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Updated: June 4, 2025
Third in the list of defences of the British coast, or of any other coast which may at any time be threatened with an aërial raid, are defensive stations equipped not only with anti-aircraft guns and searchlights but with batteries of strange new scientific instruments like the "listening towers," equipped with huge microphones to magnify the sound of the motors of approaching aircraft so that they would be heard long before they could be seen, range finders, and other devices for the purpose of gauging the distance and fixing the direction of an approaching enemy.
Had he something new? He passed on the method to the French and gave the Germans the benefit of its results. Observers seated in the baskets of observation balloons, aeroplanes circling low in risk of anti-aircraft fire, men sitting in tree-tops and others in front-line trenches spotting the fall of shells were the eyes for the science he was working out on his map.
This was perfectly excusable, for the simple reason that the dirigible, above all, is a fair-weather craft, and disasters, which had overtaken these vessels time after time, rendered prudence imperative. Moreover, but little was known of the range and destructiveness of anti-aircraft guns. In the duty of reconnoitring the dirigible possesses one great advantage over its heavier-than-air rival.
Monty was just about to pulverise me with a particularly rude rejoinder, when a voice outside called "Hostile aircraft overhead," and we were drawn at a run to the door by the unmistakable sound of anti-aircraft guns, followed by the bursting out of rifle and machine-gun fire, which grew and grew till it sounded like a mighty forest crackling and spluttering in flames.
It's up to the anti-aircraft boys." "Hum-m," McGee mused. "I wonder." A motor cycle, with side car, running without lights, came popping down the street. Without hesitation McGee ran out into the middle of the street, waving his arms and shouting wildly. The motor cycle swerved sharply, missed the dancing, gesticulating figure and skidded to a stop.
My hands were steady now, and through the glasses I saw the enemy. Five attenuated shapes rode high above the bombardment, now sharp against the blue, now lost in a film of vapour. They were coming back, serenely, contemptuously, having seen all they wanted. The quiet was gone now and the din was monstrous. Anti-aircraft guns, singly and in groups, were firing from every side.
The glasses showed me a different type of machine a big machine with short wings, which looked menacing as a hawk in a covey of grouse. It was under the cloud-bank, and above, satisfied, easing down after their fight, and unwitting of this enemy, rode the two British craft. A neighbouring anti-aircraft gun broke out into a sudden burst, and I thanked Heaven for its inspiration.
I couldn't do it at first, and shell fire seemed absolutely damnable." "And you want to remember that a chasse machine is almost never brought down by anti-aircraft fire. You are too fast for them. You can fool 'em in a thousand ways." "I had been flying for two weeks before I saw a Boche. They are not scarce on this sector, don't worry. I simply couldn't see them. The others would have scraps.
"No, it's not," returned Jack. "They don't know anything about this new anti-aircraft gun. They believe they are out of range." "Well, they're likely to hit us with one of those bombs, and then where will we be?" said Frank. "If they hit us you won't know anything about it," was Jack's response. Again the Queen Mary tried a shot at the Zeppelin.
The Krupp Company has evolved many designs of anti-aircraft motor-driven guns "Archibalds" the British airmen term them with emphatic levity. They are sturdily-built vehicles fitted with heavy motors, developing from 40 to 50 horse-power, with the chassis not widely dissimilar from that adopted for motor-omnibus traffic.
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