JOURNAL 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. VIII AUGUST 19, 1918 No. 14 



ARTILLERY. — The problem of anti-aircraft firing.^ X. Reille. 

 Lieutenant Colonel, Chief of Artillery in the French Ad- 

 visory Mission. (Communicated by L. J. Briggs.) 



At the beginning of the war it was ahnost impossible to fore- 

 see what would be the development of aviation in the army and 

 what developments in anti-aircraft artillery would of necessity 

 follow. The object of artillery against aircraft is above every- 

 thing else to prevent the enemy machines from fulfilling their 

 mission of observation. Although there are those who seem to 

 think that the present and future role of aviation consists mainly 

 in dropping bombs, it must be said that this is a decided error. 

 The principal role of aviation is not in the dropping of bombs 

 but in observation. 



The flying machine should be considered not so much one of 

 the arms of the artillery as one of its eyes — and that eye the 

 better one. 



In fighting the enemy aircraft our guns fight the artillery of 

 the enemy in its most vital part. The artilleryman who fires, 

 or orders firing, against aircraft should never forget the impor- 

 tance of his role, which is to render the artillery of the enemy 

 practically useless by blinding it. 



At the outbreak of the war there were only a few types of 

 anti-aircraft guns in our army, and as far as we know there was 

 no special anti-aircraft gun in thfe German army. On both 



'A lecture given before the Washington Academy of Sciences on April 18, 1918. 



465 



