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, England in general.
THE -MILITARY SIGNIFICANCE on THE
ZEPPELIN RAIDS
By the Military Expert of THE FATldERLAND
A MERICAN papers recently printed a photograph of one of the
giant German airships Heating on the River Thames, ostensibly
as a graphic illustration of the failure of German air attacks on
When reading the New York papers one re-
ceives the impression that all the Zeppelin: and the other types of
German airships ever achieved is the killing of women and babies.
The material damage is invariably alleged to be insignificant and
the occasional wrecking of an aircraft goes to provexto the hilt the
illusory value of these aerial.‘ craft of the “barbarians.”
By dint of repetition this view has been impressed successfully
upon the American mind. If one asks a newspaper man whether he
really believes that the Germans are so inhuman as to make harm-
less women and children the aim of their raids or that they are so
reckless of money as to waste millions upon millions to achieve
practically nothing, they will disclaim such belief; but nevertheless -
they continue to print the absurdities perpetrated by the British
military authorities. '
What are the real facts? The Germans during the past two years
have fully established the fact prophesied in 1909 by Sir Percy
Scott, that an aerial fleet such as Germany's would be of inestimable
military value. The German airships have been used along the
English coast with excellent results. If little is heard about their
doings, the reasons are obvious. German observation of the results
of bomb attacks, coupled with reports obtainable even in wartime,
have clearly demonstrated that the cost and hazards of the enter-
prise are well repaid.
True, to the unthinking, the picture referred to of the airship
which came to grief by being blown up by her crew in the Thames,
presents a sorry spectacle. To the initiated it is informing. It re-
veals facts which escapedeven the British censor. The commander
of the airship, Commander Breithaupt, I.G.N., came to grief, it is
true, but only after a successful attack on English shipbuilding
yards in Portsmouth, Devonport and Keyham. - '
There is proof in that picture that he had raided England before.
He received and is wearing in the picture, the Pour le Merite for a
previous exploit in the same region. VVhat he then achieved we
have learned from an unimpeachable source.
During that raid Commander Breithaupt's airship threw bombs on
two of the newest British battleships of the Sovereign class. They
were damaged to such a degree that the Admiralty ordered the work
to be discontinued because the wrecks‘ were considered as good as
worthless. All that was reported to have been left in serviceable
condition were the under water torpedo tubes. It is assumed that
the ships in question were the Royal Oak and another ship of that
type, possibly the Sovereign. These ships areunits of a squadron
of’ eight of the latest British super-dreadnoughts of 26,000 tons,
developing a speed of 21 knots and carrying eight 15-inch and six-
teen 6-inch guns besides nine 20-inch torpedo tubes. The hull and
machinery alone of each of these ships represent a value of some
eight million dollars. But the financial loss is not what counts the
most.. The blow to the British is that their strongest and most
homogeneous squadron has been reduced to a torso.
Knowledge of this case chanced to reach the outside world. Of
how many similar successes of the German air raids are we kept in
ignorance? '
The idea that the bathing resorts along the English beach offer
the best target for the “Hunnish" raids is nullified when we castya
- glance at the real objects of attack along the coast and in the in-
dustrial districts of England. Their number is considerable, if we
consider that the moment a private yard lays down the keel of a
‘ torpedo boat it becomes a military establishment which-without a
question of reprisals-the enemy has a right to attack.
On the North Sea shore there are thirteen shipyards, ten of them
capable of building the largest types, with twenty-four docks and
sixty-two slips. On the Channel there are seven yards with twenty-
sevcn docks and ninety-nine slips, and within the further radius of
theyGerman airships there are thirteen more shipyards with ten
- docks and eighty-five slips. Of the last mentioned yards, fifteen
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have facilities for building anything up to the largest siiper-dread’-, ,
nought. a
How absurd it is for the English to persist in telling the world
that the material damage done by a raid was none, that no bomb’
‘saw
-...-.. . .
even hit anywhere near the establishments which presumably was, ‘:'
the aim of the raiders, is evident from the fact that some of these , ‘
shipyards cover an area of more than a million square yards, and , ,
that they are provided, besides, with armor plate works, gun fac-', ‘
tories and torpedo shops, all of ,which, even according to British’, K
opinion, are to be considered as military objects. Such vast estab-‘ ’ '
lishments are not easily mined. With the exception of the attempt’
to destroy the Bank of England, which failed by a few yards, all . .‘ 3
the attacks said to have been made on London.were really directed‘
against the Royal Gun Factory in Wdolwich and the munitionshop - '
of Armstrong, Whitworth Co. in Erith on the Thames. ‘ .. =
Up to recently when the air raids on undeiended Germanjown
on the part of the Allies roused Germany’s indignation and drew 9
from her a hint that “a great number of peaceful English and-
French cities outside the fields of operation are within reach of our
air squadrons,” the employment of the German airships exclusively 1
served military purposes and it is absurd on the part of Germany's‘ ,
enemies to reiterate that the German authorities were trying to
terrorize the peaceful
ridiculous assertions on the part of Germany's enemies as,to the
manner in which Germany is maintaining her, indubitableirule of
the clouds is nothing but the result of impotent rage at their in-
ability to outrival their superior ‘opponents of the air.’ '
;
inhabitants of unfortified‘ cities. -Such v i