A ZEPPELIN LOG BOOK

Evening Star, Issue 21091, 2 May 1932, Page 5

A ZEPPELIN LOG BOOK

THE IRONY OF A LOST CHANGE A charred book from a falling, flaming Zeppelin, rich mine of precious secrets! This charred book, yet all quite readable, what an amazing vista of conjecture' it raises up! Because of it, had circumstances been different, the disaster to England’s XI. 101 might not have taken place, and its crew and passengers be alive to-day (writes Francis Dickie, in the Sydney ‘ Morning Herald ’). Because of it all the Allies antiZeppelin methods might have been different. Because of it oven the whole course of the Great War might have been shortened, and America might never have entered it. All these possibilities, so, tremendously momentous, lie in this black-covered book, the story of which is one of the strangest over to come to light to demonstrate how one man’s action can alter the fate of individuals and even nations. Late in tho afternoon of September 23, 1916, a fleet of German war Zeppelins, ten in number, left the station at Friedrichshafen to raid England. Three of these only, the latest and most modern, were assigned to the attack of London, the L3l, 32, and 33 Each was of 2,000,000 ft cubic capacity, and each carried six tons of explosive and fire bombs. Darken the city though the English might, the River Thames remained an infallible guide to the enemy. The Lsl had made four previous raids. Due to Captain Mathy’s experience, it was most successful in off-eetting the fingering rays of search-, lifht that stabbed the night seeking it. Captain Mathy let fall a dozen parachute flares, whoso brilliancy between ship and surface confused the gun crews below. The L3l laid a straight Tine of bombs across the middle of London from north to south, then escaped, the only one of the three over to return to Germany. The L 33, its gas cells badly damaged, fell near Colchester. The L 32, captained by Peterson, hit by an incendiary shell as it was fleeing London, caught fire in front. Quickly the flames spread. Like a fiery comet, downward streaking, plunged the L 32. Seated on the porch of his comfortable home at Brentwood, near London, an English squire, who shall for ever be nameless, suddenly sprang up as the flaming hull came earthwards. Running towards it, this country squire arrived just as it hit the ground. From out the burning wreckage a human form all afire leaped and ran a few steps, to fall almost at tho squire’s feet. As he fell he cried three times shrilly “ Dreizehn.” From beneath his arm a black-covered book, scorched of cover, slid upon the grass. It was the L32’s thirteenth voyage. Hence the man’s cry “Dreizehn” (thirteen), probably this fact had been playing upon his superstitious mind. A few seconds later he was dead THE FATEFUL VOLUME. The squiro carried the book home. This volume, beyond words valuable to Eng laud, a rich mine of most precious German Zeppelin secrets, was the log of the L 32, tho Ballastvertuug. At this time when the British Air Ministry, made bitterly aware of the German superiority in these matters, was feverishly experimenting in rigid, airships, this country squire brought to his house this book of incalculable value and —placed it carefully in a drawer as a souvenir. It contained valuable construction drawings, the amount of armament carried,.and most important of all, the arrangement ot tho ballast. In short, a wealth of information of the very nature the English air experts were seeking. Now it comes to light too late, othef than to make an intriguing story of what might have been. For it is not generally known that the designs of the two monster English airships were drawn up after a careful study of the wrecks of the L 32 and other Zeppelins brought down during the war. The chief information lacking was the distribution of the ballast in the various “ bays ” of the ships, which facts were set forth with much detail by illustrations and figures in the log book saved by this British squire. “ There is a possibility that had this document been available to us at an earlier date the terrible disaster to the RlOl might never have taken place, ■ for_ it may be possible that on this difficult point of ballast the calculations may have erred.” So spoke an official of the Air Ministry when tho book was turned over. ,

In a drawer in this quiet country home, just a few minutes from London, this log book lay all through the war and until the owner died recently. It was turned over to Captain Crossley, of the 9th Lancers, by the widow, who related the happenings of that memorable night. Captain Crossley, although not understanding German, sensed something unusual in the book and took it to the British Air Ministry where, to the tremendous interest in the book, was added an immense chagrin at its so incredibly having been hidden within half an hour of the heart of ’London during those tense days. Already book collectors have offered bids for it, but tho Air Ministry takes the view that it is Government properly. A friendly arrangement is being made with the owner, and the book is to be handed to tho British Imperial War Museum.