report of the Committee of the Red Cross Society. It is stated that on one occasion, when a delay in the cross- Channel service prevented a particular surgical instrument being sent to France for a special operation, the Stores Depart- ment was able, through their transport officer at Folkestone, to deliver the instrument by aeroplane within a few hours_ of receipt of the telegram. WHAT a story of daring it is, the combined seaplane and armed motor-launch raid into the Bay of Buccari, in the Gulf of Fiume, by Italian officers, including the Italian poet Signor D'Annunzio, who has been erroneously reported as prisoner in the hands of the Germans, as told from Milan. In a letter to a friend the poet says : " On the night of February ioth, with three armed motor-launches and three seaplanes, we forced our way into the Gulf of Quarnero. What a magnificent adventure ! I was 23 hours'on the sea, eight of which I spent in the very throat of the enemy, or rather, I should say, in the depths of his stomach. Never was there such a real dream. We were quite alone in our little H H H 0 H H H Hm u .•'.. • : • •"•"'• "Australian Official." On the British Western Front.— Preliminaries to a bombing ex- pedition. 13 19 H • a a HHHHHHHH 2O7
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