Evening star., 1914-09-27

they get shot down at Hemixen, their
sixteen officers and men intact, but
The Belgians will repair and use 1t.
~
The French do not tell the havoc
caused to them by Zeppelins. But the
French have secrets, too. There are
special guns, firing at a high angle.
For bringing down Zeppelins the pro-
jectile contains, neatly folded up, what
look like telescope graphing irons,
that open and spread. When any part
of them touches a solid object the i'm
pact Is communicated to cordite
charge and the work of destruction Is
complete. Already. August 20. the
German general staff admitted the loss
of two Zeppelins with their entire crew.
August 23 another was brought down,
its ts,ins lying on the edge of the high
way near Badonvilliers. 1t was the
Zeppelin VIII, from Strasbourg.
81 must get a Zeppelin!Neaid heroic
Garros.
Alas, for the furia franchise! Garros
had been a week at Toul. self-devoted
soldiers. without orders. stood atten-
tion, silent, in respectful groups. un-
til he passed. 1t was known that
Garros would dash his aeroplane. at
Zeppelin in sight. sixteen for one is
worth while," was his explanation
the crew of Zeppelin being sixteen.
The living projectile must perish with
Its prey.
Thursday morning Garros was trying
his motor, impatient with waiting, ex-
cited, hilarious. A German monoplane
appeared on the horizon. Start her
his craft. "rn have his skin!" were
his last words as he was off. Never
had they seen such speed. The Ger
man aviators saw him coming, but
could not imagine his purpose: They
started their machine gun. Useless.
Garros was the bullet. He collided
with them almost head on. The shock
was terrible. The entangled aeroplanes
and detached wreckage fell from YER
tiginous height. In the field where they
fell, Garros and his victims lay, a mass
of pulp and splinters. And the French
mourn doubly: Garros gone, and for
simple taub! Why did he not wait for
his Zeppelin"
When aerial craft falls, it is death
for all.
Only three exceptions have been
noted. In Holland German mono-
plane. being brought down by the rifle
shots of iceland patrol, its ieuten-
ant aviator astonished every one by
calmly clambering out and constituting
himself a prisoner. Again. German
biplane. over Namur, was "descended''
by the fire of the forts and officer and
pilot emerged safe and sound. The
third time, too. they were Germans.
Near Dinant the French troops got a
German avion with their high-angle
guns. The pilot was killed. the ap-
paratus intact and the observer made
prisoner without a scratch. Those
Germans had luck.
Everywhere it is fall and death
From the Russian couple bagged like
wild ducks above Lemberg in the first
day of hostilities to the young English
aviator potted with fifteen bullets yes
terday over A1x-la-Chapelle, they come
down. Yet not always. A French
officer aviator. conducting alone, got
by a German balloon gun over
Uerdingen, near dusseldorf. and con-
tinued to steer with his dead hands
for fifteen miles before the biplane
came gently to earth near Hartz-the
corpse still seated upright, grasptng
steering wheel. the eyes wide open,
staring ahead.
Exploits that would ring through the
world are unnoticed.
Amid the hectacombs of battles,
aerial and wireless telegraph adven-
lures that are changing the history of
the world seem small. The aeroplane
scouting Of the French prevented Bel