THE EAGLES

Otago Witness, Issue 3275, 20 December 1916, Page 29

THE EAGLES

LIEUTENANT BRANDON'S FEAT. (FnoM Oub Own Correspondent.} LONDON, October 6. Lieutenant A. cle IS. Brandon's award of the D.te.O. will probably bo more prized by him than a V.O. would, have been, ior, ioliowmg so closely on tho Military Cross, which he received for disabling a Zeppelin in March, it is a recognition rather of consistent good and faithful work than of any individual act of outstanding merit. Owing to the illness or jLord French —so the oilieials say —England was not allowed to know for tonic clays who were responsible ior tiie destruction of the two Zeppelins which were brought down in one raid, and one in the nox-t lew days. Now the secret is out.

On the Saturday night when the whole squadron oi Zeppelins came across the pick ot our night-flying men wire in the air, for night Hying is an art quite apart from daylight dying. .Amongst these were three from one station, Lieutenants Robinson, V.C., A. do B. Brandon, and Fred Sowrcy. By a swift spiral climb they mounted to the skies, Robinson leading, with Sowrey close in attendance, and the Now Zealander some, distance behind. They had been coming out (lie clouds for some time, and were stiff with cold and wet with dew, when suddenly the searchlights from down below invaded their precincts of heaven, and shrapnel from the British aircraft guns began to burst about, them in uncomfortable nearness. They b< gari to climb for security from our own weapons, and at 12,C03 feet Lieutenant Sowrey sighted his

"bird" close at hand. Brandon was lower down, but close to the same quarry, and they both closed at once. The New "Kealandcr circled round the Zeppelin, pouring machine-gun lire in and inflicting some damage on the tail. Meanwhile Lieutenant Sowrey got into position over the enemy and let loose a damaging fusillade from his machine gun. In a few seconds the efifcet was evident, and she began to fall and burst into flames. Lieutenant Sowery came down at the same time, "frozen and utterly knocked out, and merely knowing that he had strafed .something/' Ho was plied with hot drinks, and in a short time was motoring with 'a friend to the scene of the disaster to the airship. Brandon was able to remain in the air, and later ho got into action with another of the raiders, the one which had to descend and whose crew was taken prisoner. The Times points out that Mr Brandon receives the D.S.O. for gallant conduct and for devotion to duty, and not for destroying or assisting to destroy any particular Zeppelin. On the night of March 31, when Zeppelins dropped about 200 bombs, and caused IC9 casualties, he dropped several bombs over one of the raiders at a height of 9000 feet, and his aeroplane was hit many times by machine gun bullets. This was the occasion when the Ll 5 came down over the Thames estuary and another raider was hit and dropped part of his equipment in one of the eastern counties. Mr Brandon also had a share in the destruction of the Zeppelin which was brought down on Sunday. Some time ano ho dropped several bombs on an enemy seaplane at Dover. An eve-witness of Sunday's fight says that Lieutenant Sowrey had been flying for some time when he picked up the Zepp., and though it was above him he climbed hard and got on terms. The Zepp. tried desperately to rid herself of her assailant, and both'Brandon's and Sowrcy's machines had many marks of machine gun bullets. Time and again they lost, each other in the clouds, the Zepp. reiving on her soaring powers to get clear. But the aeroplane climbed, too, and before long had the position of her opponent and pumped in the rmssiles which brought her to earth a red ruin. Lieutenant Sowrey was one of the three sons of a Deputy Chief Inspector of Taxes. He served in ttie Royal Fusiliers at Locs, where he was wounded, and at Yprrs he was wounded. He then joined the Royal Irving Corps and got his pilot's certificate in'June. Many honours have fallen to men who, like him'and Brandon, have only recently qualified as airmen. THE FOURTH VICTIM.

The feat of Lieutenants Sowroy and Brandon accounted for the second and third Zeppelin brought down in England in the space of three weeks; before a month had elapsed a fourth mat its doom. It was the L3l which was brought down at Potter's Bar in the early hours of October 1. Credit for its destruction is given to "the anti-aircraft defence organisation," and up to the time of the inquest 19 bodies had been discovered. The importance of the destruction of the L3l is greatly enhanced by tins, disclosure that its commander was the ablest and most successful of German airship commanders, Captain-lieutenant 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, he made a great reputation as a bold destroyer officer. When Zeppelins were introduced ho entered the air branch of the German navy and was specially selected to watch the trials of the first two. When war broke out ho was placed in command of one of the largest and latest airships, and immediately after his September visit to London he gave to an American journalist a full 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 sec its reflected glow in the skv nearly 40 miles away shortly before 10 p.m.; soon the city was outlined silent below. A large city seen at night from a great height is a fairy-like picture. There is no sign of life." Then he proceeded to relate how ho 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 I could see that I had apparently done great damage. I turned my L for home. We had not been hit. I have never experienced a fight with an aeroplane; in fact. I have never been bothered by them. The men are always at the guns watching for them. I am not afraid of them, and I think I could make it interesting for them." All this happened a year ngo._ Conditions have changed, and _ on this his last visit things were made "interesting" for him by London's " anti-aircraft defence- organisation," and the charred remains of Mathy and 18 of his crew were disentangled from

the burning wreckage. A "bag" of four Zeppelin-loads of baby-killers within the epace of four weeks is not a bad record for England ; one can only hope that it causes disturbance in Germanv.