GERMAN AIR RAIDS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 101, 26 October 1925, Page 7

GERMAN AIR RAIDS

A NEW WAR RECORD

FIVE THOUSAND CASUALTIES IN

BRITAIN

LONDON'S INGENIOUS DEFENCES.]

(UNITED PHBSS ASSOCIATION— COPIniGHT ) j (AUSTKAHA.WNEW ZEALAND. CABLE ASSOCIATION,) i LONDON, 23rd • October.'' i

A graphic story.o£ the .deaths an* .damage in England during the war is' revealed-by Captain Joseph' Morris, in', -his -book, "German Air Haids .Over England, 1914-18," jwsfc published. Thej book contains much hitherto uupublish-1 ed information. It states that there, were altogether 52 raids, in which 1413' people were killed and 3408 wounded.! Of the casualties more than half were' in London—67o . killed .and 1962 . wound-' ed;, ■ • I .The book exonerates the ex-Kaiser, of blame for the early raids, and quotes 1 official German records revealing that 1 Wilhehn directed the raids to .be-ox-! pressly restricted to military, shipyards,; arsenals, and docks, but .London .itself was not .to be.bombed. The, embargo! only remained while London was ap-i .patently unreachable. The early raids! proved that the city was accessible, and? the ex-Kaiser . officially sanctioned the' raids on ;London on 20th -July,' 1915 j the ..only . restriction being ■ that historic! .buildings ..were not to be bombed. ; The worst.year was 1917, when -as-a' result of 27 raids and 51,tons,of bombs 1 * being dropped 655 people were killed 1 .and 1553 injured. ' i THE-PROTECTIVE ORGAN!- i SATION I Remarkable tributes are paid to Bri-| tain's .anti-aircraft .defences, in which' connection tho author refers to an offi-i cial German account, stating: "The! enemy's antiaircraft , defence .is extcn-i sive. . Zeppelin commands reported that' thoy would be.able to remain .only ai very_ short, time, , and it would .be im-i possible to seek out special objectives."! The author .relates incidents' where: Zeppelins were forced to,return, .jet-i tisoning -heavy cargo in order to climb to safety, and refers to the' German! account of the raid in October, 1915.J "Even more sinister-than tho guns was the aeroplane attack. ,Lls. dropped ballast and ;bombs into the sea in order to escape." By September, 1916, the Zeppelins were virtually doomed. It was then that. Captain 'Robinson> brought down SLII. i

iThebook finally reveals how aero-| planes overcame the-proudest of Ger-I many's, airships, in August, 1918. <It! describes tho Gothas as more sinister! .and deadlier weapons, which werei -eventually , beaten off owing to iEng-1 land's amazing defences, which com-'' pelled the aeroplanes to fly at ; an enor-j mous height. ■ Night,raids wero the deadliest of all,l but the Gothas were rendored virtu-! ally negligible owing,to the instruments' by which the defenders were .able toi locate their .position and altitude audl distinguish friendly aeroplanes .'by the! noise.