FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0186.PDF
" The fighting reached the culminating point along the front of the Crown Prince's Army, whence came the Zeppelin attack. It was towards $.30 p.m. that the airship was reported by the listening post*. It was then flying at a height of nearly 6,000 ft. It was seen flying over Sommeille, using its searchlights for a brief moment. Then, with light* out, it Sew over ReVigny, where the motor search lights picked it up. It was fighting with a bead wind and making slow progress. " Immediately it came within range the motor anti-aircraft guns f ot to work, and apparently found the range almost immediately, 'irst a tracer shell burst just at the stern and then another a little •bove the airship. The third shell, an incendiary one, found the target. It appeared to those watching to go right through and remain embedded in the right flank of the balloon. Fire broke out immediately, and spread right along the airship, outlining the car and the body above it. After glowing gently, the whole dirigible burst into flames It came to earth slowly, large flakes of flame lighting its descent. There was no explosion until the Zeppelin touched the ground, when all its cargo of bombs burst. " The extraordinary spectacle of a flaming Zepp-lin was seen by many, and from the neighbouring town of R/vigny and from the ruined village of Brabant-le-koi, there was a wild helter-skelter across the fields and along the roads to the spot, where nothing but a confused mass of wreckage was left in which were 20 to 30 bodies, only one of which was clothed in the shreds of a uniform. From evidence found it appears that the dirigible was the naval airship, of the very latest design, ' L 77.' "Ten miles away, another Zeppelin, which had crossed the French lines, watched the fate of us companion and then turned and disappeared. " At the same time a third Zeppelin flew over LuneVille and dropped bombs which, however, caused nothing but unimportant material damage." The following account of the destruction of the Zeppelin is given by a passenger from Bar-le-Due to Chalons, whose train was stopped at KeVigny:— * When we arrived at ReVigny station I heard a violent cannon- adc. At the same time I saw a Zeppelin with its searchlight, picking out its way in the direction of Sommeille. The cannonade become more intense and the li»jht disappeared, and, for a moment, we 1 wt trace of the raider. Aftrr a Jew minutes, however, the noise of the motors seemed to indicate that the Zeppelin was almost above us. Meanwhile the >earchl ghts which had been sweeping the sky in all directions succeeded in locating it. Then there came a violent explosion, followed by others at short intervals. The special batteries had opened fire. The Zeppelin seemed to hesitate in iis cour-e, but continued southwards for a few moments, and then suddenly swung around. It was evidently trying to escape, but the srarchlights gave it no rest, and the cannonade became greater every minute. Suddenly flame* burst into the sky. We all shouted, 'He's hit,' and instinctively we all rushed towards it. In less than 10 seconds the whole dirigible was glowing. It turned around two or three times, and then, like some fantastic torch, it fell writhing to the earth." Some fu-ther details are given in the following story as told in the Petit Pa'isitn by Adjutant G , said to have been in com mand of the success'ul batiety :— " The Zeppelin was first picked up by the rays of the searchlights when at an altitude of a, 500 metres over ReVigny. Two automobile guns concealed somewhere north of Revigny fired about twenty shells without success. When the Zeppelin was within about three kilometres of Sainte Menehould a 7S opened fire. The first shell, an incendiary, struck the forepart 01 the dirigible, and four others followed in quick succession. Then the sixth shell, fired by Adjutant G , got home, passing into the middle of the Zeppelin. "A great mass of rhme spurted out, and formed a circle of fire about the airship, which began slowly to descend until, as it passed over the Revigny-Sainte Menehould lines, at an altitude of about 800 metres, it broke into two and collapsed. *' Meanwhile, the crew had thrown out a number of large bombs, which madr Rreat holes in the ground. One member of the crew jumped from the Zeppelin from a height of 300 metres, and was picked up smashed to pieces. The Zeppelin it*elf fell almost imme diately afterwards with a terrific noise, collapsing in a mass of flames. *' An excited crowd of spectators was quickly on the spot, loudly cheering, and on the following morning soldiers removed ihe charred and unrecogni»able remains of the German airmen and buried them. 9 ® " Wind Flying." ALTHOUGH they will have been detected by most readers, it is as well 10 point out two obvious slips which crept into the interest ing article on Wind flung, by J. II. Moore, in our last issue. Th» first Was the use of the word " draught " instead of " drift " in MABCH 2, I«I6. The adjutant received the heartiest congratulations from his officers and comrades. He added: ' When I saw that I had hit the Zeppelin I was overcome by my feelings. My joy overflowed, and I became like a child.'" The Daily Mail correspondent at Pontarlier, on the French-Swiss frontier, says :— .,.,,_ " A German source gives the following details of Zeppelin 77, destroyed by the French incendiary shell near Revigny:— " • The vessel belonged to the middle period of construction, but had been enlarged and improved. She carried over twenty of a crew, eight machine guns, and on the overhead platform two ' revolver' guns. Her orders were to bomb the railway junctions behind the front, especially, perhaps, Revigny owing to its import ance for Verdun (which is only some thirty miles away). Air scouts had previously thrown bombs on ReVigny, and three aeroplanes accompanied the Zeppelin. She had not thrown any bombs when obliged to descend near ReVigny, perhaps owing to a defect in the machinery.'" A Central News message from Geneva, dated February 25th, says:— " News has reached here that on the occasion of the recent raid by a French aerial squadron six hangars with the aeroplanes they contained were destroyed at Habsheim. "The goods station at Mulhouse was damaged in the course of the same raid, and a train loaded with war material was partly destroyed." Writing to the Daily Telegraph from Milan on February 23rd, Mr. A. Beaumont gives the following thrilling story of the raid on Laibach:— "Correspondents at Udina to-day wire graphic descriptions of the incidents during the Italian air raid on Laibach, which, as announced, was a punitive incursion for the Austrian aeroplane attack on Milan. For the fourteen unarmed victims, including women and children, killed in Milan, the Italian commander ordered retaliation on the Austrian town of Laibach, some sixty miles from the Isonzo frontier, and seven big Italian aeroplanes loaded with bombs executed their mission on Friday morning. They were pur sued by a swarm of fast Austrian Fokkers, nevertheless they accomplished their raid, dropping all their bombs on Laibach. Five machines returned unscathed. Of the two others, one was com pelled to land within the Austrian lines, whilst the other, piloted by Captain Salomone, bore nearly all the brunt of the Austrian assault, and landed finally inside the Italian lines after the dramatic death of two out of its three occupants. " Captain Salomone, having had difficulties in starting, was the last of the seven aeroplanes to get away, and was first approached by the pursuing warhawks. Several machiues attacked him simultaneously, one flying above and one below, and others at the side. Three times a fast Fokker machine flew about fifty yards above him, firing machine guns. First one of the observers was wounded, and then he himself was grazed by a bullet, which tore off part of his scalp. Bleeding and tired, he continued his flight, dropped all his bombs over the town, and headed back home, when again the Austrian machines returned to the attack, flying above and below him. " A third time the Fokker machine passed over him. A bullet through the brain killed his companion on the right, and imme diately afterwards his companion on the left was shot through the heart, and also dropped forward dead. The two corpses were lying at his feet encumbering his manoeuvres, when the captain pluckily continued his flight. The Austrians had exhausted all their ammunition, and kept pursuing him so closely that their voices could easily \K heard. ' Surrender,' they shouted to him again and again, and each time he shook his head, and shouted doggedly, ' No !' " The Italian lines were within sight, and down he came safely on the banks of the Laguna Grado. The machine landed, he fainted from exhaustion, and Italian soldiers who hastened to the spot were surprised to see nobody moving in the aeroplane, which seemed like a phantom machine dropped from the sky. As they came nearer they saw the three motionless bodies, and at first believed that all three were dead. Captain Salomone at that in stant recovered consciousness, and his first eager questions were about his brave comradrs. He had lost a lot of blood, and was taken to the nearest field hospital, where last Monday General Cadorna himself went to visit him at his bedside, and pinned the gold medal on his breast." ® ® the paragraph : " When about to land, the correct thing to do is to turn the machine into the draught, &c." The second was in the concluding ptragraph where "if the head wind suddenly increased in velocity" should, of course, read " decreased »»> velocity." • 186
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
