The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-11-21
HERE'SHuN STORY
OF LONDON RAID
German Airship Commander
Says Aeroplane5 Are Best
Defense Against Pirates.
BY Reciprocal News Service.

London.-(by mail.l-The following
account Of an air raid or London is an
unabridged translation Of an article by
q German airship commander in a re-
cent issue of the Koelntscbe NOlks-
zeitung:
AS soon as we arrived at the a
we saw. signs OF animation Gown be-
low. S~earchlights sent o Their rays
sweeping the Sky in every direction.
On these occasions we a q dash TO
try to get out of the way, for he Eng
fish cannot possibly senu out search
lights all over the sky, and il is most
annoying to be picked out by one or
these lights, and to be fired on by the
batteries belonging to IL.
Il kept q straight course from win
terton 10 London, and during the whole
voyage over English territory j did not
see q single light, although the air was
quite clear.
Directly the airship reached the
outer circle CT the city, she is sur
rounded by any number of s~aarchiights,
and covered by the fire Of their batter
les. ! have on each occasion counted
from "a to 80 huge searchilghts. OF
power, apart from innumer-
able smaller lights. The airship Is dis
covered Immediately the searchlights
begin. Generally the whole Of the lights
are turned on to one airship, 40 that 1t
is priiliaNliy ituuiHldteu, anu ~ 10 30
light in the gondola that one can easily
e a paper. This is n great advan
tage as we are able TO study the maps.
Defensive Fire Annoying.
simultaneously with the search
lights a tremendous defensive Gre from
guns Of every caliber up to the 90
CUR begins. None but those who have
experienced 1t can imagine the amount
Of material hurled at US. The most
disagreeapie thing i'm connection with
the shooting is the so called ~incerdiary
shells, things like rockets, which one
sees in the distance like balls Of fire
which approach comparatively slowly,
and and ihssS fi Su sSsGH 1 RsiI, "'s"es' point
1.-The city Of London Is naturally our
chief objective, because there there is
the greatest traffic and there the most
important civic buildings are situated.
when the airship arrives in the
center Of the city the commander or
ders bombs to be thrown out. This is
done by the waehoffizier, al regular
intervals, a bomb falling every three
to five seconds, roughly speaking.
When the first 900 kilogram bombs
strike the earth they explode with an
enormous crash, which even shakes
higher in the air. in between these
explosive bombs numerous incendiary
bombs are thrown down, so that all
that the former destroy may be burned
by the latter.
Departure Difficult.
'"The departure from the town 10
rendered extremely difficult by the
enemy, for he begins a kind Of barrage
fire In the east, and makes fresh use
OF the incendiary shells l have de-
scribed. Only when we have passed
the zone Of searchlights have we time
to look at what we have accomplished
down below.
Now the enemy Is employing a
means Of defense which has been very
much strengthened or late and to which
several Of our airsbips have fallen VIC
tims-I mean airplanes. An nlrplane
Is a disagreeab,e opponent, because one
sees il seldom, and then only will
difficulty, while the airpisne can easily
find the airship.
After the attack we. OF course, make
for home as quickly as possible. with
the wind behind az. The fires or the
coast Of Holland are generally taken
as the points toward which to steer for
the German blight. We may not cross
| Dutch territory foi. as we know, the
neutral Dutch even shoot at airships
which are simply skirting Holland"