TAKEN ALIVE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9795, 19 October 1917, Page 6

TAKEN ALIVE

THREE GERMAN AIRMEN AMAZING ESCAPE FROM BURNING RAIDER. I am now permitted, says a correspondent of a leading London daily, to disclose the remarkable fact in connection with tho air raid of Sunday week, in which Zeppelin 48 was destroyed, namely, that three of her crow were captured alive. One is understood to be the second in command; ho escaped apparently uninjured by leaping from tho gondola just before it crashed to tho ground. Two others, each suffering from a broken leg, were rescued from tho flaming wreckage in the nick of time by the village constable. The uninjured German was in tho act of walking away from the wreck, heedless of the shouts of his disabled comrades, when be was captured by a petty officer of tho Navy, homo on leave at his mother’s cottage less than a quarter of a mile from the spot where the airship fell. How any of the crew survived is a matter of amazement. Obviously they owe their fate to tho length of time taken by the airship in falling. In the other cases where Zeppelins have been brought down over land tho fall has finally developed into a sheer drop, but all the evidence hero goes to prove that the descent was a- prolonged glide. For instance, tho occupants of the nearest cottage were gazing at the Zeppelin from tho rear of their house, when it first took fire; but its landing was well over a quarter of a mile in front of the cottage. The most conservative estimate of tho time taken in tho fall puts it at three minutes, but most accounts agree that it was nearer five, and lam given to understand that this is tho time reported officially. “Just as I jumped the hedge of the field and raced towards the burning airship,” tho petty officer told me, l 'i saw one of her crew walking towards me. He was a tall- clo'an-shaven man, wearing a big fur-collared overcoat and thick bpots and leggings. Ho was very pale, and seemed terribly shaken. CREW OF TWENTY. “As I ran 1 called to bim and beckoned, and he came on at once. I found that he could not speak English, and as I assumed that tho military authorities would prize any document which could be found I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket and made signs to him that I wanted any papers he might have about him. “I had no difficulty in making him Understand my questions,” _ added the sailor smilingly. “You see, in the Navy we arc often brought up against foreigners who don’t understand, a decent language) . , “But the Gorman, simply throw up his hands and shook his head to say ‘No,’ and I then searched him to see if ho had any firearms or explosives about him, but could find none, nor any papers. All this time tho wreckage was burning furiously, and the heat was so intense that I thought it impossible for any others to have escaped. , „ , “I beckoned him to follow me, and took him to the nearest cottage, a few hundred yards away, where a sergeant and I kept him until a motor-car was sent to take him away. Before I loft him I asked him how many men wore on board the Zeppelin, and he hold out his hands with the thumbs and fingers outstretched twice, which I look to moan 20. SHOUTING FOR HELP. “It seemed to mo that the man I had taken must have jumped from the airship just as it struck the ground. Ho seemed very much shaken, ns I have said, and he put both hands to his chest with a kind of groan and then stretched them out, as though to show that ho had jumped, and in doing, so had been struck on the chest.” From the village policeman I learned of the rescue of the other prisoners. The constable was the second man on the scene, “When I got there, ho told me, “I found the petty officer just taking away the uninjured prisoner. I went towards the wreck, and as soon as I got within abont 20 yards I could hear shouts for help coming from where the flames were leaping up. “Close by tho side of the rums lay a gondola, the only one visible, and in it I found two men, one of whom was dead. The other had a broken leg and other injuries, and was shouting out as I oamo up, and making signs that he -wanted to be extricated. With some difficulty I got him out, and carried him away to a patch of grass, and then went back to tbe Zeppelin to the assistance of another man who : was shouting out from inside the framer work cf tho Zeppelin. GLOOMY GERMAN OFFICER. “Ho also had a broken leg, and was severely burned about the head. The flames wore flickering up all round him, and I think I arrived only in the nick of time.” A woman living in a neighbouring cottage told mo of the detention there of tho uninjured prisoner. “I saw three men approaching,” she said. “Tho first man was obviously an airman, and, thirdcing he was one of our own men, I called out ‘Bravo I’ But ho only shrugged his shoulders and candled at me, and then one of tho other men said, ‘He can’t understand yon; he’s a German.’ “They asked me if they could, keep tho Gorman at the cottage until a motor-car could be sent for him. They brought ham into the back garden, Where tho crowd could not sec him, but would not take him into tho house because of the children. “Tho German said nothing all the time ho was waiting, hut simply stood looking very depressed and fidget ip g. When they took him away he simply amiled at me as though to thank mo and saluted.”