How Fengtien Missed its Chance:
Naval Smartness "While the Chinese are learning to do a great deal with modern arms on terra firma and no longer eight opera bouffe wars with infantry, artillery and machine guns, they still have everything to learn about war in the air, There has, as yet, been no such, thing as an aeroplane duel. tis said that the Chibli planes have now mounted machine-guns, but they certainly have not tried them out against the Fengtien flyers and never; get low enough to shoot at any ground target. On every occasion except one when the Fengtien fliers crossed the lines on bombings pai they had discharged their cargo and were well on their way home before the Chibli airmen rose from their field at Peitaiho. On the morning of October 14 Chinwangtao was forewarned of a Fengtien air attack in fovea and on this occasion there were two Chili planes in the air for a little time, but there was no attack, so the next morning two Fengtien planes arrived and dropped bombs with impunity and the Chihli planes lid not. even go through the form of rising in pursuit, The damage done by both sides from the air has been insignifiea and from a military point of view their observations are well nigh use-Joss because, from the great height at which they fly' on their timid ventures over one another's lines, they can neither spot positions nor' take photographs of any value. The dir-ceting of artillery fire feom the air has not been developed and when the: Fengtien airmen choose a vietion and start dropping their bombs, expe ence has shown that the loser one is tothe target the safer one is. The Fengtien hornby, like their shells, do surprisingly little dan 2o exploe. They ax pound bombs, but the explosion ix searcely audible at a. short distance while the fragments east. iron they watt abroad indicate that they are very crudely made. The Chibli folk elaine have in reserve 80, 100 and {bombs which they will na general attack, but unless. they fly lower, these missiles wi only make somewhat larger holes the open country than the Fengtien bombs are making.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.