Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1909 — Application of High Explosives In Aerial Warfare. [ARTICLE]

Application of High Explosives In Aerial Warfare.

By HUDSON MAXIM.

Inventor.

f LYING MACHINES NEVER WILL BE ABLE TO WORK WIDF. DESTRUCTION BY DROPPING EXPLOSIVES FROM THE AIR Even large quantities of high explosives dropped from an aerial fleet upon battleships, coast fortifications and ill the streets of large cities would not be widely destructive. In order to do much damage dynamite REQUIRES CONFINING. Large, high explosive bombs dropped into the* smokestacks of war vessels or close beside them in the water might do some wicked work. The great field for operations with high explosives carried in airships will be in the raiders’ outfit The coming aerial fleet NEED NOT BOTHER ABOUT COAST FORTIFICATIONS OR BATTLESHIPS. They cannot in the least bar tjhe way to aerial invasion, and in war it is never policy to waste effort or ammunition on what does not stand in the way of entering the territory of the enemy. The true work of high explosives in aerial warfare LIES IN WORKING WIDE DESTRUCTION ON UNPROTECTED INLAND CITIES AND TOWNS, DESTROYING RAILROADS, BLOWING UP BRUGES, ARSENALS, PUBLIC STORES, POWDER MAGAZINES AND POWDER MILLS, IN LEVYING RANSOM AND IN THE HARASSMENT OF THE OPPOSING POPULATION.