New Britain Herald Newspaper, August 22, 1914, Page 11

NonmAnT NS Photos by American Press Association. =-An aeroplane In flight over a Brit- ish ship. 2.~Projectile u planes. 3~French bomb throwing aeroplane with aviator about to drop 4—Winston Churchill (cen- ower) alighting after naval aero- plane flight. b6.~German dirigible alighting on French territory. 6~— English military aeroplane flying at roplane out to 8.—Rear of Zep- dirigible, after the frontier of 9 hip. 4, German ¥ By JOHN J. BREEN. HE qugstion in the minds of every " military man when Austria declared war against Servia was, What will be the ‘role of the aeroplane in a conflict be- tween the great European powers? It was the first time that the world would have a chance to behold in ac- - tion the most ingenious method of de- struction ever devised by man. Discussing a war between the triple alliance and the triple entente over the Austro-Servian imbroglio, British offi- “cers in London predicted that the aerial corps of both sides would play a most important part in the fighting and that the relative aviation strength of the various nations that will be drawn into the war would in a great measure determine their general fight- ing power. Russia, more so than any other coun- try, has gone in for aviation. Bhe is A SNSNSAANNASNASNNAN e P et RO R today the “queen of the air,” from a military viewpoint, having about 380 aeroplanes at her command, the great- est number of which are of the most modern type, capable of carrying as many as eight passengers with 5,000 pounds of ammunition. Austria has only about 150 flying machines of va- rious types. Italy has about 200 well equipped airships of various types, while the Italian army aviators have had the benefit of training in the re- cent war with Turkey. France has a large fleet of airships with a well trained corps of aviators who are ready to go into action at a moment’s notice. The French army and navy together have about 750 machines. Germany has an aerial fleet operating about 500 aeroplanes and dirigibles. The latter are considered by many aviation experts to be below the aero- plane in warfare, being too clumsy and too hard to control, as well as more easily discernible. Curiously enough, Great Britain, the “empress of the NEW BRITAIN DAILY HERALD, . sea,” has less fighting strength than any other country. She has only about 130 aeroplanes properly equipped and ready for service at the present moment. ‘What are the possible uses to which a flying machine may be put in war? The first is reconnaissance—that is, the examination by trained officers of definite tracts of country or localities, with a view to ascertaining the nature of the country, the roads, railways, riv- ers and bridges, battle positions, the nature and extent of fortifications, po- sition, number and nature of the ene- my’s troops, position of supply trains, military depots and military move- ments that are in progress. Then, there is the harassing and de- laying of an enemy by the discharge of light bombs on encampments, biv- ouacs and large formed bodies of troops and of incendiary bombs on supply stores. Attack on Airships. The attack on an enemy’s flying ma- IDAY, AUGUST '/ 1914 AANAANANAANNANNANANANANANANAANANNAAA AN chines and airships is possibly the most thrilling and most imaginative use to which a flying war fleet might be put. Another use of the flylng machine in war time is the direct attack on con- voys and on troops on the march, or halted in close formation, by aero- planes carrying machine guns. Not least in importance among the uses of the aeroplane is the quick transport of staff officers and dis- patches and the promoting of general intercommunication. The methods of defense against the agile fighters of the air furnish a pretty problem. Most recent experiments have shown that at a great risk of life and expenditure of ammuneon artil- lery fire can be employed in destroying the airships, but the defense is so un- certain, the ranges so hard to deter- mine and the chances of hitting the machine or the driver either with shrapnell shells, bullets or artillery shells so small that great damage o~ would be affected by the airship or dirigible before it could be brought to the ground. Speaking on this point, Colonel J. B. Capper of the British army says: “All things considered, it may be taken that, though the occupants of a flying machine must run some and possibly considerable risk in flying over territory occupied by hostile troops, the risk is not so great but that they would be justified in facing it in the Interests of their own country. “The best way of disabling the flying machine of an enemy would be to send a flying ship to engage it in battle.” On this point Colonel Capper says: “Let us imagine ourselves on a flying machine, gliding along at fifty miles an hour, 2,000 feet above the earth. Suddenly, in the far distance, we see a speck which our trained intelligence soon tells us is an airship. Is it one of our own or the enemy’s? In any case our action is the same. “We know we are invisible from it, and If it is a friend we can do no harm in going above it. If an enemy, it Is all important to us that we should reach and keep the upper level. Little time have we to decide on our action. We were only twenty miles apart when we first made it out, and at five miles we ourselves may be visible. “We are rushing toward each other at tremendous speed, and in ten min- utes that fifteen miles shall have been covered. “We turn backward on our course, push the motor to its utmost limit and rise. Now our speed is reduced to that of the airship, and five minutes hence we are still fifteen miles apart, but we are 3,600 feet high. “Another five minutes and we pass the 5,000. Still another and we are at 6,600 feet, higher than the probable level of the airship, so we can afford to close with her. We turn again and rush full speed toward her. She looms . ® AIRSHIPS TREMENDOVU.S FORCE IN WAR_ » creature, moving on serenely uncom: scious of her peril. “Five minutes pass, six, and still she holds on her way. Seven—see, shi suddenly turns, her bow shoots up, & stream of ballast falls from her. She has seen her danger and is trying to escape by rising and by flight. Can she do it? Every Moment Precious. “Every moment is preclous. It 18 certain that she was well below us when her lookout first saw us, prob- ably not more than 5,000 feet. Had we only escaped notice one minute longer and were her captain and crew novices at their trade her destruction bad been assured. “But her crew are perfectly disci- plined and trained. They have not lost a moment. Still, the turn has taken her nearly a minute, and we are but three miles awa. She has risen 200 feet during the turn and can now rise at 600 feet a minute, while our ut- most power is 300 feet a minute. Our speed is twice hers so long we do not rise, but only equal to hers when we are rising fast. “We keep stralght on, still at 6,500 feet. ,Two minutes pass. Only two miles are now between us, but she is now on our level. “It must be a chase to the highest altitudes. The sky is cold and clear; without one grateful cloud in which she can wrap herself impenetrable and hide from her mosquito torment. “Minute after minute passes. We rise, pursuing her. Bach mwinute she gains 300 feet of altitude on us, and we gain no single inch in distance, but no matter. Stream after stream of ballast falls from her side, and see how they are throwing their petrol tins, garments, anything to enable her to rise still higher. “Their only hope is to keep up a 9 up, trusting our fuel may give out ..: the engine cease to take us upwar . Vain hope. Our engine is working ¢ well as ever, and we have fuel for sev eral hours yet. “It is only a question of endurance now. At such a level no airship yei bullt can have any reserve of fuel left Ultimately. her engine must stop, anc she will drift a helpless mass before the wind. She may begin to fall.” The British expert then concludes: In a fight between flying machines victory will go to that which can fly and rise fastest, maneuver easiest and shoot the straightest. Numbers and up larger and larger, and we recognize her as an enemy—a stately, graceful tactics will have their effects, just as in fight on sea or on land.” 1\7Vorld’s Greatest Gun to Protect Canal Photo by American Press Assoclation. World's Largest Cannon Mounted on Specially Constructed Flat Car. MY o3rdnance officlals believe that when its breech lockln;| devics has been perfected at | Watsrvliet arsenal, the great sixteen inch gun, the biggest plece of ordnance in the world, will be a treé- mendous instrument of peace when it is finally in position on the Panama canal. The carriage for this gun is now under construction in the Water- town (Mass.) arsenal, and the gun provably will be taken back to Sandy “fuon tor tests after being mounted and will not be shipped to Panama be- fore next spring. When Lieutenant George R. Goethals, U. S. A, son of Colonel Goethals, the builder of the Panama canal, who has been in charge of the building of the fortifications at the Pacific entrance to the canal, arrived in New York on his way to West Point, where he acts as instructor, he would not discuss his work on the canal, but his leaving at that time, declared men familtar with the conatruction in Panama, indicated that the fortifications had been com- pleted. The building of the forts guarding the canal has gone on for years sur- rounded by the greatest secrecy, and even now little is known about the de- fenses. At the Pacific end of the ca- nal forts have been built on the is- lands of Flamenco, Perico and Naos, in Panama bay, and on the mainland at Balboa. At the Atlantic end the forts are at Toro Point and Margarita is- lands, guarding the west and cast sides of the canal respectively. The forts have batteries of fourteen inch guns, twelve inch mortars and six inch guns, while at the Pacific end in addition there will be the big sixteen inch gun. Some idea may be had of the tre- mendous power of this gun, destined to protect the Pacific entrance to the Panama canal, from the fact that it is fifty feet long, weighs 142 tons and fires a projectile about six feet long. The projectile itself weighs a ton and is discharged by 665 pounds of powder. It requires eight men to carry the pow- der charge. This gun has a maximum range of from twenty-two to twenty- three miles, or half the distance be- tween New York city and West Point. The elevation permitted by its carriage will enable the gun to fire a projectile about eleven miles across the Pacific ocean. It has sufficient power theo- retically to pierce two feet of the best armor at the muzzle. At eleven miles the gun is calculated to pierce a twelve inch armor plate or any side armor afloat. ‘When a shell leaves the gun It is re- volving around its axis at about 4,000 revolutions a minute and develops a pressure of 38,000 pounds to the square inch, The pressure to the rear on the gun and forward on the projectile amounts to 7,600,000 pounds, The pro- Jectile’s velocity of 2,250 feet per sec- ond gives a muzzle energy of some- what more than 64,000 tons—that is, energy capable of raising forty-two tons one foot every second. “Henceforth Panama must be the great highway of commerce on the globe,” says Colonel George W. Goethals in an interview. “The mighty stream of trade and travel between east and west, between Europe and Asla, must flow by way of America rather than eastern Europe. America now occuples the same position with regard to world trade and world movements that ancient Rome once did. All Americans of today should feel proud and thrilled to know that this achievement has been accomplish- ed in their generation, an achieve- ment that has required the devoted la- bor of 50,000 men and the sacrifice of many brave American lives." The picture of the sixteen inch gun that Is to be mounted on the fortifica- tions of the canal gives some idea of the warm reception that will await any foreign power that tries to interfere with the canal. ' WALTON WILLIAMS. RIGADIER GENERAL MILLS, in commemoration of the cen- tenary of the raid and burn- ing of Washington Aug. 24, 1814, planned an outline of maneuvers. It was a sort of bloodless battle. As may be imagined, it 18 far more diffi- cult now to reach the city than then. The British had little trouble in 1814 In sending its raiding party to loot, plunder and burn. This incident of our second war with England was one of the most picturesque events in Ameri- can history. A stirring dramatic episode It was, and its heroine was none other than the famous Dorothy Madison. Vivid even at this day is the picture of the scene as she herself described it in letters written actually while her ears were being assailed by the booming of the British cannon at Bladensburg, for fighting was already in progress Just outside Washington and utmost haste was being made to pack up and remove from the president’s palace, as it was then called, everything of value that could be taken away. While streams of dismayed fugitives passed over the Potomac by way of the Long bridge, leaving Washington almost depopulated, Mistress Dolly, in the absence of her husband, coolly di- rected the activities of a force of clerks detailed for the business of salvage. At her order linen sacks, roughly sewed together for the purpose, were hung around the walls to recelve portable stuff. All of the silver and the costly velvet draperies were duly bagged, and special care was taken to insure the preservation of the constitution of the United States, Washington's commis- sion as commander in chief of the American armies, and, most precious of all, the Declaration of Independence, which last, by the way, afterward hung for many years in the dining room at Montpelier, the Madison home in Vir- ginia. A much prized bit of loot it would have been for the British If they could have got hold of it. In the midst of hurry and confusion when the army was thundering at the gates of the city Mistress Dolly found time to sit down and write a letter to her sister as follows: “Will you believe it, my dear sister, we have had a battle near Bladens- burg? And I am still here within sound of the cannon. Mr. Madison comes not. May God protect him! Two messages covered with dust come to bid me fly, but I wait for him. At this late hour a wagon has been pro- cured. I have had it filled with the plate and most valuable portable arti- cles. Whether it will reach its desti- nation, the bank of Maryland, or fall into the hands of the British, events must determine. On that lamentable 23d day of Au- Cenienary of Washington’s Capture by British Philadelphia, where he remained. The British troops entered the city after nightfall on Aug. 23 and en- encamped a short distance east of the capitol. After burning the capitel they marched up Pennsylvania avenue to the president's palace. General Ross, their commander, with the offi- |cers of his staff, ate supper at the house of an old lady named Sutor close by, and at the conclusion of & leisurely meal he ordered his men to White House and Dolly Madison. gust no regular meals were served In the “palace.” Mrs. Madison, the clerks and the servants of the household snatched a bite when and where they could; hence there is no truth in the oft told tale of a “sumptuous banquet” which the British invaders when they arrived “found smoking on the table.” Before his final departure Mr. Madi- son distributed what food and wine there were in the house among the tired and hungry American ' soldiers who happened by. The last person to leave the man- slon was John Siousa, a porter. who carried Mrs. Madison's pét parrot to Colonel Taylor's house four blocks break iInto the mansion. This was at about 11 p. m. When the house bad been ransacked from top to bottom it was set on fire and burned rapidly, for, although the walls were u,‘l‘- stone, the floors were of wood. away, left it there, came back, locked up and tovk the keys with him to ARTHUR J. BRINTON.