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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 0015.PDF
JANUARY I, 1915. Berlin correspondent of the United Press 01 America, reference was made to the work of aircraft. Asked as to whether Zeppelins had proved their value as a naval weapon in this war, the Admiral said : — '"lam personally of the opinion that aeroplanes are also extra ordinarily well suited to naval warfare. But Zeppelins are far superior to them for carrying heavy loads over long distances.' " ' Then the Zeppelins in the navy have not remained without a rival ?' '"I cannot yet say which of the two types will in the end prove to be the best in the weather conditions in which our navy has to work. But I can say this much, that both are employed for totally different purposes.' " ' Is there any truth in the report that an invasion of England by Zeppelins is in preparation ? '—' I think a submarine war against Biiiish merchant shipping would be still more effective.' " Writing from Northern France regarding the fighting round Ypres, a Daily Chronicle correspondent said :— "This morning the sun is our travelling companion. It rises warm and radiant as we trudge along the road to 1'ervyse, in weather that is much more like those last fine days of October than the freezing days of the month of December. So much the better for our soldier lads, who will now be able to dry themselves a bit, and for the aeroplanes which swarm out beyond the enemy lines to discover the composition of the German troops " Above Dixmude two observation balloons are swaying in the sky, about 200 metres up. They have that distinctive and ridi culous shape of a sausage with one end bitten off. We can see quite clearly the rigging that supports the car. They are situated one at Gessen and the other at Clerken. As a rule these things are advance signals of a battle. They say that the Germans are pre paring at this moment a new offensive. We have little difficulty in believing it." In an account of some things seen in German recently, a correspondent of the Times wrote :— " In the same town (Mannheim) are the famous engineering works of Heinrich Lanz, which at present are busy building three airships of the same type as the old ' Schiitte-Lanz' air-cruiser. One of them is to be ready about the middle of January, the others at tne end of February. I have been unable to get near enough to prove the correctness of this personally, but my information is reliable beyond all doubt." Mr. Perceval Gibbon, in a despatch to the Daily Chronicle from Zyrardow (Bzura Valley), sent by courier to Warsaw and Petrograd and received in London on Christmas Day, said :— " Overhead, two German aeroplanes were reconnoitring the Russian gun positions. From time to time one of these would slide down the air to a lower level for a closer look, and suddenly the air around and under them was filled with the ragged smokeballs of bursting shrapnel. One had been hit the day before ; the engine was damaged, and the aviator was captured alive. He is said to be one of the men who recently threw bombs into Warsaw." A correspondent of the Lokal-Anzeiger reported :— " Four English airmen on Christmas Day flew over the North Sea island of Langeoog—a small island next to Norderney, not far from Borkum, and a short distance from Wilhelmshafen—and threw four bombs on the west end of the island, without, however, doing any damage." A correspondent of the Journal, dealing with the aerial attack on Nancy, wrote :— " At nine o'clock on Friday morning a Taube flew over the town and dropped two bombs, doing no material damage of any impor tance. The first bomb, which fell on the military bedding store, was picked up almost intact. The second burst on the roof of the Hotel de la Poste, only a few yards from the cathedral. No one was hit. " On Saturday morning at 5.20 a tremendous explosion was heard. A Zeppelin, making evolutions at a low altitude, had dropped its first bomb in the Rue Isabey. The dirigible then flew in an oblique direction from west to east, scattering projectiles in the Place Carnot, Place du Gouvernement, and the Pare de la Pepiniere, killing two persons. Twelve other bombs wounded people in different parts of the town, including some soldiers quartered in an inn, while a house occupied by General de Lavilleon suffered severely, as did the church of St. Epure, the magnificent coloured glass windows of which were smashed to atoms. A dozen or so shops and a number of dwelling-houses were more or less seriously damaged. Two bombs were thrown almost on top of President Cornot's monument." A Times correspondent, in a despatch from Nancy on Saturday, said:— " The airship, which probably came from Metz, came down the valley of the Moselle and the Meurthe. At Frouard, six miles off, it dropped three bombs. Frouard telephoned the news to Cham- pigneulles, and Champigneulles to Nancy, where the Zeppelin arrived just as the message was coming through. At the station it followed the course of the railway line for a few hundred yards, then turned sharply to the right and the east, after dropping three bombs, which fell through the roofs of two houses and shattered them. Another fell 100 yards further on in the middle of a big open place, the Cours Le-opold, where it smashed one or two trees ; a splinter of glass from one of the windows which it broke in the houses along the east side of the square killed a waiter who was asleep in bed. His wife was only slightly wounded on the arm. Beside the waiter one woman was killed and about ten people wounded, including two or three soldiers. " The aeronauts dropped their two photographs as they passed on their kindly flight, with a message written on each conveying best Christmas wishes—' Frohliche Weinachten '—to Nancy—from the Kaiser." Advices from Basle state that a violent battle took place along the whole line of the Vosges on the 25th and 26th ult. Before the battle began, French aviators flew over Mulhouse, making reconnaissances, and the French artillery afterwards opened a deadly fire. With regard to the raid on Brussels, officially reported on p. 13, an official telegram from Berlin admits that a hostile airman within the last few days threw bombs at a new Zeppelin shed, but denies the statement of a London newspaper's report from Dunkirk that the shed was hit. The Berne correspondent of the Morning Post, writing on December 27th, said :— "It is reported that the Aviatik biplane works have been removed from Freiburg, in Breisgau, which has been several times bombarded lately by French airmen, to some town in central Germany. Originally these works were at Miilhausen, whence they were removed at the beginning of the war to Freiburg." Writing to the Daily Mail from Northern France on December 28th, Mr. G. Ward Price said:— " The thick fog that suddenly settled down over Flanders on Christmas Day had one odd result ; it immobilised all the aero planes of the allied armies just where they were. The British and the French air scouts out on their ceaseless tours of patrol and reconnaissance had to come down just as soon as a local break in the fog enabled them to get some dim idea of the ground. Those that were out over the enemy's lines had to make the best of their way back by compass, and then grope for a safe alighting ground through the fog. The danger that the fog brought may be judged from the fact that it was only a sudden bad taste and smell in the air that told two airmen who were returning from their patrol beat in the bitter cold of 7,000 feet up that they were coming down right on top of a town. It is testimony to the airmanship of English military flyers that there were no serious accidents. One or two machines whtch landed on plough instead of flat ground owing to the fog broke a strut or a wheel, and had to be left where they were until a repair squad with spare parts reached them from the base by car. In addition to the more striking raids over the enemy's country that are made from time to time there is an immense amount of courageous, patient routine work being done from day to day by the Royal Flying Corps. The cold alone that must be endured flying at the height of 7,000 ft., which is the lowest to give even comparative immunity from German guns, is so severe as to make a two hours' flight literally a torture. And the dangers of the service increase from day to day, for with constant practice the gunners of the German anti-aircraft guns are becoming more and more expert." In the wireless news sent out from Berlin on Sunday there was the following reference to the Cuxhaven raid :— " It is reported by the Admiralty that some British ships made a dash into a German bay, and afterwards waterplanes, conveyed by them, advanced over the mouths of German rivers and dropped bombs on ships anchored there and on the gasworks near Cuxhaven, but without doing any damage. The waterplanes were fired at and withdrew in a westerly direction. " After this a German airship and aeroplanes reconnoitred against the British forces and hit by bombs two British destroyers. One of the convoy ships took fire, but fog prevented a continuance of the fighting." •5
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