getting them into sheds was tremendous. Most of those lost in Germany were wrecked in landing. They were sometimes 700 feet long-the older ones ranged from 450 to 500 feet. Great man-power was needed to control them when not in motion. Germany before the war had pinned her faith of victory in any struggle with Great Britain on the Zeppelin rather than on the submarine. The German people knew little or nothing of the submarine and of its possibilities as a commerce destroyer and blockader. But they had seen the dirigible developed before their eyes. Its inventor had become a popular idol. Many successful voyages across the empire had caught the public imagination. To the German mind the Zeppelin was to do more than any other new invention to revolutionize the conditions of war. Its failure to live up to expectations was therefore a bitter awakening. The judgment of the French, in preferring the heavierthan-air machine for military purposes, was vindicated. Monoplanes, biplanes, and seaplanes became a necessary part of the equipment of every army or navy. They were of incalculable military value and greatly modified the conditions of land and sea fighting. But the Zeppelin was essentially a flash in the pan as a military experiment. For offensive purposes it proved to be merely a weapon of frightfulness, one of the most abhorrent of the implements employed by Germany in her reversion to savage warfare. On March 17 a Zeppelin was shot down in flames near Compiègne and all of its crew were lost. An alarm was sounded at 4.15 by firemen who went through the streets of Paris blowing sirens. All lights were extinguished and airplanes patroled over the city. At six o'clock bugles were blown, announcing that the danger was over. The Zeppelin was sighted shortly before dawn and was reached by French anti-aircraft guns at a great height, probably two miles. The airship caught fire and the wreckage, with the burned bodies of the crew, fell outside of Compiègne. Compiègne is forty-five miles northeast of Paris and was close to the battle-front, which the Zeppelin had presumably crossed. An air-raid on London on the same night was the first visit of Zeppelins in many months and it seemed to have been expected, as it failed to cause any excitement even among the home-going theatergoers. The raiders were favored by a dark and moonless night. The raid was the first that had taken place since November, when two of the raiding airships were shot down off the north coast. The German Zeppelin L-22 was destroyed in the North Sea by British naval forces on May 14. This brought the total number reported destroyed and lost since the beginning of the war to thirty-nine. Reports of all but two losses had been confirmed. Of these six were brought down during raids over London, seven in Belgium, five in France, six in Russia, six over the North Sea, one in Norway, one in Denmark, one in Saloniki, and six on German territory. Of the six destroyed in Germany four were wrecked by Allied aviators and two by storms. Seventy-six persons were killed, including twenty-seven women and twenty-three children, and 174 more were wounded, of whom forty-three were women and nineteen children, on May 25, in the most successful air-raid yet made in England by the Germans. Most of the casualties occurred in one town, on the southeast coast, presumably Dover, altho Folkestone was also mentioned in the Berlin official bulletin as a point of attack. The planes made a wide sweep inland. Sixteen or more took part in the attack. Three were brought down. No Zeppelins were used. Women and children who had stood for hours in a long line in the busiest streets waiting to purchase potatoes became the principal victims. Intent only on not losing their places in the line, they had little warning of the raid and so were easy victims of deadly bombs dropt indiscriminately. The Zeppelin had, however, become a failure. The English had settled its status with an arrow-gun tipped with an explosive bullet that penetrated the balloon and ignited it. The Zeppelin gas-bags were 500 to 600 feet long and divided into compartments. Several compartments might be shot into without landing the airship, but the little inflammable device of the English blighted German hopes in this direction. Accurate figures available in December, 1917, showed that of fifty-three Zeppelins put into commission since 1914, thirty-five had been totally destroyed; two had been badly damaged and put permanently out of commission; two were missing and probably destroyed; one was badly damaged and temporarily out of commission in December; thirteen remained in service, eight of which were detailed to the North Sea, two to the Baltic and three as experimental or school ships. Raids over France, England, and Belgium had cost the Germans seventeen Zeppelins, eight having been accounted for in England, five in France and four in Belgium. Accidents by fire, wind and lightning had destroyed at least eight in Germany. The Zeppelin numbers by accurate calculation, started with the "L-1" and ended with "L-57.” Numbers between 25 and 30 had not been employed, leaving fifty-three to be accounted for. "L-1" and "L-2" were destroyed before the war, the first in the North Sea, and the second accidentally burned at Fuhlssbuttel. Besides Zeppelins, Germany had had in commission since beginning of the war at least thirteen airships of the "Schutte Lanz," "Gross," and "Parseval" types. Of these possibly seven remained in service, two, however, as non-combatant instruction ships. The complete failure of the Zeppelin was emphasized in a striking article printed in L'Homme Libre in March, 1918. In a detailed list was shown the fate of fifty-three German dirigibles, all belonging to Series L. These Zeppelins, built at Friedrichshafen in the first three years of the war, and known by names ranging from L to L-157, had been brought down by direct Allied effort-six of them in England, five in France, two on the Belgian front, and another in the battle of Jutland. Thirteen others were destroyed in various accidents or from being cast ashore, or driven out to sea by bad weather. Of the whole L-class only fourteen remained in service, ten being used for observation purposes in the North Sea, and four others for training and school purposes in various parts of Germany." Principal Sources: The Daily Telegraph (London), The Tribune, The Times, The Evening Post, New York; Associated Press dispatches. |