Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 300, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1918 — SPOILING HUN’S SLEEP [ARTICLE]

SPOILING HUN’S SLEEP

Desultory Bombing Distracts Antiaircraft, Gunners.. Drop Two and Flit Away; When Fritz Settles Down, Wake Him Up Again. Behind the British Lines In France. —One of the most exciting tasks to which airmen are assigned is “desultory bombing”/over one . spot for an hour or more. The object is to distract the attention of the antiaircraft defenders of a given district A machine carrying a or more bombs is employed for the work. The airman, a pilot and an observer approach their target cautiously. With engines throttled down, the craft glides nearer and nearer. Below all Is quiet. No German searchlights are sweeping the sky. When thd attackers are almost over

their object a rocket rises and bursts into a cluster of red stars. The machine has been discovered. At once six or seven searchlights throw their beams aloft. The pilot looks at his watch; it is time to begin bombing. He flies steadily on, although a parrage of bursting shells lies now in front of him. The observer looks through, the wires of his bomb sight. He thrusts his lever’ forward and releases two bombs. A few seconds later he sees the flash of their explosions, and hears two dull roars. He signals to the yllot and the machine sweeps away from the fiery ring of shells and searchlights. A few miles away the airplane flies to and fro at top speed. The puzzled searchlights vainly feel the sky in all directions and then, ope by one, are switched off. Then the pilot quickly returns toward the target. Another bomb is dropped As it explodes the searchlights reappear and the barrage-is renewed, while through the shell bursts are threaded the chains of green flaming globes so much used by the Germans. Again the machine flies away and this time to bewilder the soldiers below, the observer fires a white Verey light, which slowly drifts down and fades out. All the searchlights follow it until it dies. Repeatedly the airmen retu.ro to the attack. Bombs are dropped at intervals until the end of the hour, when tire machine departs, flickering fires arid clouds of smoke telling of the havoc wrought by the