WORK OF NEW AERIAL BOMB.
Reading edition
The London Daily Mail's Paris correspondent reports an interview with a French airman on the new French air bomb.
"I have used both the dynamite bomb and the new bomb," said the aviator. "The two are very similar in size and weight, but the effect as seen from above is very different.
"When a dynamite bomb falls upon a body of men you can see the bodies leap up in air. It is like a small volcano in action. When the new bomb bursts it simply lays everything out flat within the area of its explosion. It seems to exert the whole of its force in waves like the ripples made when a large stone is thrown into a pond. The men go down like ninepins; buildings collapse like houses of playing cards; guns are turned over as if by some unseen hand.
"The explosion raises practically no dust or smoke. Even the earth disturbed by the case of the bomb striking the ground is instantly flattened out by the same extraordinary waves of force. Extreme cold is produced at the moment of the explosion. It is so intense that I felt it myself when I dropped my first bomb at a height of about 800 feet.
"I was taking great chances in flying so low, but I wished to see the effect of the bomb. It fell on a section of Germans bivouacking in a field. I estimate that at least thirty men were killed within the area of the explosion. Death from these bombs comes instantly from intense cold and concussion."