GREAT WAR ECHO

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1932, Page 6

GREAT WAR ECHO

MUCH CONTROVERSY ROUSED

LONDON ZEPPELIN RAID.

LONDON, July 18.

Much controversy has been aroused by a broadcast talk by Kapitaiileutnant a. D. Joachim Briethaupt, a war-time Zeppelin commander, in which he described how he made air-raids on 1 London. ■"; T

The" Kapitaiileutnant prefaced his talk with the remark: “Some people may think this talk is adding in.VtR to injury, l but that is' not my wishI do not .wish to hurt your feelings.”. A number .of people have complained: bitterly, however, of the memories of those terrible nights which the talk awoke.

This is how Kapitanleutnant Breitliaupt described his first raid on London, in 1915, for which lie was awarded the Iron Cross:

“About 8 p.rn. we saw the Thames, which we recognised from her windings. We' threw out all our ballas. to gain the greatest possible height. We could make out several points like Regent’s Park and the Serpentine. We flew at 10,C00ft and were being shot at all the tame. “It is said my bombs did serious damage along the line from Hyde Park, Charing .Crass, Strand, Lincoln’s Inn, Chancery- Lane, , Hrttton Garden, Houndsditch, Aldgate and Limehouse. Our; intended targets were ■ the Admiralty and the Bank of England, but if we failed to. hit theoni the news-: paper quarter of Ludgate Hill did not seem less worth trying,for.” On his- last raid, the -. Kapitanleutnamt’s Zeppelin came down, , riddled with schrapnel, and lie was picked up by a trawler. ... .

This, in his own words, is what happened: “Over London. Every man was at his alarm post. Through; the speakingtube,, came the message, ‘Hit in sev-eral,-places.’ I went to survey the damages By, a miracle• we did not burst into flames. We could lighten the ship no more. All the ballast had gone. We set a course for home, but I realised -that it was hopeless. We could ’not make.it and would have to come down. • < ■ /

■ “Could we reach the sea..? Over the Thames Estuaiy we felt we were: falling lower and lower. At last, thirty miles from the coast, we broke in two. I was in a gondola with! two . of'the crew. The gondola was entirely submerged.; On© man never came up. The other had his, teeth knocked out. I was draggled up into, the ship.” For .the last two years-of the war, tli©, Zeppelin commander was a prisoner, of war at. Doningto.n Hall.