_Told by Commander of a German Air Fleet_
Our Zeppelin received orders at 6 o'clock in the evening to fly from
our hangar in Belgium for an attack on London.
The giant airship slipped easily out of the long shed with noiseless
motors, and after rising to 8,000 feet, the altitude most suited for
steady flying, our captain steered by compass straight for London.
Our true German hearts beat high this night with the hope of doing some
great and irreparable damage to London....
Perhaps we should destroy their House of Parliament ... or their War
Office ... or the Foreign Office ... or the official dwellings of the
Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.... Well did I know
the location of all these places from my long residence in London.
Our commander said that a bomb dropped in a certain space of half a
square mile in London could hardly fail to destroy some person of great
importance in the official or wealthy classes of England.
Perhaps we might strike a school or a hospital or a party of women.
We should regret such accidents, but it is impossible to modify
our splendid and effective aerial warfare simply because innocent
combatants place themselves in the way of legitimate objects of
attack.... We know that London is a fortified city, and non-combatants
who remain there do so at their own peril.
The way had for months been prepared by previous aerial attacks and
reconnoissances for a more accurate and effective blow at the heart of
London. All lights, both street lamps and those in dwellings, have been
lowered by order of the English Government to a point that causes the
busiest thoroughfare at night to present only a dull glow a few hundred
yards away.
On the other hand, powerful searchlights operated in connection with
anti-aircraft guns, and other military works are kept constantly
playing on the sky in the search for our airships. If we can discover
the topographical position of these searchlights and batteries we can
establish the other principal centres of the city from them and throw
our bombs with some approach to accuracy--that is to say, we can at
least drop them on a quarter where we know that there are public
buildings or where important officials reside.
To establish the location of these points has been the work of our
earlier air reconnoissances, and as a result of this system our work
must become more and more deadly every day. We have, for instance,
found that powerful searchlights and batteries are operated at Woolwich
on the extreme eastern outskirts of London, at St. James's Park, which
is in the centre of the metropolis, at Hampstead Heath on the north,
and at the Crystal Palace, south of the Thames. The English are not
likely to move all these defensive points, and if one is moved and not
the others, the captain of the Zeppelin can discover the change by
reference to the other points.
As our Zeppelin can travel seventy miles an hour at its maximum, the
journey of a little more than two hundred miles from Belgium could be
performed in a few hours. Darkness was falling as we passed over the
stormy North Sea for we did not wish to be seen and reported by patrol
ships.
The cold was intense and could be felt through the fleece-lined
clothes and heavy felt shoes with which we were provided. Our Zeppelin
carried four tons of the most destructive explosives ever created by
science--sufficient to annihilate the heart of London, the greatest
city in the world. The amount was divided into forty bombs of 100
pounds each, and eighty of fifty pounds each. The larger bombs are
designed to destroy fortifications and heavy buildings. The smaller
ones are for the purpose of setting fire to houses, and contain an
explosive that develops a temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
We made out the mouth of the Thames from certain lightships and shore
lights that have been maintained. At about 10 o'clock we found a
powerful searchlight playing on us. This we knew from our information
to be Woolwich, the important English arsenal. As we no longer desired
to conceal our presence, we discharged ten of the larger bombs in the
vicinity of the searchlight.
The bombs are discharged from tubes pointing downward from a steel
plate in the floor of the airship. The bomb is furnished with a steel
handle, and by means of this it is lowered into the tube. A bolt
fitting into a hole in the bomb holds it in the tube. The marksman
presses his foot on an electric button in the plate in the floor of the
car and this withdraws the bolt, releasing the bombs. He can drop two
bombs at once if he wishes, and the third two seconds later.
The height at which the airship flies, its speed and the effects of
wind at present render impossible scientific aim in the sense that an
artillerist would use the term. Nevertheless a considerable degree of
effectiveness is attained by Zeppelin marksmen, while a poor marksman
may entirely waste his ammunition. To hit a mark half an acre in extent
is good marksmanship from a Zeppelin. In practice a regiment of wooden
dummies was set up in a field and one of our aerial marksmen succeeded
in wiping out the whole regiment.
If Zeppelin marksmanship is still rudimentary, the destructive
power of our bombs, on the other hand, is terrible beyond anything
dreamed of before this war. One of our 100-pound bombs striking
fairly will destroy any existing building not constructed purely as
a fortification. Even if it strikes in a street, it will dig a hole
a hundred feet deep, destroying gas pipes, electric wire conduits,
subways and any subterranean constructions that may be beneath the
surface. Thus the destruction and paralyzing of all life in a city can
be practically assured if we use sufficient bombs. Our bombardment of
Woolwich was followed by the extinction of the searchlight, and we
had reason to believe that we had inflicted serious damage at this
important centre.
We knew that in a few minutes we should be over the heart of London.
Our daring commander decided to sail very low, following the course of
the Thames which he knew would take him near all the objects he wished
to reach.
Suddenly the huge outline of a building loomed under our noses. Seen
against the dull, cloudy sky, it appeared colossal. We almost struck
it. It was a church! It was St. Paul's Cathedral! An instantaneous turn
of the elevating rudder saved us from a collision with the monstrous
dome. A few seconds more straight to the westward and we knew that we
were over the centre of official and fashionable London.
Our commander ordered the bombs discharged as fast as we could throw
them. The ship circled slowly round and round, peppering death on the
solar plexus of the British Empire.
Beneath us was the Strand, with its theatres and hotels, the House of
Parliament, the Government offices in Whitehall and Parliament street,
the residences of the aristocracy in Mayfair, the fashionable clubs
in Pall Mall, Buckingham Palace, the War Office, the Admiralty and
Westminster Abbey.
It was a night of terror for London! The searchlights and the guns
played upon us constantly. At night the anti-aircraft fighters use
shells that spread a long trail of luminous red smoke through the
darkness in order to mark the position of the airship for the other
gunners firing shrapnel. It was a grand and inconceivably weird
spectacle to watch the electric beams and the long red trails playing
about in the air, while shrapnel burst about us and our great bombs
exploded on the earth below with a glow that we could faintly discern.
It is exceedingly difficult for a gunner to hit an airship at a height
of 8,000 feet, or even lower. We enjoyed a feeling of tremendous power
and security. Our daring commander ordered our craft to circle lower
and lower in his determination to inflict the greatest possible injury
on the enemy.
At last we could see the outlines of buildings on the ground. Below us
was a great open square and in the centre a very high slender column.
It was the ... British monument to their noted Admiral Nelson standing
in the centre of Trafalgar Square.
"Give old Nelson a bomb!" roared our brave commander.
Down went a bomb aimed straight at the head of the one-eyed admiral.
The fervent wishes of every man in our crew went with it. Whether it
struck the mark time alone will show.
We had ventured too near the earth, and an unusually well-aimed shot
struck the forward part of our vessel. One of our mechanical experts,
in his anxiety to ascertain the nature of the damage, climbed out on
a stay, fell and was, of course, lost. That was our only casualty. We
found later that the shot had only penetrated one "ballonnet" and had
not interfered with our stability in any important degree.
Our commander threw the elevating rudders to their extreme upward
angle, and in a few minutes we were practically out of danger once
more. We threw all our supply of bombs upon London and then turned for
home again. Steering by compass and the stars for Belgium, we made the
return journey without mishap. The dawn was just breaking when we came
in sight of certain landmarks which guided us to our hangar.
There are certain details of the raid which I should not wish to
reveal, and could not reveal without making myself liable to the death
penalty. An attack by a Zeppelin is always accompanied by other air
craft, both dirigibles and aeroplanes, in order to give protection to
our capital airships and create confusion among the enemy. The English
never know whether they are firing at a Zeppelin or a semi-rigid
dirigible of similar shape, but comparatively small importance. These
are the scouting cruisers of the air. Moreover our raiding forces
split up in the darkness according to prearranged plans, thus causing
hopeless confusion among our terrestrial opponents, even if the
approaching attack has been reported to them in advance.