ALLIED AIRMEN BRING DOWN ZEPPELIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 63, 15 March 1915, Page 5

ALLIED AIRMEN BRING DOWN ZEPPELIN.

21 DEAD, 20 SERIOUSLY INJURED. GERMANS FURIOUS AT THE LOSS. (Beceived 10.15 a.m.) LONDON, March 14. The "Daily Exchange*' reports that two French and two British aeroplanes brought down a Zeppelin in Belgium. Twenty-one of the crew were killed and twenty seriously injured. Other reports state that the Germans were furious at the destruction of the Zeppelin. They arrested all Belgians photographing the debris.

This is tbe first authentic story of a combat between a single Zeppelin and aeroplanes. In other aerial contests there have always been Taubes about to cover up the retreat, and the success of the Allied airmen in this instance is interesting and important. Taken on results so far, the damage done to Zeppelins far outweighs the damage done by them; and the Germans should certainly by this time be coming to the conclusion that the hundreds of thousands of pounds that are being spent on these craft bids fair to prove money absolutely thrown away. The Zeppelin can only fly in fair weather, and even then the strain on the giant fabric is tremendous. A well known airman who once went up as a passenger in a Zeppelin said that when the engine jumped the entire airship jumped with an awful jar in all its myriad joints; the wind currents took it and made it pitch "at a dozen angles at once," and he, skilled airman as he was, looked fearfully aloft in expectation of the back breaking. On landing, he watched one of the crew opeii the outer skin, which is stitched over the framework of aluminium girders, and go inside. Then presently he saw something that startled him. The man started to sweep out hundreds of nuts and bolts. The strain of the flight had had its effect on the immense number of aluminium girders that support the balloons inside the outer skin. Aluminium is a soft metal, and under the jarring scores and scores of those nuts had worked loose, and had fallen out. He was told that after every voyage of any length this sort of thing happened. A picked company of three or* four hundred men is necessary to bring a Zeppelin to anchor. These to work with military precision, or there is disaster. If one section fails to hold while the other is holding, one half of the dirigibl- climbs into the air as the other half remains stationary, and the back of the airship is broken. And when the craft is brought down evenly the greatest nicety is required to get it into its hangar, especially if there is any wind at all.