manufactured also in the
3-inch size. Germany, France, and England vied with each other in
devising armored motor cars equipped with guns of this type--the
British using the makes of Vickers and Hotchkiss, and the French
their favourite Creusot. The trucks are always armoured, the guns
mounted in turrets so that the effect is not unlike that of a small
battleship dashing madly down a country road and firing repeatedly
at some object directly overhead. But the record has not shown that
the success of these picturesque and ponderous engines of war has
been great. They cannot manoeuvre with enough swiftness to keep up
with the gyrations of an airplane. They offer as good a target for a
bomb from above as the aircraft does to their shots from below.
Indeed they so thoroughly demonstrated their inefficiency that
before the war had passed its third year they were either abandoned
or their guns employed only when the car was stationary. Shots fired
at full speed were seldom effective.

The real measure of the effectiveness of anti-aircraft guns may be
judged by the comparative immunity that attended the aviators
engaged on the two early British raids on Friedrichshaven, the seat
of the great Zeppelin works on Lake Constance, and on the German
naval base at Cuxhaven. The first was undertaken by three machines.
From Belfort in France, the aviators turned into Germany and flew
for 120 miles across hostile territory. The flight was made by day
though indeed the adventurous aviators were favoured by a slight
mist. Small single seated "avro" machines were used, loaded heavily
with bombs as well as with the large amount of fuel necessary for a
flight which before its completion would extend over 250 miles. Not
only at the frontier, but at many fortified positions over which
they passed, they must have exposed themselves to the fire of
artillery, but until they actually reached the neighbourhood of the
Zeppelin works they encountered no fire whatsoever. There the attack
on them was savage and well maintained. On the roofs of the
gigantic factory, on neighbouring hillocks and points of vantage
there were anti-aircraft guns busily discharging shrapnel at the
invaders. It is claimed by the British that fearing this attack the
Germans had called from the front in Flanders their best marksmen,
for at that time the comparative worthlessness of the Zeppelin had
not been demonstrated and the protection of the works was regarded
as a prime d