Certain conclusive information
upon this point was available in connection with heavy howitzer
fire, based on calculations of the respective angles at which the
projectile rose into the air and fell to the ground, and of the
time the missile took to complete its flight from the gun to the
objective. But howitzer fire against aircraft was a sheer
impossibility: it was like using a six-inch gun to kill a fly on
a window pane at a thousand yards' range. Some years ago certain
experiments in aerial firing with a rifle were undertaken in
Switzerland. The weapon was set vertically muzzle upwards and
discharged. From the time which elapsed between the issue of the
bullet from the muzzle until it struck the earth it was possible
to make certain deductions, from which it was estimated that the
bullet reached an altitude of 600 feet or so. But this was
merely conjecture.
Consequently when artillerists entered upon the study of fighting
air-craft with small arms and light guns, they were compelled to
struggle in the dark to a very pronounced extent, and this
darkness was never satisfactorily dispelled until the present
war, for the simple reason that there were no means of getting
conclusive information.
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