Page:"The next war"; an appeal to common sense (IA thenextwarappeal01irwi).pdf/64

 Lewisite gas had we decided to ‘‘eliminate all life in Berlin.”

However, air-bombardment was during the Great War essentially inaccurate. A gun, in land operations, is fired from a solid base; the artilleryman can aim at his leisure. A bomb is dropped from a base which is not only in rapid motion but partakes of the instability of the air; the bombing aviator must make an inconceivably rapid snapshot. Still, even at this crude stage, air-fire grew much more accurate. In 1914 and 1915, the bombs seldom hit their objective, unless that objective were a city in general. By 1918, they were usually hitting on or near their targets. It was still, however, mostly a matter of individual skill, not of accurate machine-work.

Then, just before the Armistice, an American, binding together many inventions made by civilians for civilian purposes, showed a dazzling way to the warfare of the future. He proved that aeroplanes, flying without pilots, could be steered accurately by wireless. This meant that the aeroplane had become a super-gun. Calibre was increased indefinitely. An aeroplane could now carry explosive-charges or gas-charges up to its whole lifting capacity of many tons. It was no longer merely a vehicle; it could be virtually a self-propelling shell. And in the matter of accuracy, the uncertain human factor was nearly eliminated, as happens in most highly-improved machines. An expert on this kind