nti-aircraft defences stationed about the target direct huge beams of
numerous searchlights toward the sky and an intense barrage is put up
above and around the target by the Hun batteries. The air is filled with
shrapnel from bursting shells at the altitude at which the machine is
flying, for the Huns have accurate instruments which gauge the altitude
of an aeroplane from the sound vibrations of its engines. The aviators,
however, are still intent on picking out their target (probably a
factory which manufactures war material) and have not yet entered the
barrage. The Huns, I imagine, often wondered why British bombers flew
about a town for such a long time before bombing; the inhabitants always
had more than enough time to enter the dug-outs before the bombs
dropped. The British bombers, however, were not making war on women and
children; they were intent on destroying a poisonous gas factory or
other targets of military importance; so they flew about the town until
the target was accurately located; then and not till then, they
throttled down their engines and glided swiftly down between the
searchlight beams and below the barrage of bursting shells, for once the
engines are throttled down the enemy's sound instruments are valueless
and the anti-aircraft barrage ranged at the previous altitude of the
aeroplane fills the air with shrapnel far above the rapidly descending
plane. A quick adjustment of bomb-sights to compensate for the altitude,
speed, and drift of the plane and the front fore-sight soon is in line
with the target, and after a pause the back fore-sight coming in line
with the back-sight gives, with the previously adjusted stop-watch, the
exact moment for releasing the first bombs. The plane passes over the
target and turns on a steep "bank," while the aviators watch for the
burst of the bombs. The bomb-sight is readjusted to the reduced
altitude, another sight taken, the remainder of the bombs released, and
then, nose down, engine "full out," the huge plane rushes through the
lowered barrage for more congenial surroundings.

Great care must be taken when bombing a factory, for usually very close
to it the Hun has located an unprotected prison camp filled with Allied
prisoners, and we have official information that prisoners have so
infuriated the Hun guards by singing "God save the King" or the
"Marseillaise" during a bombardment of the near-by factory that they
have been bayoneted to punish them for thei