Naval Noahs and Adventurous Airmen

The Zeppelins. By Captain Ernst Lehmann and Howard Mingos. (Putnams. 188.) Skyward. By Commander Byrd. (Putnams. 15s.) THE Assistant-Manager of the Zeppelin Works has given us one of the most interesting of the lighter books on the War;

What was it like to sit in the control cabin of an airship that has bombed London and been badly hit herself ? Here is the account of a survivor, somewhat condensed :—

" The fire grew weaker. One by one the searchlights went out and the crew of the L-48 breathed easier, thinking the enemy had abandoned his efforts to reach us. Only the dull red glow of the fires started by our bombs could be seen as we headed out towards the sea. But the compass was out of order. A forward motor had failed. The rays of a lone searchlight flashed up and struck full against the hull. An instant later we burst into flame through- out our length of 600 feet. The captain turned quietly to the officers and men with him in the control car and said, 'It's all over.' There was nothing more to be said."

. ", For several seconds the L-48 maintained an even keel—a great ball of flame riding slowly to the sun, rising above a quiet English village. Then we snapped to pieces. In the control ear, grinding against the framework, we were tossed into a tumbled heap. I awoke in hospital—one of three survivors. A friendly voice enquired= Do you want a cigarette ? ' "

One of our scouts had swooped down on this Zeppelin un- observed, riddling her with incendiary bullets. Captain Lehman pays a tribute to our airmen : he thoroughly appre- ciates "the bravery and remarkably fine work of those British fliers who were trying to bring us down." Again : "they cer- tainly succeeded in enhancing the problem for the raiders." But aeroplanes and artillery were not the only peril the raiders met. Here is a storm scene worthy of the Homer to come :—

"Hail, snow, and terrific blasts beat upon the Zeppelin, which quivered as if she were being lashed with a whip. At times she was lifted more than 300 feet above her normal course, then plunged nearly a thousand feet toward the sea, before she could be steadied. The lightning flashed in solid sheets. One awful crash filled the interior of the hull and control cabin with blinding light. A bolt had gone earthward in closest proximity to the craft. .The look-out above 'phoned down to the control ear that his machine guns were spitting sparks at the .muzzles. The watch officer climbed up to investigate. To his astonishment he found the platform illuminated. There sat the look-out, drenched to the skin and wearing a veritable halo about his head : the so-called St. Elmo's fire. The duralumin framework of the hull was fully charged with electricity and spark- ling at all points, corners and sharp edges. Those in the control car saw electricity being sprayed from all exposed metal objects. The wires and cables were glowing with a beautiful, violet-blue tinge, a wonderful sight had they been in a position to enjoy it. Instead, they were riding madly through space, dependent solely upon inflammable hydrogen, with a flash of lightning close at hand every two seconds."

Of the future of the giant airship for the purposes of peace, Captain Lehman speaks with authority and conviction. His- words should carry weight, for his experience is greater than that of any other living man.

Admiral Sueter's typists said to him, "We felt you must have enjoyed writing every word of it," when he had finished disposing of "Neon -" and other pessimists who predict the failure of flying. Obviously the book was fun to write, -and there is an enthusiasm for brave deeds, wherever done, which we particularly like. Admiral Sueter's enthusiasm has been caught by the illustrators : the colourlilate of Lieutenant Webster; winning the Schneider.Cup.is a fine pece of work. He has -a- good case, and for those with time at their disposal (the price of the book will confine it to libraries and " the leisured class ") the author's diyagations on submarines and tanks are interesting and amusing. Why will everyone who writes for or against the future of flying be so discursive ? Portentous books were written by both " Neon " (who was inspired, the author suggests, by one retired and one serving Admiral to attack the Air Force) and by Mr. Spanner ; here we have an equally voluminous but fortunately also a witty reply. That someone has a "hostile air bee in his bonnet" may not be good English, but one knows what he means. Indeed, one is never in any doubt about what the gallant Admiral means. He says it breezily, emphatically, repeatedly, and at great length.

Why keep our "floating fortresses" of super-Dreadnoughts, costing 27,000,000 to build and nearly £500,000 each year ? Why spend on the Air Force only one-seventh of the sum allotted to the older arms of defence, when it is the Air Force that must preserve us from the most immediate and dis- agreeable consequences of a possible war ? Why maintain three Staff Colleges when one would do ? Why burden the Prime Minister with the intricate and technical problems of Imperial strategy, instead of having one Minister of Defence to hold the ,balance between the three arms ? " Noahs have objected to the introduction of breech-loading guns, the sub- marine, railways, motor cars, caterpillar landships, and now the air is not in favour with these gentlemen of microscopic vision. The Almighty has given us the highway of the air for our use. Who can doubt that the human race will make full use of it in the general advancement of civilization ? "

Admiral Sueter predicted the German submarine menace of 1917 no less than ten years previously. He was the first Director of the Naval Air Service and was prominent in the experiments which led to the "tank." In the van of progress he has suffered some hard knocks, but takes them all with good humour. It was only a century after the first appearance of steam that -sails were finally abolished in the Navy : many naval officers alive to-day were trained with them. So with the new weapons. Cavalry still skirmishes at Bordon against enemies which are not merely imaginary but also improbable. On barrack squares throughout England a drill which was obsolescent in 1914 is still taught to the shuddering recruit, and the mechanism of the Lewis gun is still explained by methods which revolt a generation that can pick its motor bicycle to pieces with ease. Pioneers of new arms must expect opposition from Noahs and " Neons," pensioners and pedants. Throughout the ages they have existed, and the air will not come into its own, either as a means of transport or as a weapon of defence, without a struggle.

Admiral Sueter quotes some good verses, whose gist is the necessity of a guiding hand in invention :—

" Back of the job—the dreamer

Who's making the dream come true."

Ile is one of the men—there are too few in England to-day- who makes his dreams come true. We wish his book had been more carefully edited (split infinitives and mixed metaphors don't matter, but his redundancy is sometimes exasperating) and that he had protested a little less. However, there is not a page which is not readable, and hardly one that does not contain some wit or wisdom.

With Commander Byrd's book we can only deal briefly, although it merits a much longer review. Universally admired and loved, Commander Byrd has the whole world's best wishes On his next adventure to the South Pole.

Would that a cheaper edition of Skyward could be published rendering it obtainable in every school in England, for it is right that our boys, who will carry on the tradition of Aleock, Brown, Hawker, Grieve, the Smiths, Cobham, and Wilkins, names to be numbered with the captains of Elizabeth, should know what has already been achieved by air-pioneers of other lands who have seen so many high hazards.

It is curious that many of the people who are loudest in their advocacy of abstract knowledge when it deals with the Romans or the Greeks, should be the first to deplore the folly of wasting life and money in crossing the Atlantic or the Poles. Yet the two fields of knowledge are on a par : neither Athenian culture nor the bleak mountains of Antarctica are of commercial importance to-day, yet both are well worth studying. The future of the air does not really depend even Cu such able advocacy as that of Commander Byrd or Admiral Sueter : it can take care of itself : it is something that will come to pass irrespective of man's work or worship or of his puny fears : it is something infinitely greater than ourselves, and apparently destined and preordained. Yet books such as these are good, for they tell us what is being thought and achieved in a field that must be of particular concern to us all