AERIAL RAIDS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7718, 11 May 1916, Page 1

AERIAL RAIDS.

“BOMBING OF WOMEN IS WAR.” ZEPP. CAPTIVES TELL OF RAIDS. Undisguised indignation has been expressed in the United States at the recrudescence of German Zeppelin raids over Great Britain as unwarrantable warfare, and prominence is given in the American newspapers to an interview which an American correspondent, George F. Allison, of New York, obtained with the captives of the Zeppelin destroyed near the mouth of the Thames early on the morning of April Ist. Relating his impressions, Allison said: “By the courtesy of the British War Office 1 visited the military barracks here (Chatham) and for more than an hour chatted freely with the crew of the Ll 5, the German Zeppelin brought down off the coast of Kent by English fire during the raid of Friday night. I found the crew in what is called the “garrison detention room,” a sort of local military prison, in which ordinary soldier defaulters are detained for minor barrack offences. These quarters are spotlessly clean, well-aired, and spacious. “During the time of my visit rations similar to those given to British soldiers in barracks were served out to the captured Zeppelin crew. My interview with the men took place in the corridor, and the prisoners were brought out in pairs. They were all young men varying in age from 20 to 30. Only one had suffered from a slight wound to his wrist, while another seemed to be suffering from the shock of immersion. The remainder were unhurt, and surprisingly cheerful. Two mechanics have still their leather clothing, but others who had discarded their heavy apparel as the Zeppelin struck the water, were wearing woollen sleeping suits, provided by the British soldiers who had effected the rescue and capture. Lieuten-ant-Commander Breithaupht, veteran of many raids upon England and proud possessor of the Iron Cross, has a strange psychology in explaining his regret that defenceless persons are slain in the Zeppelin raids.

“ ‘There is not an officer in our army or navy, I can wager, who would willingly kill women or children,” he said. ‘We have a more important object when we make our attacks,’ he continued. ‘We aim to destroy warships and factories. Women and children are victims, but not intentionally. It is war!’ Commander Breitaupht, who was a regular naval officer before the war, served in Australasian waters and also in South America. He said he was acquainted with numbers of naval men, and did not did not feel any hatred for them, but was doing his duty in fighting the enemies of Germany.

“Asked whether he participated gladly in air raids, he replied: ‘Yes; I do my duty as an officer gladly. As to the risk in air fighting, we know the chances we run and are prepared to take them. Our aircraft was hit three times by shrapnel, and we came down very rapidly into the water.’

“Lieut. Kuhne, second in command, was attired in the fur collared leather coat of the German Zeppelin officer. He looked pale, but said he had fully recovered from his immersion and his thrilling experience. Kuhne was the last to leave the sinking Zeppelin. He was in a watertight gondola at the time the vessel struck the water and sank in the gondola to a depth that he estimated at 30 metres. Breaking open one of the glass windows he came to the surface and was rescued. Kuhne seemed delighted at his escape. Only eight days prior to the ill-fated trip he had been married. ‘When I sank with the ■Zeppelin I would have remained in the gondola and died,’ he said, ‘had it not been for the thoughts of my wife.’ He seemed grateful that the British authorities permitted him, in view of his recent marriage, to write a letter to his bride announcing his safety.

“Curiously enough, Lieut. Kuhne’s sister is said to live in the neighboring county of Suffolk, and is the wife of an Englishman. According to Kuhne, the Zeppelins, contrary to the general belief, are afraid of nothing short of a blizzard. Rain has no terrors for them. At the time his craft was brought down the atmosphere of England was of mid-spring warmth, but at the altitude at which they were flying ten degrees of frost were registered. ‘Can you see towns over which you are passing?’ Kuhne was asked. ‘Yes,’ was the crisp reply. ‘Can you locate large buildings, which may form objects you are desirous of hitting with bombs?’ Again his answer was an emphatic ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you believe you could hit these objects?’ ‘I cannot answer that.’ The watches carried had stopped at exactly 12.15 o’clock, or 15 minutes after midnight on Saturday, which may be taken as the time that he fell into the water.