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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 1144.PDF
[/OCHT] On Tuesday a Morning Post correspondent at Washing ton sent a summary of an account of" four days spent by a | correspondent of the New Herald at the German Headquarters in France, in which was the following :— " In addition to the Emperor and his personal entourage Great Headquarters consisted of thirty-six chiefs or department heads, making with clerks, secretaries, and garrison, 1,200 souls. " The correspondent says he wondered why theaviators of the Allies were not on the job. A dozen backed up by an intelligent intelli gence department could so obviously settle the fortunes of war by blowing out the brains of their enemy. Perhaps, he adds, that is why the whereabouts of Great Headquarters is guarded as a jealous secret. Soldiers at the front do not know where it is, nor do the people at home, and of course no mention of it is made in the German Press. Two aeroplane guns were mounted on the hills across the river opposite the Emperor's residence, and near them is a picked squad of shirpshooters on guard day and night." A telegram from Maastricht to the Dutch paper Tele- graaf stated:— A dirigible coming from Belgium yesterday (15th) flew over part of the south position of Limburg It was observed that the balloon was badly damaged either by storm or bombardment. It passed to the south of Maastricht, and disappeared in the direction of Germany, via Valkenberg." From Sittard in Dutch Limburg also came news that on the same day at noon an airship had been observed coming from the south-east and following the Dutch frontier. A special correspondent of The Times writing from j Hmkirk on November 13th said :— " An officer who has examined the German guns which were left abandoned in the water near Ramskapelle tells me that they are 5-in. guns apparently of Austrian make and designed to be used against aircraft. The water round about them is five or six feet deep in most places." An interesting account of the work of the aviators with the Allied Armies, which appeared in the Matin on Saturday, contained the following :— " One by one from various points the aeroplanes return to their quarters like homing pigeons. Soon the whole squadron is there, and while pilots and observers go to headquarters to make their reports, the mechanics see to the machines. Suddenly, the sound of a motor is heard and all eyes turn to scan the sky. A black spot shows against the grey clouds. No, it is not a Prussian but a French aeroplane, and the pilot bring some very important news. A German convoy is advancing along a little branch line some thirty miles away. Immediately the air camp is full of bustle. " In less than a quarter of an hour the whole squadron is up and off, flying in single rile. Suddenly, before the pilot has been able to make out precisely what is beneath him, a flame rises from the ground and a great wave of air rocks the machine. The bomb dropped by the leading aeroplane must have hit something. We cut oft the motor and descend. The aeroplane in front of us has just made the same manoeuvre, and has dropped its bombs, to judge by the columns of thick smoke that arise here and there. It will be our turn soon " Still we descend. And now we can distinguish what is going on beneath. An engine is lying on its side, a great hole torn in its flank, and behind it is the black, confused mass of a convoy, from which flames and smoke are pouring. The aim has been true. A little further on, when the smoke blows momentarily aside, we see another convoy in flight. We switch on our motor, overtake it, aim, and drop our bombs. No time to watch their effect. If we have missed we must leave it to those who follow to do better. We still have work to do. In front of us lies a village, from whose houses issue little dark specks in hundreds, as from a disturbed ant-hill. We drop more bombs, and this time we are sure we have not missed. Columns of smoke rise up, the movement among the dark specks becomes more marked, and great billows of air cause our machine t<> roll like a boat in a high sea. " Now the chief of the squadron signals to us to return. Regret fully, and dropping our last projectiles, we sweep round and make for home, amid a hail of ineffective bullets. Below us the convoys are burning still, throwing out yellow tongues of flame into the gathering darkness. Far away in the horizon we can see the friendly flicker of the lights that denote our landing-place. The day's work is over, a good day's work and a typical. There will be many a German battery that will wait in vain for the promised and sorely- needed munitions." NOVEMBER 20, 1914. The following news was sent from Rotterdam by Mr. James Dunn to the Daily Mail on Monday :— " A storm-tossed Zepp;lin flying low passed near Maastricht (East Belgian frontier) yesterday afternoon. The airship was badly damaged in the rear and sailing in an almost vertical position, making erratic, jerky movements. The crew were clinging on to prevent their being thrown out. By desperate efforts they succeeded in reaching the German frontier, where the Zeppelin collapsed and became a wreck." The Daily Telegraph correspondent at Rotterdam gave the following version of the incident:— " One of Germany's airships narrowly escaped being interned in Holland on Sunday. A Maastricht message in the Nieuwe Rotter- damsche Courant states that a dirigible was seen in that district in great difficulties. It came so low that the trailing cable seemed to touch the ground, but the crew succeeded in getting the motors to work again, and, rising to a height of 300 metres, the airship escaped across the German border." Mr. George Potts, an Englishman who has resided in Brussels for many years, and who stayed in Brussels during the whole period of the German occupation, has arrived in London from the Belgian capital. Speaking to a Morning Post representative on Tuesday, he said that a large Zeppelin shed has been erected at Bercham, on the outskirts of Brussels, and is nearly ready for use. The following extract from French reports of the action in which the Prussian Guards were defeated, throws a sidelight on the valuable work effected by aircraft:— " Being in some doubt as to the disposition of the German forces the British general sent a wireless message to Ypres ordering aero planes to leave Ypres and direct their searchlights upon the plain. The searchlights revealed the presence 250 yards south of Zonnebeke of the advancing German army. The enemy had been informed of the movement of the Allied troops and, while the latter expected them from the north, they were preparing to attack by the south, by this means hoping to create confusion in the ranks of the Allies. " By the searchlight of one aeroplane the Prussian Guards were discovered at a distance of barely 130 yards from the British lines. " The British general ordered the infantry to make a right about turn and the battle began." In a message dated Belgium, November 15th, a Morning Post correspondent said :— " Snow fell this morning : and snow, sleet, and rain continued, with violent winds, during the day. Air reconnaissance has almost ceased, but I noticed to-day one aeroplane in the air, a British biplane flying very low. Against the wind it did not make more than 10 miles an hour, and rocked violently. But it kept on. The British air service is more daring than any other in bad weather. " The Naval air section did good work yesterday and to-day pound ing at the Germans entrenched in houses in front of Nieuport." A Daily Mail correspondent sent the following from Rome on Monday. " The German correspondent of the Bologna newspaper Restodel Carlino has visited the Zeppelin building yard at Friedrichshafen. He says that at the beginning of the war Germany had thirty Zeppelins in service. Since then work has gone on night and day, 12,000 men being employed in building additions to the air fleet. On an average Fri;drichshafeti can turn out two airships a month, and the Germans hope to have completed by next spring a further fleet of eighteen dirigibles intended for an expedition against Eng land. Each airship is 462 ft. long, 49 ft. in diameter, with a crew of thirty. The armament consis.s of a quick-firing gun and fifty bombs." A Reuter message from Luederitz Buchi (German S.W. Africa), November 14th, via Cape Town, November 16th, stated :— " Several of our camps report that they sighted a German aero plane manoeuvring over our positions. Ten shots were fired without taking effect. The machine flew so low over one camp that the figures of the two occupants could be clearly distinguished, but they neither dropped bjmbs nor fired. That there is good reason for assuming that the exces sive caution of the Press Bureau in preventing the 1144
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