ZEPPELIN DESTROYED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16550, 28 May 1917, Page 6

ZEPPELIN DESTROYED.

WORK OF FRENCH GUNS. CREW OF TWENTY KILLED. The destruction of a Zeppelin ovor Compiegne on March 17 was described by -Mr. H. ' Warner Allen, British correspondent with the French armies. Ho states that the airship was sighted, apparently in difficulties, as it remained for some time stationary at an altitude of over 10,000 ft. Anti-aircraft guns promptly found the range. Incendiary shells began to burst all round the airship, and one eventually got homo near its stern. A line of flame at once ran all along the upper edge of the envelope, and the Zeppelin remained for some minutes blazing in mid-air. Then suddenly a portion of it seemed to break away and fall. A second later the whole macTHne plunged down to the ground, bows first, burning like a torch. Two of the crew tried to save themselves by jumping, and their bodies, already blackened by trie flames, were found, one in a field and the other in a small Btreet. Tho remains of the airship fell in a pieco of waste ground and piled themselves up over a low wall. There was no explosion after tho airship reached earth except for some machinegun cartridges that continued to fuse off for several hours, oven when the fire among tho debris had been extinguished. If it bad any bombs still left they must have exploded in tho air. All that remained was a high, tangled pile of aluminium struts and wire, from which there protruded the calcined skull of one of the crew. Under this mass thcro were other bodies burnt almost beyond recognition as human remains, and some of the ! instruments, .which suffered less than might bo expected. Two motors wore piled one on the other, and the petrol reservoirs retained a semblance of their former shape. The propellers were more or loss intact, and it was noticeable that they were of far rougher workmanship than tho usual French wooden propeller. Another account of the destruction was given by M. Butin, a member of the French 'Chamber of Deputies. It was about 5.30 when the airship was perceived in a cloudy sky over tho town. It came from Beauvais, where it was signalled an hour before. It was flying in tho direction of tho German lines, and was travelling at a height of ovor 10,000 ft and at moderate speed. As soon as the airship appeared the anti-aircraft guns opened a sustained fire on her, one of them firing over 130 shells. The Zeppelin was soon surrounded by projectiles, and at 5.40 a shell struck the envelope fair and square. A flame immediately burst forth, and in a few seconds tho fire spread and the Zeppelin was nothing but a gigantic torch, which fell, turning round and round. We were then horrified to see four members of the crew throw themselves out into space and come crashing to the ground. All the rest of the crew, which seems to have numbered about 20 men, wore burnt to ashes. Most of them were buried beneath the wreckage, which continued to burn until mid-day. The metal buttons on the clothes of the crew enabled us to identify tho airship. She was a naval airship of the largest size, similar to those last brought down in England. M. Butin confirmed the fact that no damage was done in the town and that nobody was killed or injured. The pirates, seeing that the hour for their punishment had come, dropped their bombs in the country where no one was about, and i most of them did not even explode.