Page:Aircraft in Warfare (1916).djvu/48

§ 7 certain that a hundred or so yards of barbed wire trailed, beneath an aeroplane would be a quite sufficient weapon; equally effective would be an incendiary shell, or a rocket, presuming any part of the envelope to be hit. Ordinary small-arm or machine-gun fire is comparatively ineffective, since the bullet holes are, in any case, small, and in some, of the modern machines repairs can be effected without coming to earth. However, even rifle fire has proved sufficient to bring a balloon down. It is evident that the weak point of any dirigible or airship is its liability to attack from above; in the non-rigid type, without going to the length of any elaborate apparatus, and without endangering the attacking aeroplane, almost any angular and weighty object dropped from a height cannot fail to be of conclusive effect if it fairly, hits the envelope, and likewise in the case of the rigid type—such as the Zeppelin—the structure would not stand up under a blow from, say, a steel bar of any ordinary stock section of 70 lb, or 80 lb, weight dropped from a height of 200 ft, or 300 ft. Without saying that the above are suitable methods of attack, it may be claimed that they fairly indicate the inherent weakness of the dirigible in face of attack by an aeroplane of sufficient power to master it in the matter of altitude. There are methods not mentioned here which are actually in use or in contemplation, but which, for obvious reasons, require to be treated as confidential. It is, however, in the author's opinion, quite unnecessary to carry the matter further; the weaknesses of the dirigible on the defensive are so great and of such a character as to render it quite unfit to remain an active participant in aerial warfare. It may escape for a time, and may render a certain amount of useful service, but only thanks to the circumstance the number of high-powered, fast-climbing aeroplanes is comparatively limited, and to the fact that scientific methods of attack have not