THE ZEPPELIN

Hokitika Guardian, 10 January 1925, Page 4

THE ZEPPELIN

HISTORY" OF TUB SPECIES. The flight of the Gorman-built Zeppelin airship ZB3 over English soil on its way to America recalls many vivid memories of the late war (states the ".Morning Bust’s” military correspondent). Until 1611 the rigid airship had, even in Germany, been regarded as a. military weapon for use with field troops. As an integral part of a lleot it was only beginning to be considered seriously before the outbreak of war. No sooner were hostilities undertaken than the threat of airship raids against England began to he assiduously nourished by German propaganda in neutral countries. It was, at that time, a very palpable bogey; still, it was an effective bogey; one, too, that served its purpose. A very faltering attempt to bomb English soil was at length made on January IT, 1015, by the three existing naval airships. One ship lost its way; the remaining pair managed to drop a few . ineffective bombs over Great Yarmouth and the Norfolk const. Belonging to the navy, these ships started from near Hamburg and Bremen. The undertaking and the distance was too great for the crews. So it fell to the despised military airship service now working from Brussels, to achieve the first bombing of London. Alter three tentative efforts, which reached Southend and Ramsgate, the airship I.Z3S. commanded by Hauptmann Linar/., funiid Loudon and dropped a hundred man-killing grenades, together with a quantity of incendiary bombs down King-land Road. Entirely unmolested, he then vanished. As an act of war, the attack was as contemptible as it was noteworthy. if considered as a virgin effort of military aviation. THE IDI-1 TYPE. But the constructional genius that inspired the Zeppelin works at Eriedrielishafen, on the l-ake of Constance, was of a high order, and by the autumn of 101 Aan improved type ol uir- .),■)> was designed and prodmed lo them lor long distance flights. Ibis ship proved as .superior to the pre-war product as the present ZR3 stands ahead of its predecessor ol nine years ago. The skill of the airship crews was also growing. So the Naval Air Service set to work; the first bombing of London was carried out by the most remarkable airship pilot that Germany had yet produced. This was Heinrich Math'y in his new ship 4.43. The influence- of this man over lii.s crew was immense. The navigational skull displayed liv him in his first flight from King’s Lynn to London at 86 miles an hour was astounding, while his nerve proved equal to his technical worth. Laughing at the ineffectual anti-aircraft defences of London. he drifted across the city itself. 'lids raid proved the most damaging effort of its kind, for a fire that Matliy occasioned in Wood Street cost half n million pounds. On October 13 Matliy with two less skilful but equally resolute (ol longues, Brcitliaupt in Llo, who damaged the “Morning Lost” office and Boeker in fill. Matliy and Bockcr nearly collided in the air over Woolwich, an unique incident which led to a “court of honour” being held in Germany on their return. HEINRICH MATIIY’S END. The German Naval Air Service has thus no right to claim that il was the first ty satisfy popular clamour for an attack on London. But the existing breach between the naval and military air services in Germany was to grow, thus leading to difficulties if not to actual loss of efficiency. In the end

the Naval Service carried all before it, and eventually military airships ceased to exist. A still further enlarged airship was turned out at Friodrichshal'eii in 1616. and in the autumn of that year the navy essayed a Iresh set of raids mi London with these

new machines. The effort met with a rude surprise, for the British aeroplane. firing a new incendiary bullet, proved the master of the airship. After one magnificent flight across London, in which he sailed from Croy-

don over AA’cstminster to Barnet, A*nthy, one week later, was brought down in flames at Potters Bar. London was lienee forth to he severely left

alone. __ But the brains at work at Freidriclisliafon were not idle. New airships appeared, larger, more powerful, and. above all, far lighter. From a maximum of 12,000 feet in 1616, the greatest altitude of (light in 161 <, rose at one bound to over 23.000 feel. But the machine in the end, just as it could rise above the aeroplane was to defeat the pilot and his crew. On October

19th. 1617. a great airship squadron, attempting to find Sheffield and Bitminghani, ran into an icy Northerly gale'raging at 20.000 feet unknown to those below. Frozen, helpless, gasping for breath, the crews were blown southwards as, one by one, their niotois broke down. So five airships came down in France. One I A S. drifted over London and dropped a memorable

bomb into Piccadilly Circus on it.-, way. Finally it came down in the South of France in full sight of that very crew that had dropped the first bomb of the war into London. For the same men who had flown with Lin- | arz in L.Z.33 were they who were shot down just one year later, at Salonika by H.M.S. Agamemnon. So side by side the first and last airship raiders of London were interned at Sisteron in Provence.

FOETTC JUSTICE. Finality in construction was now virtually reached. New airships were still evolved at Fredrichshafen. Improved they were and beautifully built. A’et the crews became almost afraid of the tremendous capability of these latest machines. The very last, and newest of these wonderful airships, carrying the commander of the Naval Air-

ship Service, the director of all the raids of the war, came down in flames off the Norfolk coast within sight of the spot where the first German airship Had dropped the first enemy bomb on English soil. This happened not so many hours before British troops were to go crashing through the Himlenbnrg Line in France. Coincidence it may he, hut sentiment may lend to a belief in poetic justice. So now Z. 8.3. the pure product of war and an almost perfect machine ol its kind, has been converted to more peaceful purposes. The incredible lilting power of this bombing airship has been exchanged for the capacity ol carrying numerous passengers in a luxurious saloon. Those who travel in her should reflect that they owe their comfort, their speed of travel, no less than the relative safety of their craft, to the bitter struggle that was maintained for throe years between the brains and constructional skill of Fricdrichshafen, on the one hand, and the ill-rewarded perseverance of the aerial defenders ol London, combined with the daring ol young British airmen, on the other. Still, regarded as one of the most wonderful of the technical achievements of the war. the superb factory at I* riedrichshafcn is now to he dismantled in accordance with the Treaty of Peace. The Z.R.3. will thus, he the last of that remarkable series of airships that made their mark in the Great War, even though in any ways they proved a costly failure, for they were unquestionably set to an impossible, and in. the end unproductive task.