An Entire Air Fleet versus One Destroyer 



There were sixteen German aircraft, but the 

 little destroyer held its own against them 



THE airplane has met 

 a worthy foe in 

 the modern tor- 

 pedo boat destroyer. In 

 a recent thrilling battle, 

 a whole fleet of German 

 planes, sixteen in all, engaged 

 a single Russian torpedo boat 

 destroyer. Instead of blowing 

 the little destroyer up with the 

 first bomb dropped, they suf- 

 fered considerable punishment 

 themselves and failed to do anything more 

 than give the little wasp of the sea an 

 exciting time. 



One-sided as the contest seems, it was 

 not so in reality. The aircraft were at a 

 constant disadvantage. In order to hurl 

 their bombs with any degree of accuracy 

 or with any hope of affecting the slender- 

 hulled destroyer, they had to put them- 

 selves within excellent target range of the 

 heavy - caliber, quick - firing, anti - aircraft 

 guns which the destroyer carried. On the 

 other hand, the destroyer, protected by its 

 gun-shields from the damage that might 

 have been done by the machine-gun bullets 

 from the airplanes, darted in and out and 

 round about with such lightning-quick 

 maneuvers, that the bombs had not a 

 chance to do any damage. 



This battle incidentally demonstrated 

 an essential improvement which has been 

 made in airplane tactics, and throws light 

 upon recent maneuvers of German bomb- 

 ing expeditions. The improvement con- 

 cerns a system of inter-communication 

 which has been established, by means of 

 which an "admiral" of an air fleet can keep 

 his battleplane fleet as well in hand as 

 does the commander of the naval force. 

 Without such intercommunication the six- 

 teen planes would merely have "shuffled" 

 around one another, doing more damage 

 to their fleet, perhaps, by collisions than 

 their bombs and machine guns could have 

 done to the destroyer. The battleplanes 

 are now able to receive as well as send 

 wireless messages notwithstanding the roar 



Not with- 

 standing the 

 mobility and 

 speed of the 

 aircraft, the 

 maneuvers of 

 the destroyer 

 were still 

 swifter. The 

 bombs did 

 little damage 

 and the ma- 

 chine-gun 

 bullets rained 

 harmlessly 

 upon the de- 

 stroyer's 

 gun-shields 



of the motors. The attack in question un- 

 doubtedly required some definite formation 

 by means of which the greatest number of 

 bombs could be concentrated on the small- 

 est space in the least time, and yet not 

 offer a massed flock of airplanes to the de- 

 stroyer's guns. This would necessitate very 

 rapid shifting, in which the whole fleet 

 would move as one in accordance with a 

 general plan, yet each one acting inde- 

 pendently to meet unforeseen conditions. 

 This would require uninterrupted wireless 

 communication. 



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