Evening star., 1924-10-16
zR,3 BRINGS BACK
WARTIME PICTURE
Debated Monster at Lake
hurst Like Only One Cap
tured "AIive" by Allies.
BY ROBERT #. SMALL.


LAKEHURST. n. j., October 16.-
The zeppelin ZR-3. a friendly pris-
oner, but none the less a prize of war
recalls vividly as she lies in her giant
cradle here. with balloons Debated
the picture of another zeppelin-the
only one ever captured alive" by the
allies during the World War
When the writer saw that other
zeppelin it lay a stark, black thing,
with broken back. across a shallow
ravine and tiny French river, it's
nose lying dog fashion just against
the edge of grand route, as the
roads are called in France. 1t had
tumbled to earth on a Sabbath morn
ing early in the Autumn Of 1917. Its
balloons and outer coverings had been
pierced by machine gun bullets from
French airpianes.
The monster was one of a squadron
of four Of the L-type Zeps which had
attempted to bomb London the night
before. Always the Germans selected
saturday night for their marauding
trips over the English capital. TSey
clung to the idea that all English
men took a holiday over the week
end, even the defending air forces.
oh thls occasion something w ant
wrong with the navigation of tie
death dealing dirieibles They got
their schedule. made a sortie for
London but failed to reach It, The
night which was covering their oper-
ations fast was slipping away In
a panic the squadron turned away,
dropped it's bombs harmlessly in the
British countryside, and then made
for what it thought was homo. But
miscalculation or contrary winds
swept the squadron far south of its
intended nd 40 \
OF finding the ships safe above the
Fatherland. threw them literally into
the arms of the French
French Axxail Squadron.
The joyous alarm rang through all
of northern France and, oh. what
good hunting the French airplanes
had. They assailed the squadron
from all sides. The invaders, founder
ing in their misery and unable to
fight back, scattered and ran.
Three Of them were brought down
in fames-every member of their
crews perishing in the white heat
which transformed the aluminium
frames into molten mass The
fourth in some manner escaped igni-
ton and Topped down to earth, some
45 kilometers southwest of Neufcha-
teau. where the American war CORE
spondents made their headquarters.
The forced. landing was made with
enough skill to spare the life of every
man on board, but as she settled
across the ravine and the escaping
gas left her dead weight, the Yep
pelfn cracked her spine
AS soon as the crew made it's way
from the war gondolas they attempt
ed to destroy the ship. With axes
they broke all the delicate instru-
ments of control. the electrical
sWitchboards and the apparatus with
which they were supposed to orient"
themselves in fogs or clouds They
were just about to fire the craft when
some French peasants out on an ear
ly morning hunt dashed up to the
machine" as they always called the
Zeppelins, and trained their guns on
the Germans. These peasants earned
the honor of having captured the Yep
pelin alive and it was the first to fall
into the hands of the allies in any
such shape that they could study its
construction from stem to stern.
Crew Looked Strange.
The crew of the Zeppelin look ed for
all the world like men from Mars
Certainly they seemed to be creatures
of another world to that in which the
allies and the Americans were living
They came from across that bloody
first line which separated the very
world itself into two great divisions
They wore black leather helmets and
strange flying clothes. Their feet
were encaSed in great felt boots, an
inch or more in thickness. They were
herded into a French motor lorry to
be carted away for examination and
for imprisonment for the remainder
of the war. Jeering French peasants,
men, women and children, made no
impression upon them. 1t was not
until some one shouted. Here come
the Americans." that any one of the
sullen captives showed a ray of in
terest. They had been told there
were no Americans in France.
These Zeppelin men, the only ones
to escape with their lives of all the
hostile craft of that type shot down
during the war, were disconsolate at
their fate. They seemed to think
there would have been far more honor
in invineration. They had let their
ship, the great secret of their coun-
try, fall almost intact into the hands
of the enemy.
There was talk for a time of TAX
ing the Zeppelin just as it was to
Paris and placing it on exhibition
on the Place de la Concourse, but the