Refugees from Belgium describe the method used by Zeppelins in dropping bombs.  The dirigible is kept as much as possible out of range of the enemy’s guns while it lowers a steel cage, attached to a steel rope, 200 or 300 feet long.  The cage carries a man who throws down the bombs.  Because of the small size of the cage and the fact that it is kept constantly in motion it is difficult for heavy guns to hit it.  The great airship remains perfectly stable while the missiles, of which there are a variety for different missions, are being hurled.  All the military Zeppelins of Germany are armed and there are a large number of unarmed dirigibles in reserve.

It is estimated that there are 100 aeroplanes with the British forces on the continent.  The French army has hundreds of aeroplanes of various kinds.  Germany’s fleet of flying machines has been in action continuously and the aviators have proved a big aid in scouting as well as in dropping bombs and grenades on the enemy.

The newest French aeroplanes are said to be equipped with boxes filled with thousands of “steel arrows.”

These “arrows” are really steel bolts four inches long.  When the aviator sails over the enemy he opens trapdoors of the “arrow” boxes with a simple device and lets showers of bolts fall on the men below.  One of the “arrows” dropped 2,000 feet will go through a German helmet and a soldier’s head.  A shower of them would prove effective against a massed enemy.

On August 10 the correspondent of the London Times in Brussels, describing the fighting at Liege, said aerial fleets were used by both Belgians and Germans.  The fighting in midair was desultory but deadly.  A huge Zeppelin sailed over Liege during the early fighting.  The fighting in midair was desultory but deadly.  A huge Zeppelin sailed over Liege during the early fighting, but was pursued by a Belgian aeroplanist, who risked and lost his life in destroying it.

[Illustration:  THE RELATIVE STRENGTH OF SOME OF THE EUROPEAN NATIONS IN AEROPLANES AND DIRIGIBLES.  —­Aero and Hydro, Chicago]

After the destruction of this Zeppelin the Germans confined their aerial activity to the use of scouting aeroplanes, several of which were destroyed by shots from the forts.  Attempts to reach the aeroplanes with shells were often unsuccessful, however, owing to the inability to shoot high enough.

AVIATION CAMPS IN EUROPE

In the early days of the great war only an occasional flash of news was received about the French and Russian aero-military operations or those of the German corps along the Russian and French frontiers.  It was difficult to imagine that they were idle, for the German-Russian and the French-German frontiers had been the locations of many military aeronautical camps or fortresses.  These were described at the outbreak of hostilities as follows: 

“Along the German frontier facing Russia are the important aero centers of Thorn and Graudenz, while the nearest aero base in Russia is at Riga, farther north.