Decoy Targets for Zeppelins 



By R. J. Bjierstedt 



THERE is no doubt that more 

 powerful guns are now available 

 than those which made so ridicu- 

 lous a showing during the September and 

 October raids on London, but the 

 problem of adequate range finding is so 

 nearly prohibitive that few who are 

 familiar with it pin much hope to a gun 

 defense. 



I am credibly informed, however, that 

 what might be called "diversionary" 

 protective measures have been employed 

 with considerable success. These con- 

 sist of various ingenious devices cal- 

 culated to draw the fire of the Zeppelins 

 away from the points where they could 

 do the most harm. So far, these appear 

 to have been employed principal!}' in the 

 important manufacturing districts be- 

 tween London and the North Sea rather 

 than in the immediate environs of the 

 metropolis. The idea is said to have 

 originated in the mind of a Norfolk 

 farmer after a pile of chaff which he had 

 been burning on the night of a raid was 

 made the target of several well-placed 

 Zeppelin bombs. 



"The Zepps thought my fire was the 



blast of the mills," he told an air 



service officer. "Why not have some 

 ready to fool 'em the next time they 

 come.'^ 



Since factories and barracks were the 

 main objects of attack, why not provide 

 some that could be found without diffi- 

 culty and the destruction of which would 

 be of small moment. The first experi- 

 ment was made by cutting "window- 

 holes" in a row of bill-boards — "hoard- 

 ings" the English call them — along a 

 railway, and illuminating each orifice 

 with a carbide lamp. When these came 

 in for attention from the raiders, the 

 present plan of using "stage scenery" 

 factories and barracks as Zeppelin decoy's 

 was outlined. 



These decoys consist simply of sec- 

 tions of imitation walls, pierced with 

 windows, which, by means of guys and 

 props, can be made to represent the side 

 or sky-lighted roofs of a factory- or 

 barracks. W^here practicable the illumi- 



nation is furnished by running a cable 

 from the nearest electric transmission 

 line, and where this is too troublesome or 

 expensive, carbide or kerosene lamps are 

 employed. The sections hook or clamp 

 together and are made small enough to 

 allow of a stack of them being carried on 

 one of the big war motor trucks. 



An interesting light is thrown on this 

 phase of protective work by a photo- 

 graph that was published in England 

 about three months ago, and probably 

 also in the United States. It showed a 

 huge war motor truck, with an enor- 

 mous tarpaulin-covered load, stalled 

 between the copings of an old stone 

 bridge over which it had endeavored to 

 pass. The caption merely explained 

 that it was "Somewhere in England," 

 and that the load itself was an "official 

 secret." Most of the information which 

 I have set down above came to me as a 

 consequence of this photograph. 



I chanced to be looking over the copy 

 of the Daily Mirror on the cover of 

 which the view in question appeared, 

 when a garrulous and slightly inebriated 

 "Tommy" who shared my third class 

 apartment with me asked if I knew what 

 the load was. 



"Not beyond the fact that it is an 

 'official secret,' I replied. "Do you 

 know anything about it?" 



"Blime me if I don't," was the answer. 

 "She wuz carryin' stage scen'ry; stage 

 scen'ry fer the Zepps." 



The man, it appeared, was a member 

 of the Army Service Corps, and was just 

 returning from the hospital where to use 

 his own words, he had been to "git a 

 hunk o' 'fact'ry' " picked out of him. 



His injuries, he said, had been received 

 when a "factory" which he had helped 

 to erect was actually struck and de- 

 molished by a Zeppelin bomb. They 

 had just switched the lights on from 

 their dug-out, he said, when the Zeppelin 

 hove in sight and headed up to pass 

 right over the decoy. The "factory" was 

 blown to pieces, but a couple of hours' re- 

 pair work on the morrow left the shattered 

 sections in as good shape as ever. 



512 



