ZEPPELIN L49

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 87, 5 January 1918, Page 12

ZEPPELIN L 49

STORY OF THE' CAPTURE GERMAN AIRSHIPS ADRIFT An interesting account of the capture of L 49, one of the German Zeppelins, whose helpless drift over .France, after a raid on England, was described in tho cablegrams in October,' is to hand by tho English mail. Everywhere in the eastern and southern regions of Franco on Saturday morning people caught a glimpse of scudding airships (writes tho Paris correspondent of "The Times"), trying to reach tho eastern frontier in the neighbourhood of Nancy, or speeding helpless and pursued down the deep corridor of the Rhone towards the Mediterranean. St. Quentin, Compeigne, Epinal, Lyons, Marseilles, Toulon,, all reported their passage, but the people of the country round Langres havo by far the most exciting and most profitable story to tell.

L»9. The first airship to reach the neighbourhood was tho L 49. The district, which is comparatively near to the front, is accustomed to the frequent passage of aeroplanes and airships, aid tho nature of the L 49 does not eeem to have been suspected at first. The LSO, which followed soon after, passed over a fort, near Langres, .without being attacked. Soon,, however, all doubts were put at rest, and from three points of the compass squadrons of aeroplanes made their- appearance in the sky. The pursuit of the LSO lasted from about 10 o'clock until 11 in the morning. She got away from her pursuers and came down at Dammartin. Two officers and 14 men landed, and one of the oars was broken off and fell. Thus lightened the airship was then swept away into the air, with four men still in tlie second car, completely out of control. This may be the Zeppelin which drifted out over the Mediterranean. The L 49 was ifuablc to shake off the air mosquitoes attacking her, and oyer, the small town of Bourbonne-ies-Bains the last of tho battle were fought. The airship was then about 1000 ft. above the ground, aud seemed on the point of collapse. Turning about, however, she made another effort to get away, but at last came slowly down, with her stern halfway up a. small hill and her bow resting in the little stream Apanso. Aeroplanes swooped down and prepared to land. Tho Zeppelin commander and his crew leapt out, and he endeavoured to destroy 'die airship.

A Sportsman's Capture. The commander had fired one shot from a. special pistol at it, and he was about to lire another when M. Boiteux stepped out of a wood. M. Boiteux, who had left home with his gun in the early morning in the hope of getting a pheasant or two, acted with admirable calmness on seeing tho nature of the game he had to deal with. His own story is as follows "I was shooting when I saw a. Zeppelin surrounded by five "aeroplanes, whose machine-guns were blazing away splendidly. The airship .was clearly out of control, and it came down gently. J ran up just as the crew, who bad jumped out, wero liuing up in front of tho commander, and he was firing an incendiary cartridge into the body of tho balloon. Tho animal was going to destroy it. 'Ah, no,' said Ito myself, and, having n. few pellets in my gun, I stepped out and covered him, shouting: 'Stop, or I'll kill you.' The officer threw away his pistol, raised lii 3 arms, and'said: "Don't harm n\e, I surrender.' I had mastered them. Meanwhile the airmen had.landed, and firemen from'the neighbouring town

1 arrived, and the 19 Germans were - made prisoners, while one of our r.iri men ran down the Zeppelin's flag." The flag is now the trophy of the • 152 nd Air Squadron, and Lieutenant i Lefovre's "Crocodiles" have another > success to iheir credit. ! "Experts of all sorts were imi mediately summoned to examine the fallen airship, including the Under- ) Secretary for Aviation, M. Dumesnil, > General Admiral Lacaze, i the aeronaut Capazza, and an officer 1 tvho lias rnado a speciality of ruconsti--1 tuting from the wreckage of .stricken ; Zeppelins tho general plan of enemy airships. Tho joy of this particular officer iu having a practically unharmed Zeppelin placed at his disposal may be imagined. The L 49 has indeed buffered but slight damage. The envelope is damaged, but the incendiary cartridge which was*fired boforo M. lioitcux was able to prevent it has only mado a slight holo iu the tissue. The airship is about 470 ft. long. All its motors and special machinery are I intact. There are live motors, each of 260-horse-noirer—one iu the forward car, ono in each of tho side cars, ,aad two in the-rear car. She was Hying tho German naval flag, with black cross, bearing the eagle in the middle, and an Iron Cross on the left, a decoration doubtless conferred after ono.cf her four journeys to England. Outside the airship is painted black, but inside the contral gallery, which runs practically tho wholo length of the ship, everything is yellowish in colour,'from the metal work to tho balloonets. In tho central gallery, which is ranged neatly in compartments, are all sorts of spare parts —oxygen apparatus for the use ot the crciv in great altitudes and lifebuoys in case of a wreok at sea, hand grenades, parachutes, etc. She was able to carry about 11,500 kilograms (about Hi tons) of explosives, and she had a very well fitted up wireless room. ""While tho L 49 was bumping on the ground in tho breeze an army of expert workmen, sent over in all haste from tho aeronautical workshops, l were busy removing everything from tho interior preparatory to dismantling the whole ship. U5. "The L 45 flew over Gap (north-east of Sisteron) at 9 in the morning at a height of about 6500 feet. A quarter of'an hour afterwards it approached Sisteron (75 miles south' of Urenob'e), where it seemed to be in great difficulty and was coming down rapidly. It followed the course of the Buech, throwing out every available kind of ballast. It oven cut away one of its cars, but was not able to rise at all, and came down gently in the vast gravelly bed of tho river, much to tke'alarm of a gang of German prisoners working with a woman farmer in a neighbouring field. At the first sight of the Zeppelin they at once decamped to tho shelter of some woods that were near. "Tho captain, lieutenant, and crew of L 45 at once got out of the car, and the commander set fire to the envelope with an incendiary cartridge. Nothin" remains now but a great aluminium "skeleton 850 feet long. Tho German prisoners came forward and urged their comrades, who thought they were in Switzerland, to surrender, which they did without any signs of great discontent. Tho lieutenant, indeed, said in passable l'rcnch, Oh, well, fortunately the war is over for us. Some policemen arrived on bicycles and escorted their prisoners to Laragne, where they stated that they had been driven by tho wind from England. They came from Tondern, m Schleswig-Bol-steiu." ■'