The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-16
Young Zeppelin Commander Tells From Personal Ex- periences of Flights Along English Coast
AWFUL DAMAGE IS WROUGHT BY BOMBS
 BURSTING BELOW
On One Visit to London Saw English Warship on the Thames Sunk by Air Vessels

Berlin. September 25-(Correspondence of the Associated Press. l. Lieutenant Pe- terson of the German navy. one of the few German officers who repeatedly have wis., ited London since the outbreak of the war, is visiting Berlin. where corre- spondent of the Associated Press talked with him on his impressions of the Brit 1 ish metropolis.
 Lieutenant Peterson, a young heard-
 less, smiling westphalian. is neither a l secret service officer nor returned pris- oner of war, but one of the senior officers in the German nayys aerial fleet. and his visits have been made in command of one of the naval zeppelins that have kept London in semi-darSness and apprehen- sion since the opening of the aerial raid l campaign. He refutes reassuring reports given out by the English as to the effects of the bomb dropping campaign. MT. Balfour says that the destructive effect of the air raids has been small, almost insignificant from a military point of view, and that we are unable to sec what we accomplish" remarked the zep- pelin commander. We see and know
 better. When we see big factory under
 us collapse after an explosive bomb has been cropped, or when we drop fire bomb upon the London docks or adjoin- ing storehouses and see these burst into
 lstght flame we know that we are ac- complishing something
 Flying Over Hostile Coasts
 We cruise normally at great heights,
 but with good glasses wa can see things very plainly. In great city like Lon
 don. particularly for one who has not visited it In peace times, it is, of course. impossible to say definitely that one has hit this or that particular building, dock or storehouse but we can identify very well the general locality. particularly of
 such regions as the dock district along
 the river or the city and banking district of London, and find our way easily to the
 spots selected for our attacks.
 "On one of our visits. and this is a fact
 that has vet not been admitted by the British admiralty we witnessed clearly the destruction of warship on the Thames. one on which fair and souars hit was scored
 Lieutenant Peterson, although still q young man. is one of the older officers in
 the German naval airshp service, having been attached to the Zeppelin corps for
 two years. Before that he had had the usual course of sea duty. He wears the iron crosses of the second and first class for his exploits.
 Withholds Part of Exploits Naval scouting, reconnaissance work
 and cooperation in the offensive and de- fensve operations of the fleet comprise the principal duties of the dirigible and aeroplane squadrons of the navy now and how well these duties have been per. formed probably can be told only after the war
 Our trips to England are only an incident in our regular worl<.'' he said. When the admiral in charge has no par ticular task for us and conditions are favorable. orders are given for a voyage to England It has even happened that the commander of an individual Zeppe- lin having performed the task which took him to the vicinity of the English coast, sent a message by wireless to the home station, asking permission to
 make raid before returnng--a highly successful one. too But chiefly, we are engaged in scouting for the enemy's cruisers and battleshp squadrons. On one occasion sighted a group of subma- rines running on the surface. but was unable to maneuver quickly enough to carry out q successful attack Attacks on warships at sea, said Lieu tenant Peterson, are difficult and dam gerous except in cloudy weather. since
 most of the warshps are now equipped
 with anti-balloon guns. Only when low
 hanging clouds permit the dirigbles to
 swoop down upon the warship to an ele-
 vation from which the quickly maneu- verng ship offers a fair target do such
 attacks offer q reasonable chance of suc-
 cess.
 Aeroplane Attacks
 As to the attacks by aeropanes mem
 toned a number of times In press dis
 patches, the commander reegnted these
 to the realm of fables. He had not
 known of an attack of this kind in any
 of the raids upon England nor had he
 ever seen hostile aeroplane in any of
 his various excursions thither Aero
 planes can with difficulty navigate in the
 darkness and have very little chance
 of finding or catching one of the high
 speed Zeppelins. so that the dirisibles
 had had as yet no occasion to use the
 defensive armament which they carry
 to drive away these warships of the air.
 Navigation for the zeppelins. too. is by no means as yet an exact science.
 The trips must be timed so as to cross
 the English coast in the darkness, make the attack and get away again before
 dawn
 Tt Is not so easy to find England.'' he said. We cannot navigate so ex- acty at sea as over land, owing to the
 uncertainty of the air currents. absence of landmarks etc. so that it is usually
 an open question at just what point of De British coast we shall bring up. Onco
 there, however. the outlines of some
 coast city or some familiar light give us our bearings and we can then steer straight course for our objective. We can easily tell by just what route we are entering London; last time went in from the Surrey side" he vol rnteered to indicate on a map the exact course followed--"and navigated without difficulty the dock region which we had been ordered to attack. Others of tho
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