New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-12
Germans Count on Zeppelins
ToRevolutionize Trade After War
Big Arshps Are Declared to Have Saved Con
stantinople Helped in Collapse of Rumana
and Held England Back
Bv CARL w. ACKERMAN

By CARL w
Copyright. 1917. The Tribune Associstion)
(Registered In accordance with the Copyright
Act. Canada. 1917, The Tribune Association
Constantinople would be in the hands
OF England and France to-day were 1t
not for Germanys Zeppelins.
Rumsnia would have collapsed much
later than December had the Yep
pelins stayed away.
England would be able to send more
anti-aircraft artillery, aeroplanes and
trained gunners to the Continent were
it not for the possibility Of air raids.
The one big hope. besides an ultimate
victory, which German business men
have Of reestablishing world COM
mercial relations is the Zeppelins.
Germany to-day looks forward with
confidence to the day when Zeppelns
will be flying from Hamburg to New
stantinople TO Peking in three days.
York in forty hours and from Con-
Most Americans believe the Zeppelins
have been great failures. England and
France discount them absolutely as
military weapons. But what are the
facts?
During the two years I was in Ger
many I met commanders and first Of
fcers OF Zeppelns who had rsided Lon
don, Paris, Bucharest and Boulogne. |
met in Budapest man who for fifteen
years was the confidential co-worker
of Count Zeppelin. | visited in Hun
gary a Zeppelin harbor. As far as |
know | am the only neutral CORE
spondent who saw Zeppelin base and
who had an opportunity to learn at
first hand what the Zeppelins have &C
complished.
Opposition Within Empire
1t is true that as far as air raids
OH London and Paris are concerned
the Zeppeins have not been a decisive
military factor. / believe there was
a time when the Zeppelins could have
destroyed a great deal in either Lon
don or Paris had it not been for the
opposition within Germany TO the use
of Zeppelins in this fashion. The
Catholics have always been against
Zeppelin raids. Bavaria has never
supported Prussia in these schemes.
Karlsruhe and other western German
cities, including Metz and Munich,
which have suffered by Allied raids.
have brought strong pressure TO bear
upon the General Staff Eighteen
months ago when the Zeppelins were
prepared COR gigantic raid IN Lon
don the internal opposition was so
great that the plans had to be modi-
fieG But now the English and French
have practically solved the Zeppelin
danger by using a chemical bomb.
which when it explodes within 100
yards of a Zeppelin sets it aire, pro-
vided the big gas bag has already been
punctured By shrapnel. This is the
reason the last few raids on England
and France have resulted in he loss
Of so many Zeppelins.
At the beginning of this article ]
said that Constantinople would not be
in Turkeys possession were it not for
Zeppelins. | heard first from Turkish
sources. from a Turk who is known
in the United States, about the work
of Zeppelins when the Allies were
pounding at the Dardanelles. His story
was amazingly interesting. but I
doubted it, until I met the captain of
one of the Zeppelins which had taken
part in the operation. He confirmed
everything the Turk told.
After the Allied feet had pulverized
several Turkish forts. and after troops
we're landed on the Dardanelles, the
whole world expected the fall of Con-
stantinople within few weeks, IL not
DAYS. Turkey was spending every
she'll she possessed to defend her posi-
tions. The German and Turkish bat
tleships had to give up their supplies
for the land defences. The Allies kept
hammcring, and the situation became
more desperate.
Powder in Beer Kegs
Germany had promised Turkey sup
port, so the Krupp interests tried TO
send powder and ammunition to Tur-
key via Rumana. Servia at this time
was still unconquered. Rumania, how
ever. placed an embargo on the ship
ment Of war supplies through her ter
ritory, so Germany shipped powder in
beer kegs and shells in cement blocks.
For some time Rumania did not dis
cover the German tricks, and it was
not until a keg of powder on a sup
posed beer train exploded in Rumanian
freight yards that Rumania discovered
what was going on. The Krupps had
shipped train load Of powder in beer
kegs. On one car they had real Ba-
varian beer for distribution to Ru-
manian border officials, but one night
when the train was on a side track
four Rumanian railroad men broke into
a car, took out keg, and when they
hammered in the bunghole the barrel
exploded, killing three of the men and
wounding the fourth. That put stop
TO the shipment of war supplies
through Rumania.
But the Allies were still attacking
the Dardanelles, and Turkey needed
immediate assistance, so the Zeppelirs
we're modified. Ammunition factories
in Germany were taken apart and the
machinery was carried to Constantine
pie from Temesvar, Hungary. by Yep
pelins. The machinery was shipped to
Temesvar from Essen and Madgeburg
and carried through the air to Turkey.
Powder was carried in the same nan-
ner. Within a few weeks German ammu-
milton factories were running in Tur-
kew. and the big shells which the Turks
needed for defending the Dardanelles
were being manufactured as fast a
Turkey needed them. The crisis was
passed. The Zeppelins had saved the
Dardanelles and Constantinople.
This incident. which played such a
great part in deciding the outcome OF
the Dardanelles operations, was never
related 10 the German people because
the General Stat guarded information
about Zeppelins more closely than in
formation about any other thing in Ger
many. The General staff deliberately
misled the German people in order to
deceive the outside world. because the
German government and the big manu-
featuring interests know that the Yep