ABLEST "ZEPP." COMMANDER KILLED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 10526, 2 December 1916, Page 11

ABLEST "ZEPP." COMMANDER KILLED.

The importance of the destruction of the L3l near London recently i 3 greatly enhanced by the disclosure' that its commander was the ablest and most- successful of German airship commanders, CaptainLieutenant Mathy, who boasted that down to September, 1915, he had taken part in •every Zeppelin attack in England, and that he thus had obtained a knowledge of English air conditions such as no other German officer possessed. Entering the German navy in 1900, ho made a great reputation as a bold destroyer officer. When Zeppelins were introduced he entered the fcir branch of tho German navy snd was specially selected to watch the trials of tho first two. When war broke out he was placed in command of one of i\te largest und latest airships. Immediately after his September visit to London he gave to an American journalist a furl description of his attack on the Metropolis, and he said, "The English can darken London as much as they want, but they can never remove the Thames, from which we can always get our bearings. London was darkened, but there was sufficient light on this night to enable me to see its reflected glow in the sky nearly forty miles away shortly before 10 p.m.; *oon the city was outlined silent below. A large city eeen at. night from n height is a fairylike picture. There is no sign of life." Then he proceeded to relate how- he had dropped bombs "with success" in the vicinity of the Bank of England, the Tower, and on certain railway stations. "There was a succession' of detonations and bursts of flame, and 1 could sec that I had apparently done great damage. I turned my L for home. We had not-been hit.' T have never experienced a fight with an I aeroplane, in fact I have never been ' bothered by them. The men are always , at the guns watching for thorn. I am ' not afraid of them, and I think I could make it interesting for them." i All this happened a year ago. Condi- J tions have changed: and on this, his hist ' visit things were made "interesting" for him'by London's "anti-aircraft defence • organisation," and the charred remains of Mathy and eighteen, of his crew were dis- J entangled from the burning wreckage. A . "b£g" of four Zeppelin-load? of baby-i; killers within the space of four weeks is ( not a bad '-record for England: i