Evening star., 1938-07-20
No Military Value?
Commander Charles E. Rosen

Commander Charles E. Rosendahl,
commandant of the Lakehurst Naval Air
Station, and Americas foremost lighter
| than-air craft authority, has returned
| to the United States from Germany,
where he participated in the one hun
dredth anniversary of the birth Of Count
| Zeppelin. In an interview at New York,
| the Nays gifted aeronautical officer
| reopens the Ickes-Eckener helium con-
toversy by declaring that he favors dis
tribution of American helium gas to for
eign nations building airships Of the
Zeppelin type. Secretary Ickes has
steadfastly declined to approve the sale
of helium to Germany because Of the
prohibition in the helium law which
says: Such regulations shall not per-
NIT accumulations of helium in guam
titles Of military Importance in any for
eign country" Reporting Germany
"keenly disappointed" over our embargo,
Commander Rosendahl adds that air
leaders abroad ARE unable to under
stand the American attitude"
The experts lover there" with whom
the American officer communed might
comprehend Secretary Ickes' objections
if they had read Commander Rosen-
dahl's book, What About the Airship?"
In that volume, which came from the
press of Messrs. Scribner this year, he
leaves no doubt of the importance which
he attaches to the military value of
helium. On page 145 the author says:
Turning now to the influence of hy-
drogen on the casualty list of the rigid
airship throughout its history, We find
that out of 153 ships operated with hy-
drogen, 35, or % per cent Of them all,
are included in the toll directly at
tributable to the high inflammability
of hydrogen. Small wonder, then, at
the high regard in which helium is held
as valuable military asset, and at the
cool feeling toward airships held by
those nations whose lack of helium
forces them to use hydrogen in any
lighter-than-ai craft they may pos
sess." Later on, commenting on the
past record of Zeppelins, Commander
Rosendahl writes: Just before the end
of the World War there was being con-
structed type of airship capable of
bombing New York and returning to
Europe nonstop
These quotations by no means ex-
haust Commander Rosendahls tributes
to the vital Importance of helium to
lighter-than-a craft, both in peace
and in war. He points out, for in
stance, that: In the first two years
of its commercial operations the Ger
man Airship Navigation Company lost
four zeppelins. But the promise had
been shown, and the project was car
ried on by one means or another until
realization of the potential military ad-
vantages of the type and the World
War assured further development"
Striking evidence of the demonstrated
military power of Zeppelins comes from
Capt. Ernest A. Lehman, former man
aging director of the German Zeppelin
Corporation, who lost his life when the
Hindenburg, of which he was command
er, burned at Lakehurst.' In his book.
Zeppelin" Captain Lehman set forth
that during the World War German
Army airships, "a of them Zeppelins, un-
dertook 232 military flights, and, in
Ill raids, dropped 132,700 pounds of
explosives over Russia, 9S,3OO over
France, and $4,000 over England. In
cluding flights over other countries, Zep-
pelins dropped a death-dealing total
of 311,50o pounds of bombs. Sixty-f1ve
German naval Zeppelins played the ma
jor role in 200 raids, mainly against
England. The English themselves ad-
mitted after the war that single bomb
ing attack on London destroyed prop
erty to the value of more than $500, 900.
Despite Commander RosendahTs en-
thusiasm for the idea of American help
for the Goering branch Of the Hitler
war machine, the strongest arguments
against such project would seem to
be supplied by that gallant American
naval officer himself.