THE CUFFLEY" ZEPPELIN

Evening Star, Issue 16263, 4 November 1916, Page 9

THE CUFFLEY" ZEPPELIN

TALE 01'" NEAREST WITNESS. Mr Giow, of Cuffley Hill, who lives but two or* three hundred yards from the spoto when- the Zeppelin foil, in (lie first of tho riepleinber raids, ;md who was at tlio snob within five. mimitc6 of (bo crash, gave tho following description of what happened, so fiir <ih he couM remember the exciting incidents of the attack and defeat of tho nrrial monster: "I was awakened romewhero about 2 o'clock by a tremendous noise of gune banking. Jumping out of bed, 1 looked out ol the -window.in (he front, of the house, which faces Uie field where the Zeppelin fell, mid b;iw an airship flying very high up, unci coining from t.Jie direction of London. )l wis in the full glare of tho searchlights. Guns started lirinp- -a, furious fuiillud", unci fibrils seemed to bo bursting all round tho vessel. A little while aftorward.s I saw a light, on lh<! enemy aircraft. It was « long, dioppiu:: Ugh', and at, first I thought it was an incendiary bomb dropped by the Zeppelin herself, hut n Intent, immediately I aw a llyht in tho sky a little way off, and' I concluded '.hat, the giant enemy venae! lind been attacked by one of our nirora.ft, which-hud set it alight. <md then announced its triumph by a signal. " The fkinritur mass waR no near me that T ilonrlit it. whi gc-iug to drop on nn old hostelry only a few <;core yurds away; but it glided ,rij. and full with a fearful crash on to a field about 150 to 200 yards frontf that house. I had watched the whole spec tacle. cnthiM.il.d with the magnificent sighti. Immediately the flaming ma=s crashed (o tho. earth J. ran across tho field to wltnotii fch< Ileal se?r.e. The only other person there a( tho time, so far a.s I i*m!d koc, was a. Hpeeitu constable, and together we watched (.be woriK dcrful and historic spae-tacle,. —A. Fierce Blaze.— "The heat was tremendous, and for afl hour and .a-h:i'.f tho fire raged bo fleroelj that, we were unable to get near the wreck* age. I should have mentioned flint when fh< airdiip caught fire she seemed to me to \rt itbout a couple of miles awny, For a- fen min'.il»"t or vo. it- scorned, she floated horfc r.ontally, and then she suddenly tipped OB <md and fell ami drifted to whero she lauded, Site (-truck the ground nose down, n-r.d thi* no doubt accounted for tho comparatively fiinail space the huge flrueim'9 secmej U occupy when on Iho field. "Wo were afraid to get (oo near th« bin*it:? mass beeauso of the. almost continunuf poj ping oft' of the machine-irmv cartridge* ur, the flames reached them. Again, non* oi ii-—for people fioon betra.n (o arrive—knot* whether tltere were- any bomb? left, anrf whether at any moment we might not M blown to pieces. Wo evmntiully got somi buckets of water from tho village, pump, and threw tlie.m on to those parts of tho wreclc< ngo which were burning moat. Thuso wer< the gondolas, which, <ik far as I could guess, were about, 12 to 14 feet long, and, like a let. of other parts of tho Structural porbioß m the nitfhip. wore made of Ihroo-ply wood of weeding thymcfs but of great strength, This burnt furiously, but after n time. th< Hamas were quenched sufneienUv for tin wsrk of discovering the bochee and preserving valuable parts of the airship to be pro ceeded with. "Tho body of tho firrt man discoveivd waf found lying by the side of a machine gun, which had jammed—whether, through firilti or by its violent eon fact with the earth I d< not know. They tried to get another bodout of one of the, gondolas, but at tbi moment tho heat was too great. In' pullinj out one of (ho bodies coins gold slrlpeg wen found on the uniform, what there was left of it, on tho sid* of the collar, and th<»( showed that tho wearer m lit* eomawndW of the airship. Two bodies were got out oi the gondola/*. The rest of th* wreckage con sis ted of an extraordinary r.»«g of wirs There was who everywhere, «nd very hoi wire, too.