This was a
journey of 976 miles. The airship had a complement of twenty-five men
and five tons of dead weight. It traveled under severe weather
conditions, the month being March, and snow-storms, hail and rain
occurring throughout the voyage. The significance of this flight can
be easily understood if you consider the distance from Strassburg or
Dusseldorf to Paris or other strategical points to France is
approximately 298 miles. A ship like the Zeppelin X could sail over
the French border, dynamite the fortifications around Paris and
return, the journey being roughly 900 miles--76 miles less than the
actual trip made by the Zeppelin X. Moreover, the German military
trials have shown the possibility of an aerial fleet leaving their
home ports and cruising to foreign lands and returning without the
necessity of landing to replenish their gas tanks or fuel.
Let me show you how the German a?«rial corps is made up. It is called
the Luftschiffer Abteilung and is composed of ten battalions, each
consisting of 350 men. They are all trained absolutely for this
branch of the service. Only the smartest mechanics and artificers are
selected. In the higher branches the most intelligent and bravest
officers hold command. Considering the usual pay in continental
armies, the wages of the men in the General a?«rial corps are
exceptionally high. In fact they are the highest paid in the German
army.
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