Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 247, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1917 — BAGGING AN ENEMY AIRPLANE [ARTICLE]

BAGGING AN ENEMY AIRPLANE

Germane Have Devised System of Determining Filer's Altitude Before Firing Big Shells. The Germans have arranged their guns In batteries; and when an enemy plane came within range the first gun would throw three shells Into the air in rapid succession, writes Lieut G. T. Cummings In the American Boy. These were so devised that they would explode at different elevations, liberating different colors In a smoke cloud. Usually one of these would be somewhere near the plane. Thus the Germans had three fixed altitudes in the air, and from their smoke test they could instantly determine the altitude es the plane. A second gun of the battery fires a big, high explosive shell, aimed as close to the airplane as possible. If It explodes close enough it will wreck the machine, but the Germans do not really expect to get one even with the second shell. The effect of this explosion Is to “dud” the air. It creates air conditions which for a time make it impossible to move in that vicinity. It is the third gun which gets him. Having ascertained the range with the first, and killed the air with the second, a big shrapnel shell* is directed from the third gun. If the machine has been fairly caught by the high explosive shell, the 600 shrapnel balls released by the next generally finish it.