THE AERIAL MENACE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 242, 10 October 1916, Page 11

THE AERIAL MENACE.

GERMANY'S STTF__R--_-FPEI._NS.

3,000 _I_G KASTGE.

fETom-Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDOX, August 24.

It -would be very interesting indeed to know how Lord Montagu of Beaulieu became possessed of the details he disclosed concerning the new Zeppelins with which Germany proposes to harass us in the near future. The Zepps with which we aTe already acquainted have been described as monsters, but compared to the "Beaulieu" gas-bags they are mere Berial ferry-boats. Acording to his lordship, the new Zepp3 will have a length of 780 feet, a beam of 80 feet, with a cnbie capacity of two million feet. They are to be driven by six or seven engines with a combined horse-power of 15,000, which will give them a maximum speed under favourable conditions of 75 an hour, and will enable them, at a cruising speed of about 35 miles an hour, to fly a matter of 3,000 miles, and to ascend when their five-ton load of bombs is dropped, fo an altitude of 17,000 feet, at which height, of course, they would be impossible targets for any of the anti-aircraft guns Great Britain possesses to-daly. In addition to the five-ton load of bombs these new Zepps are said to be armed foTe and aft with quickifirers, and will have mounted on the top lof the envelope machine guns for dealing ■with aeroplane attacks from above.

If Lord Montagu's information is correct, one or two of these super-Zeppelins have already undertaken trial cruises in the neighbourhood of Heligoland, and he states that by the middle of October the Germans will have three or four in commission. He reckons that, apart from theße giants, the Huns possess about 40 of the older type that are still rapable of raiding, and that about a third of them are really available for the furpose of "strafing" thy; United KingJoin.

On -what authority lord Montagu makes these we are not permitted to know, but it is to be presumed that he is not merely rehashing ■ihe street-corner gossip -which was flying around about this time last year concerning the advent of Zeppelins " twice as big as the biggest we've yet seen," and possessing all manner of wonderful attributes both as regards navigability a—& offensive power. There has been a great deal too much loose talk concerning the marvellous things Germany is preparing'for the undoing of the Old Country, and not a little of it has been the outcome of utterances by men whose position ought to make them very careful to adhere to ascertained facts in their public utterances upon matters affecting the war.