WAR OF THE NATIONS 



6171 



WAR OF THE NATIONS 



The "Liberty Motors." After the United 

 States entered the war the necessity of Ameri- 

 can participation in airship building was pressed 

 home upon the officials of that government. 

 The best engineers of the country gave their 

 entire attention to producing an engine for air- 

 ships which should excel the best efforts of the 

 Old World and assure a type of flying machine 

 superior to anything known to the enemy. In 

 September, 1917, it was announced that an en- 

 which met the demands had been made, 

 and it was named the "Liberty motor." 



Plans were well matured before the end of 

 1917 for completing a great number of airships 

 by early spring of 1918 and of rapidly incrc i 

 the output until a "cloud of witnesses" in the 

 air in Europe should attest America's can 

 ness in entering the war. Thousands of aviators 

 in various camps in the United States were pre- 

 paring to take their places by the side of the 

 airmen of the al: 



There was no question regarding the effi- 

 ciency or the superiority of the Liberty motor; 

 it was one of the great achievements of the war. 

 An appropriation of $640,000,000 for aircraft 

 production was made by Congress, but the 

 results from that investment were disappoint- 

 ing. It was charged that a large part of the 

 appropriation was wasted; comparatively few 

 flying machines from the United States reached 

 Fran< : ly all American airmen were sup- 



plied with British and French planes, but had 

 tHe war not ended in 1918 the aircraft of Amer- 

 ica would certainly have played a more impor- 

 tant part. 



On the date of the armistice 13,396 Liberty 

 motors had been manufactured. A monthly 

 production of 1,200 airships had been reached 

 by October, 1918; by November 11 there were 

 in Kurope 4,500 planes of American manufac- 

 ture, including types for observation, pursuit 

 and bombing. 



The Zeppelins. At the beginning of the war 



German government placed great reliance 



upon its great Zeppelins dirigible balloons 600 



feet long, with four powerful motors develop- 

 ing over 500-horse power. Count Zeppelin, 

 their inventor, died in 1917, at just the time 

 his mammoth ships of the air were declared not 

 to have achieved the success that was antici- 

 (1 for them. However, they were of signal 

 sen-ice to Germany, especially in long-distance 

 raids over England and France for the purpose 

 of dropping deadly bombs upon enemy terri- 

 tory. The Germans ordered raids not only 

 upon unfortified towns and villages but upon 

 hospitals far back of the allied fighting lines. 



At first the night visits of these monstrous 

 engines of death caused consternation, but as 

 their visits became more common, even though 

 death followed in their path, they were vi 

 less with alarm than with rage; the killing of 

 noncombatant women and children could pos- 

 sess no military advantage unless the nation 

 could be intimidated and made to cry for peace. 

 Over twenty raids occurred in various parts 

 of England in 1916, sometimes by Zeppelins, 

 but as frequently by mammoth biplanes. Dur- 

 ing that year 225 people were killed and 

 were wounded. In 1917 the raids were still 

 more numerous, the proportion of deaths and 

 injuries being practically the same. England 

 and France refrained from retaliation in kind 

 but limited their raids to military objectives, 

 going far into enemy territory. 



Against the night raids of the Zeppelins the 

 English and French used fleets of airships and 

 powerful anti-aircraft guns; these were o: 

 effective in bringing down the enemy, but late 

 in 1917 the Zeppelins flew so high that gunfire 

 was ineffective. The greatest single loos suf- 

 fered by Germany in these excursions was the 

 destruction of five mammoth Zeppelins and the 

 capture of another, in France, when the mon- 

 sters became lost on their return from England. 

 It was declared that the six accounted for 

 day in October represented one-half of Ger- 

 many's "superdrcadnaughts" that were available 

 for sen-ice. With these losses Zeppelin raids 

 ceased. See page 2239. 



Submarines in the War 



The part played in the great conflict by sub- 

 marine torpedo boats rank- from the 

 first as one of the most terrible engines of de- 

 struction. Had it not been for almost super- 

 human defensive efforts of the countries open 

 heir attack they might have been the de- 

 ciding factor in the stnip. 



pid development of all means of offense 



and defense the submarine! built by Germany 

 are entitled to first mention, for from craft with 

 a length of 125 feet they increased in sice to 

 nearly 400 fort, though of the latter monsters 

 there were but few. Germany was obliged to 

 turn its inventive genius to the building of 

 these undersea terrors if its power were to be 

 felt on the seas, for its great navy was useless. 



