Part 12 (1/2)
The opening of the gun tunnel was carefully ”camouflaged,” so that at a short distance it could not be seen by an attacking airplane, especially one which was unprepared for it.
The _Gotha_ practically bristled with machine guns. One in its bow which commanded a fairly large range was operated by the forward observer, who sat in front of the pilot. A pa.s.sage-way beside the pilot's seat allowed him to reach ”gun-tunnel,” where, stretched flat on the floor of the fuselage he operated the gun which fired out under the tail. Above him in the fuselage sat the rear gunner, and by their combined aid the _Gotha_ could keep all enemy planes at a safe distance.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Copyright Underwood and Underwood_
A GIANT GOTHA BOMBING PLANE BROUGHT DOWN BY THE FRENCH]
These, however, were merely protective measures. The Gotha's real mission was bombing, and for this it carried a bomb-releasing mechanism just in front of the pilot's seat, on the floor of the fuselage, while behind the pilot an additional supply of the death-dealing missiles were carried in racks in vertical position.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Copyright Underwood and Underwood_
GERMAN FOKKER PLANE CAPTURED BY THE FRENCH]
These were the machines which flew over England and France in 1917 scattering death and destruction. Against them the machines of the Allies were for a time almost powerless, for the best of their airplanes were completely outgunned by this new terror of the skies. The new German machine was given one of its first tryouts in the Balkans, where a squadron of twin-engined _Gothas_ accomplished the bombing of Bucharest. Its efficiency proved, it appeared over the lines and was also used extensively by the Germans for long distance bombing operations.
The fact that the _Gothas_ flew in large squadrons made them still more difficult to attack. Yet Allied airplanes went out to give them fight, and in spite of what seemed the almost complete hopelessness of the situation, they did succeed in breaking up _Gotha_ formations and in downing a few of the dread machines.
Yet another German twin-winged bombing plane was ready about this time.
The _Friedrichshafen_ bomber was not so large as the _Gotha_, but in many points of construction it resembled it. A biplane, it had wings that tapered somewhat from the center to the tips. The wings were strengthened by center spars of steel tubing, which was also used in the construction of the rudder and elevators at the tail. The pilot occupied the rear seat in the c.o.c.kpit and the gunner the forward seat, while a short pa.s.sage-way ran between the two. Every effort had been made at camouflage. On their upper surfaces the wings were painted as nearly as possible earth color, so that they might be indistinguishable to a machine looking down upon them from a superior alt.i.tude. On their lower surfaces they were painted pale blue, to blend with the sky and make them invisible to an enemy plane below.
The armament of this _Friedrichshafen_ bomber consisted of three machine guns, one of them firing downward through a trap door in the fuselage.
It was fitted with an automatic bomb-releasing apparatus, by means of which, as one bomb was released, another slipped into place.
Other bombing machines appeared in 1917, as the _A.E.G._ twin-motored tractor biplane, and the _A.G.O._ twin-bodied biplane. The Germans also began construction of huge bombing triplanes, heavily armed with machine guns. With squadrons of these, the _Gothas_, and the _Friedrichshafens_, they carried out in 1917 and 1918 an established program of bombardment.
The night no longer held terrors for their airmen, who had learned to fly in the darkness. They made their raiding expeditions, not only against Allied troops and military bases, but also on English and French towns, killing civilians and children and destroying property of no importance from a military point of view.
By these methods the Hun had hoped to acquire the supremacy of the air which his smaller fighting machines had not yet won for him. Fortunately the French and British had been hard at work, and in answer to the forays of the German bombing planes, squadrons of Allied planes dropped their missiles in the heart of Germany. The Allied planes, however, chose military objectives, and did not aim their blows at defenseless civilians.
Stroke for stroke, and with a little extra for good measure the Allies beat back their opponents in the air. To-day some of the most remarkable raiding machines in existence, whether for night or for day work belong to France and England, while America is leaving no stone unturned to build up an air navy the equal of those by whose side she fought.
Yet the war in the air, on the Allied side, was always marked by honor, decency and humanity. The enemy repeatedly showed that not mere military gains, but the savage pleasure of bombing civilians, was a part of his air program. In March, 1918, nine squadrons of his airplanes flew over Paris and attacked the city. The raid resulted in 100 deaths, besides 79 people injured, a shocking story to go down in the record of the Hun's attempt at mastery of the air.
Mr. Baker, our American Secretary of War, was in Paris at the time when this historic raid occurred. He was holding a conference at his hotel with General Tasker H. Bliss, at the time American Chief of Staff, when the French warning siren was sounded throughout the city. The city was covered with a deep fog, that completely s.h.i.+elded from the view of the German machines any possible objective. But they had no intention of choosing targets for their bombs,--they let them fall at random upon Paris. For almost three hours terror reigned among the helpless civilians; then the raiders, having lost four of their number to the anti-aircraft gunners, turned and sped swiftly toward their own lines.
”It was a revelation,” said Mr. Baker, ”of the methods inaugurated by an enemy who wages the same war against women and children as against soldiers.... We are sending our soldiers to Europe to fight until the world is delivered from these horrors.”
London as well as Paris suffered from enemy bombing planes. Raid followed raid in the Spring of 1918, but the British had so improved their aerial defenses that they were able to meet the attempted ravages of the enemy with the most powerful anti-aircraft guns, which, like a wall of fire, forbade the dread monsters to come within the limits of the metropolis. Many machines in the German squadrons never got close enough to London to bomb it, but those which did let fall their terrible explosives without aim or object, killing and maiming a large number of civilians. The British were finally forced to take the only course which could have effect with the Hun. They flew into the heart of the enemy's country and gave him a taste of his own medicine. True, they chose their objectives carefully, and the targets which they bombed were munition works, railways, factories, and camps, but for all their tempered revenge they made the foe smart beneath the stinging lash that descended, again and again, upon his back.
In answer to the aircraft program of the United States, Germany renewed her energies, and her construction of airplanes during the last year of the War was on a larger scale than ever before. Her small fighting machines, or speed scouts, include the _Fokker_, the _Halberstadt_, the _Roland_, the _Albatros_, the _Aviatik_, the _Pfalz_ monoplane, the _Rumpler_, the _L.V.W._ and a number of others.
Some of these we have already seen at work. The _Roland_ is one of the latest types of German two-seater scouts. Every effort has been made in it to decrease the ”head resistance” by careful streamlining, reduction of the number of interplane struts, etc. Swift flying and a rapid climber, it has won for itself the t.i.tle of _The German Spad_. The _Pfalz_ is built either as a monoplane or as a biplane. It is a machine somewhat similar to the _Fokker_. The monoplane, however, has two machine guns, one on each side of the pilot, and firing through the propeller.
Among airplanes used by the enemy for general service duties over the lines, the _A.G.O._, the _A.E.G._ and the _Gotha_ undoubtedly take the lead. All are heavily armed with machine guns and bombs and are driven by powerful motors.
Yet for all the desperate German struggle for supremacy, her machines and her pilots did not prove the equals of the Allies in the air. The airplanes of France, England, Italy and America maintained a ceaseless vigilance over the lines, giving chase to every enemy plane or squadron of planes that made its appearance on the horizon. Our airmen showed the most dauntless courage, and they continually outwitted and outmaneuvered the slower thinking Hun. Our speed scouts challenged his reconnaissance and bombing planes, and prevented them from performing their missions effectively; our own reconnaissance airplanes gave him a hard time of it; and our bombing machines proved themselves the strong right arm of the service--taking the place of the big guns in raining heavy explosives upon enemy troops, bombing his military bases, and making life in general most uncomfortable for the foe.
It is a far cry from those first standardized _Taubes_ to the many makes and patterns of German airplanes of the present day. As the Allies met those first maids-of-all-work with a mixed company of airplanes of many and untried talents, so to-day they are meeting her efforts to imitate their own versatility in aircraft with machines which are carefully standardized in every detail. It should be an object lesson to Germany that the Allies have triumphed in each case.
CHAPTER VIII