Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1921-02-13 | Page 10 | Coast Battery Fire Directed by Balloons

COAST BATTERY FIRE DIRECTED BY BALLOONS SAN FRANCISC. Feb, 12 Big gun! coast defenses of Pan Francisco recently re-cently took world leadership when official of-ficial service reports said, for hte first time in history twelve. inch rifles were fired enttrel) by directions from the air. Experiments hae been conducted conduct-ed sime last April on co-operation between be-tween the army air service balloons and various coast artillery and heavy artillery posts along the Pacific coast. The fourteenth and twenty-fourth balloon companies sent here from Fort Omaha. Nebraska, eondm ted these experiments. ex-periments. Sri far as known. occoTd- 1 Ing to official reports, the onlv vlous experiment. of this kind, undertaken under-taken In 1919 at Sandy Hook, respited I in failure. Special Instruments were devised in the Pacific coast experiments, experi-ments, which finally resulted In suc-I suc-I cefs. Mattery Mtndell, one of San Francis-; Francis-; co's big coast defense disappearing rifle batteries, claims the honor of the first battery functioning accurately from aerial control. Twenty-two shots at a pyvamldloal target, moving at 'a range of 14,000 yards, included five dlreel ".shio" hlt. This demonstrated that fog or haze making low visibility hereafter will not , cripple San Francisco's coast defenses. 1 Bal)oOns at an altitude of 15.000 to 20.000 feet get ov er the fog. locate i he enemy object at sen, and direct the foghldden baiterv :. d.-.idl work against the attacker. Following the big rifle experiments ! the balloon companies worked out mortar firing problems from the air as well as night firing by flare, and ' tests of new Instruments. The balloon , companies will be p rmanently ata-. ata-. tloned at Roos Field. Arcadlum, Call-1 Call-1 fornla, as a part of. the .Pacific coast ; defense.