LONDON AND AIRSHIPS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 4, 15 January 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

LONDON AND AIRSHIPS.

Teats ever London proved that searchlights can detect a Zeppelin even in foggy weather. Incidentally tlie populace derived great amusement from the experiments. It was the iirst foggy night of September —not a thick pea-soup fog such a & November and December bring, but a very marked fog. The British airship. which has been making experimental llights over London by day and by night for the previous fortnight, made her appearance at dusk and sailed- over the city lor several hours. Searchlights were trained from several ftrategic jroints, and they managed to follow her wherever she went. Most of the time there wore two shafts playing upon the Jiig brown sausagb-shapcel craft, and they kept her m sight when she dropped down near the roofs of high buildings, and followed her upward course and her sudden turns and windings. Many thousand persons were in tho.. streets gazing upon the spectacle.

It lias been believed that tho Zeppelins will choose a foggy day for a raid cn London, if they attempt such a hazardous exploit, just as tha British ilyinig men selected a thick mist for their raid into Germany, when bombs were dropped on Dusseldorf and by mistake on Maestricht, in Holland. Every precaution .has \been made', to give tlie Zeppelins a warm reception if they invade English air. The London searchlight.- have swept the heavens constantly at night for weeks past. Aeroplanes fully equipped for fighting are kept in reserve, and could be launched like lire engines on the stroke of the b?ll if an alarm of an approaching Zeppelin were sent out.