Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/435

 Gunning for Aircraft How the Italians Do It

The pieces must be fired at their targets point-blank, just as a duck hunter fires at birds on the wing

��WHILE it is true that no European strategist foresaw the important part that aircraft were destined to play in the present bloody conflict, it was at least realized that a man in the air had reconnoitering possibilities. Krupp even developed anti-aircraft guns to be carried on automobiles — weapons so clum- sily mounted that they were of not much avail against a swiftly moving flying- machine. One of Ger- many's pio- neer advo- cates of the military fly- ing machine was Colonel Moedebeck. As far back as 1909, he predicted that only shrapnel could be ef- f e c t i V e 1 y used against a prying air- scout — a prediction which has been amply fulfilled in the war. How as-

���How They Gun for Airplanes in Italy

Before the war no military engineer would have dreamt of mounting so heavy a piece on an automobile. Indeed, it would have been considered almost an engineering impossibility. But the necessity of attacking pr\-ing air scouts from constantly changing locations has made it absolutely necessarj' to achieve what seemed to be the impossible

��tonishingly

anti-aircraft artillery has developed is evidenced by the accompanying photo- graph, taken on the Italian front. The earlier anti-aircraft weapons were rather small and were provided with elaborate range-finding devices. In a few months it was found that the pieces must be very much hea\ier than had been anticipated, and that they must fire at their targets, point-blank, just as a duck hunter fires at birds on the wing; there is no time for range finding.

As our photograph shows, the caliber has been increased enormously. The English and French have mounted heavy

��naval guns on field-carriages. Here we see an Italian anti-aircraft gun heavier than the piece which Krupp in 1910 de- signed exclusively for naval use, boldly mounted on an automobile truck. It is evident the truck is built for speed — evident because of the mud-guards.

The heavy shell fired by this Italian piece scatters a cloud of deadly bullets. Because of its power, the

velocity of ^ the pro- jectile is maintained better than would have been possi- ble with the feebler pieces with which Eu- rope entered the war. In- deed, high power is necessary be- cause of the altitude at which battle planes now fly for safety. Such a heavy gun has a practi- cally straight

��path at high angle fire; the projectile reaches its target quickly. It is hard at best to judge the point at which an airplane will have arrived to be annihilated by a shell fired from below. Hence it is of paramount importance to reach that point as quickly as possible.

A good pilot can avoid being hit by suddenly turning and twisting as soon as he sees an anti-aircraft battery open on him. Establishsd batteries, whose location can hardly escape detection, are therefore at a disadvantage. But a gun like that here shown, mounted as it is on a swift automobile, has a better chance.

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