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."