FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0346.PDF
MARCH 28, 1918. IF it is still considered important that localities wherethe Huns actually drop their bombs on London thould not be identifiable—and it would appear still to be desirable—would it not be as well to suppress full names at the inquests ? There is such a thing as a Kelly's Directory in existence, wehave heard, so there you are. WHAT is it ? The silver badge, of which the photographannexed is a reproduction, was taken last year from a German What is it ? N.C.O. pilot by one of our flying officers, who has obtainedthe M.C., after shooting. down the German. The R.F.C. officer writes :— " Can you inform me at all as to its origin or meaning ?I noticed, in your issue of September 6th, 1917, that what appeared to be the same type of badge was fixed to the tunicof a Captain Kleine, leader of a German bombing squadron." The maker's name on the back of the badge is C. E. Juncker,Berlin. Can any of our readers give us the desired informa- tion ? APROPOS the finding of " rest quarters " for that demi-god, the Hun officer in the more actively air-raided localities, that good old sporting comedy of " when is a reprisal nota reprisal ? " has been revived with vigour, although maybe with a more subtle touch. Lord Newton last week took thesubject up with discretion at an interview, when he explained that the housing of German prisoners of war in areas whichhave been, or may be, raided by German airmen is not, strictly speaking, to be regarded as a reprisal. It was truethat Germany had sent British officer prisoners to such cities as Karlsruhe, but it was claimed that this had been done,not for the purpose of exposing them to the bombs of British or French airmen, but because there happened to be suitableaccommodation there. " Reprisals," said Lord Newton, " is not the exact wordto use, even if we are in fact following the German practice. I think," he continued, " too much is being made of thismatter, for, after all, there is nothing new in the presence of German prisoners in areas subject to bombardment. Peopleseem to forget that there have long been in London huge camps filled with German prisoners where bombs are as likelyto fall, when raids take place/ as in any other part of the metropolis. QUITE good news, taken all round, and it is to be hopedthat London surroundings will be considered as increasingly the most suitable fpr prisoners of war from Donnington Halland other places of that ilk. It must be abominably boring to such superior supermen to be stuck away amidst such tamesurroundings. In this connection, Deputy Abel Ferry in a recent issue of the Petit Journal goes a step further. Whathe suggests is :— . " Let us take distinguished German prisoners and distributethem everywhere in the squares, near monuments, factories, parks, railway lines, and at other suitable spots. Their.. custodians being sheltered, they themselves should be com- pelled to remain standing in the open air when the siren soundsthe alarm." The one difficulty which emerges in this scheme, it appears . to us, is the means to employ to ensure that these hostages shall remain where they are actually placed, without risking lives of our own kith and kin, which are of some count still. A NICE, gentlemanly antidote has also been given voiceto by Brig.-Gen. Page Croft, M.P., who would like to see " for every home, for every working woman and little child donein by German bombs in this country, a whole street in Cologne blotted out." The cathedral city is not over farfrom Coblenz, and no doubt a trial run on account in this direction will not be very long in maturing. Half a dozenstreets might be tackled by way of a jump off, before any calculations are arrived at as to clearing up the job, or weare afraid Cologne would be found to be hardly big enough for the job and so get missed altogether in the ultimateselection. AFTER Hours. " Corisande," in the Evening Standard,writing of a recent Waacs and Wrens dinner, relates how one scarcely noticed the scarcity of men at the dinner in honourof the Sister Services at the Lyceum Club, as so many of the women present were in blue or khaki. There wasn'tany of the promised sky-blue and silver of the women's section of the Flying Corps, for Lady Gertrude Crawfurd,the one " Penguin " yet recruited, came in orthodox evening dress. Dame Katherine Furse, replying to the " SisterServices " toast for the Wrens, said that they wanted nothing in the shape of snobbery in the women's naval service, andshe hoped that good types of women would join as ratings. The most impressive speech of the evening, " Corisande "continues, was that of the Hon. Mrs. Haverfield, who spoke of the earliest war organisations of women, such as theWomen's Emergency Corps and the Scottish Women's Hospital, whose work was rejected by officialdom in theirown country, and who were told that they were " disgracing our splendid men by dressing up in khaki." She confessedto some amusement, after those experiences, to find herself now at a " Sister Services " dinner. Mrs. Haverfield alsodeclared that she would like to see women doing other work than that of cooks and clerks in the Army, as she knew thebravery and endurance of which women were capable. Even the low-necked, pearl-bead, and powdered-nose brigade—women you " wouldn't think worth tuppence " when you saw them on the street—were capable of wonderful heroismunder fire, as her experiences abroad had proved. MANY stories have from time to time got into circulation ofthe huge increased building by the Germans of super-Zeppelins and per contra of their being abandoned altogether. Eitherway they were always rightly suspect of enemy camouflage, to serve their own purpose. A side-light, which may notbe a blind, is now forthcoming upon this subject in the latest annual report of the German Airship Company, ofFrankfurt-on-Main, which indicates that the company has almost entirely abandoned the construction of airships. According to the Frankfurter Zeitung, the year's profitson construction have fallen from ^6,795 to ^2,794, " because the company had to abandon for the most part its formerbranch of construction." The, airship sheds belonging to the company are valued at only ^7,800, as compared with^650 a vear ago. It is stated that " since the autumn 342
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
