Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1915 — MEN WHO GO UP IN AIR TO FIGNT ARE REAL HEROES OF THIS WAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MEN WHO GO UP IN AIR TO FIGNT ARE REAL HEROES OF THIS WAR

Two Astounding Facts Noticed on Battle Lines by Edward B. Clark Are That It Is Almost Impossible for Artillerymen to Hit an Aeroplane and Almost Equally Impossible for an Aviator to Hit Seleoted Target With a Bomb.

By EDWARD B. CLARK.

(Oaf Corrr*i>ond<-nt of tho Wettorn N(*lpap«r Union.) Paris. —Pont-a-Mousson on the Moselle river has been bombarded by the

Germans two hundred and twenty times since lsst September and yet Pont -a-Mousson is still on the map. This little French village is under almost constant bombardment, not because of any particular desire perhaps of the foe to destroy it ruthlessly but proba b 1y because the wish is to prevent the French from assembling large

forces of troops within its limits, and •Iso to keep them from placing batteries at a notably valuable strategie point Thousands of shells have fallen into this Moselle river village and almost every day they continue to rain down. There is a curious thing to be noticed in Pont-a-Mousson. Only one part of the village is destroyed, for nearly all the shells have fallen within a limited area A good many civilians, old men, women and children have been killed in the streets of the village, but the loss of life has been due largely to the neglect of some of the villagers to take refuge at the first warning in their bomb-proof cellars. Why the Germans have concentrated lire on one section of Pont-a-Mousson It is hard to determine, but the fact 'that the major part of the village has escaped destruction leads one to comment on the escape of many another target at which shell fire has been directed. Two Astounding Facts. Two of the most astounding facts Which came to my notice on the batitle lines of France are these: That it la almost impossible for the artillerymen of any country to bring down an aeroplane, and in that it is almost equally impossible for an aviator to drop a bomb successfully on the target which he has selected for destruction. - Why is it that the batteries can’t hit their flying mark, and why is it that the man on the flying mark can't hit the batteries or anything else that he 4ims at? These questions must be left probably for answer to the scientists, whether they be in the army or in civil life. Nqw it must not be understood that the batteries never hit anything, or that the aviators never hit anything. Sometimes they accomplish their objects of death or destruction or both, but much more frequently they fail. Readers of the papers learn only of the successful attacks. Much Wasted Effort. Before this 1 have told about seeing a French battery doing its level best to bring down a German taube which was bent on flying over the city of Nancy for the purpose of dropping bombs on the houses and the people. The German machine made its way through a perfect Btorm of shrapnel and did it unscathed. It finally was tiriven back, but it was uninjured. Shells broke all about and scattered the shrapnel bullets like hail. But the operator went serenely on his way with the machine until the fusillade became too hot even for him, and he was forced to turn back toward the .German line where he landed safely. Stories like this could be multiplied indefinitely. On another occasion at the actual front a German aeroplane came over the French line not far from the Bois-le-Pretre or in English, the Wood of the Priest, one of the most hotlycontested fields along the entire western battle front. The German intruder was fired at by every gun, large and small, which the French could bring to bear. Seemingly the day of miracles is not over, for this aeroplane escaped without barm. Like the other it was compelled to turn about and to make its way back into the German lines, but the French counted it a very small victory simply to force the retreat of the air foeman. Fooled by Biplane. In Paris one day a biplane appeared over the city. Every German air visitor for months had come in the form of a monoplane and so «*en the biplane appeared the French in one aviation camp thought that the visitor was a machine from a camp of their *»ontrymen. for the French largely Mse biplanes. The machinedlsplayed the French colors and this fact helped, ft unimpeded on its way. The visitor sailed around over the Garden of the Tuileries, the Place de la Concorde and the Qua! d’ Orsay for nearly an hoar. Later 1 was particularly interested In the movements of this biplane because my wife all ooeonsniour of danger, had bean sitting

in the Tuileries garden for more than half an hour while the machine circled above her head. Finally she started back to her hotel and bad just reached it when the supposed French biplane dropped eight bombs, one after another, in fairly rapid succession. The Eiffel Tower rears Its head one thousand feet above the plane of Paris. It is used as a wireless telegraph station and on the platform at Its top are mounted several antiaircraft guns. The German biplane which was disguised as a Frenchman was attempting to “take the life” of the Eiffel tower. The eight bombs which the German let fall were aimed at the tower, but the bomb nearest to the mark fell nearly half a mile away from It One of the Marvels. The poor success which aviators have in hitting the things they aim at is one of the marvels of the present warfare. Not long ago there was an account of an attack made through the air on a German depot at Bruges, Belgium. French and English aviators in considerable numbers flew over the place and succeeded in dropping bombs into a shipyard and on a freight depot and in doing considerable damage to both. This exploit was hailed as a great triumph of marksmanship. Nothing was said about the fact that before the successful raid, ten attempts had been made by many aviators acting together to hit the same mark and all had failed. To hit a thing once in ten times is not considered a particularly high average of markmanship on land or sea but it seems that the man who can "ring the bell’’ once in ten times from the air is considered a sharpshooter. I don’t want to get away from this marksmanship subject until I tell the story of something which happened in an English coaßt town which I visited but whose name I am not permitted to disclose. Some weeks ago the English authorities published the names of the towns and villages which had suffered from German aeroplane or Zeppelin attacks, but recently they have suppressed the names of the towns which have received the baptism of fire from above.

Shock Cures Paralysis. I went into one English village which had been visited the night before by a Zeppelin. Bombs had been dropped haphazard because it was impossible to pick out a mark In the inky blackness of the night. One bomb fell on a hospital in which there were about one hundred wounded English soldiers. Not one of them was hurt, but all of them except the legless ones made a hurried escape from the wrecked building, wounded and sick though they were. Qne soldier who had disappeared was searched Tor hurriedly by the nurses. He was found half a mile up the road. This man had been taken to the hospital completely paralyzed from the waist down. He had been unable to move T either leg and yet under the shock of the explosion and the resulting excitement he found the use of his legs and made a good half mile before he fell down exhausted. At the front In France the noise of the cannonading is almost continuous. The big guns roar away all through the days and sometimes through the nights when not a small rifle is being fired, and no charges of infantry are being made. Of course, the cannon have an objective for their shots, usually some battery of the enemy or some wood In which large forces of men are supposed to be assembled. Occasionally a battery Is put out of commission by a dropping shell and also occasionally a score or so of men will be blown to fragments by the

exploswa of a huge 'nvyctlle ffcfltnf in th«lr m'dxt but nevertheless fully 95 per cent of the shots miss tbs mark. Are Not Really Wasted. Is It any wonder that the ammunition bill is big and that results do not measure up to It? It must be remembered. however, that the constant dropping of shells keeps the morale of the foemen down and that when it is said that the shots are wasted the words do not express the full truth. One of the most interesting things which i saw on the battle front ia France, was the attempt of a French battery to “bring down” a captive balloon which the Germans bad sent up from their lines for observation purposes. The two Germans in the basket of that balloon must have been men of magnificent nerve. The range was not a long one and the first French shells burst at some distance from the balloon. Gradually, however, the shots began getting nearer and nearer to the mark, but the balloonists with their lives in their hands went on taking their observation amid a rain of projectiles until apparently the commanding officer on the ground below ordered that they should be pulled down to a place of safety. The men who go up in the air to fight, whether they be Englishmen, Frenchmen, Belgians, Germans, Russians, Turks or Italians, are perhaps the transcending heroes of this war.