ZEPPELIN 149

Evening Star, Issue 16627, 9 January 1918, Page 2

ZEPPELIN 149

STORY OF THE CAPTURE. GERMAN" AIRSHIPS ADRIFT. An interesting account of the- capture of L 49, one of. tho German Zeppelins, whose helpless drift over France, after a raid on England, was described in the cablegrams in October, is to hand by the 1 English mail. I Everywhere in the eastern and southern regions of Franco on Saturday -morning people caught a glimpse of scudding airships (writes the Paris correspondent of ' The Times') trying to reach the eastern frontier in the neighborhood of Nancy, or speeding helpless and, pursued down 'the deep corridor of tho Rhone towards the Mediterranean. St. Quentin, Compeigno, Epinal, Lyons, Marseilles. Toulou, all reported their passage, but the people of the country round Langres have by far the most exciting and most profitable storv to tell. J THE L 49. The first airship to reach the neio-hbor-hood was the L 49. The district, which is comparatively near to the front, is accustomed to the frequent passage of 'aeroplanes and airships, and the nature, of tho L 49 does not seem to havo been suspected at first. The LSO, which followed soon alter, passed over a fort, near Langres without being attacked. Soon, however' all doubts were put at rest, and from three points of the compass squadrons of aeroplanes made their appearanco in tho sky. The pursuit of the LSO lasted from aoout 10 o'clock until 11 in tho morning bne got away from her pursuers, and camo down at Dammartin. Two officers and 14 men landed, and one of tho cars was broken off and fell. Thus lightened, the airship was then swept away into the air, with four men still- in the second car, completely- out of control. This mav be the Zeppelin which drifted out over the Mediterranean. The L 49 was unable to shake off the air mosquitoes attacking her, and over the smal town of Bourbonne-les-Bains the last of the battle was fought. The airship was then about l,Cooft above the around and seemed on the point of collapse.'" Turning about however, she made another effort to get away, but at last came slowly down, with her stern halfway up a small hill and her bow resting in the little stream Apanse. Aeroplanes swooped down and prepared to land. The Zeppelin commander and his crow leapt out and the former endeavored to destroy the airship. A SPORTSMAN'S CAPTURE. The commander had fired one shot from a special pisto at it, and he was about to fire another when M. Boiteux stepped out ho™ W? H d ', - M - B °- iteux - who had left home with his gun in the early morning in the hope of getting a pheasant or two acted with admirable calmness on seeing the nature of the game he had to deal with. His own story is as follows:1 was shooting, when I saw a Zeppelin surrounded by five aeroplanes, X e diai? ne - V T blnzin * ™*y s P ]e " ?nn+i 11 i e . l a,rsh 'P was. clearly out of control and it came down gently. I ran up just as the crew, who had jumped out wercHimng up in front of tho h?fn « an mcendiary cartridge into the body of the balloon. Tho animal was going to destroy it. <Ah no',nidi to myself, and, having a few pellet 'ju my gun, I stepped out and covered him *outuig: "Stop, or I'll m you.' X officer throw away his pistol, raised his arms, and said: ' Don't harm me I su * * .**> mastered them. ' Mea.l- - £ —Tu h - ad landod ' and fir *m n he 19 fV,7 bon " g tOWn arriral > ™* whiln „n Germans were m acle prisoners, Zeppelin flag?" amMn ™ d ™» *• The flag is now the trophy of the 152 nd 'kS r °»', a,ld lieutenant Lefevre's haV6 ««"» to* suSnSd to eiannnt ffi&fiS? mcludmg the Under-Secretary for lv h bon, M Dumesnil, General De Castetau Admiral Lacaze, the aeronaut CapW and an officer who has naAe a S S sridfnn nS 7 ltUt T fr T the wre stricken Zeppelins tho general plan nf ze P c p e ho p&j sri Mrs aged bu Sr ge " ? e eDvd °P° is d ™ agcu, but tho incendiary cartridge whirh was fired before M. Boiteux waf able to The airship is about 470 ft W. All act m °Th S err d tact, ihere are five motors, each of 260 horse-power-one in the forward car one car X - and two naval fIV„ u? 3 , Uie Gorman naval flag with blaok cross, bearing the tnt iVf? the , middl f.' a » d an iron Crols on the lefu-na decoration doubtless conferred Outside the airship « paint€d b fc inside .lie central gallery, which runs practically _the whole length of the ship, everyt wnrl? 1 y^ oW ? h „ m C ° lor -' from tto metal vvo k tO/ the balloonets. In the central gallery, which is ranged neatly in compartments, are ail sorts' of spare partsoxygen apparatus for the use of the crew iu great altitudes and lifebuovs in case of a wreck at sea, hand grenades, para- , 6 £- &he WaS abl ° t° carr i' about Il,oUo kilogrammes (about Hi tons) of explosives, and she had a very well mu-, up wireless room. . While the L 49 was bumping on the ground m tho breeze an army of expert workmen, sent oyer in all haste from the aeronautical workshops, were busy romovmg everything from tho interior preparatory to dismantling the whole ship. . TEE L 45. .-■' Tho L 45 Hew Gap (north-east of kisterton) at 9 in the morning at a height of about 6,500 ft. A quarter of an hour aftorv/ards it approached Sisterton (75 miles south of Grenoble), where it seemed to be m great difficulty, and was cominc down rapidly. It followed the course of the Buech throwing out ovorv available iund of ballast. It oven cut awav one of its cars, but was not able to rise at all and came down gently in the vast gravelly bed of the river, much to the alarm of a gang of German prisoners working with a woman farmer m a neighboring field At the first sight of tho Zeppelin they at once decamped to the shelter of somo woods that wero near. The captain, lieutenant, and crew of L 45 at once got out of tho car. and the commander set fire td the envelope with an mcendiary cartridge. Nothing remains now but a great aluminium skeleton 850 ft long. The German prisoners came forward and .urged their comrades, who thought they wero in Switzerland, to surrender, which they did without any signs of great discontent. The lieutenant, indeed, said in passable French: "Oh, well, fortunately the war is over for us." Some policemen arrived on bicycles and escorted their prisoners to Laragne, where they stated that they had been-driven by the wind from England. They came from Tondern. in Schleswiit-Holsteiu. j