AIR RAIDS ON VENICE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 3 September 1915, Page 2

AIR RAIDS ON VENICE.

THRILLING EXPERIENCES

Mr Alfred F. Wallace, a war photo-' grapher, who returned recently to New fork from eight months' tour of tne ! various war rronts ,in Europe, was compelled to curtail his pictorial efiorts, but at word-painting he is no' amateur (says an American correspond ' dent). In tne course of a graphic ac--1 oounx of his experiences in v enice, Mr Wallace said: • -'Giant sirens shrieked their warnings from all parts of the city. Immediately after illuminated bombs shot upward from the Cainpanello, 'bursC in the sky, and spread their rays ;n all directions except downward. tJelow, where all was'darkness, hundreds of machine-guns barked in an incessant roar. Our gondolier made all haste along the Grand Canal to I reach the Grand Hotel, while his pas- < sengers, including myself, toi-e .out the seats and held tiiem over our heads. During a lull in the firing we plainly heard the hum oi an aeroplane motor somewhere above. Then pandemonium broke forth again. Such is a midnight air raid on Venice/

"Venice, the beautiful, the historic, had been converted into a fortress. All lights are ordered out at dusk, troops are stationed on roofs to watch for lights, with orders to fire as soon as even the slightest twinkle is observed. The magnificent St., Mark's Cathedral in St. Mark's Square has been encased in steel girders and banked with sandbags to protect it from the bombs of aviators. The Doge's palace is. treated likewise. .The Campanello, towering far above .-^s^surrpu^i^gSjtc'-^ft?-^! ■;liu giE? bomb-thrriwirig machme at" "its'" topknot explosive bombs r but light bombs which illuminate the skies arid make easier the work of the' men behind the -anti-airera'ft guns. On my arrival at Venice from -Rome it was my hope that I would be permitted the free use of my motion-picture camera, and 'still' camera. I found the situation much more difficult than in Rome. Venice was spy mad. It needed but the cry 'Austrian spy!' to endanger the life of anyone in the streets.

"With an American and his wife, who were staying at the Grand Hotel, I concluded to see Venice at night from a gondola.

"Returning to the Grand Hotel about eleven o'clock, we heard the first warning of the sirens. The gondolier gasped something .and trebled his effort. 'An Austrian air raid !' exclaimed my American companion excitedly, and he commenced to tear up the seats. This I learned was done so they might be held over the head as a protection against steel arrows dropped by the enemy's aviators. Only a few minutes after tnis we heard the whirr of an aeroplane. "We finally reached the hotel. Most of the guests were standing trembling in the halls and diningroom. Some of us stood on the steps in the hope of catching sight of an aeroplane. We did not see any, but we soon heard one. Several bombs were dropped in the Grand Canal near the Customhouse, only about one hundred yards from where we stood.

"On the following morning we learn* ed that part of the arsenal had been destroyed, a torpedo-boat blown up and several jf her crew killed, and four or five houses occupied by workmen employed in the arsenal destroyed, with several score of deaths. In one of the houses the only sur.vivor was a baby, who was dug out of the debris.

"As information about the raid commenced to drift in, we learned that only two machines nad composed the raiding party. One of these had run out of petrol and had landed near the arsenal. The observer end the driver were capr tured. The observer proved to be a former' Italian army officer, who had once been employed in the Venice arsenal. He ha-1 become involved in some difficulties in lialyi some years before and had fled to Germany. When the war broke out he had enlisted in the German aviation corps. He was court-mar-tialled and shot within twenty-four hours. Another interesting 'thing I learned was that the Austrian aviators are using the steel arrows originated by tho French. While we were standing before the Grand Hotel during the air raid we noticed what appeared to be ram —numerous little splashes in the canal Later we found some of the arrows about the hotel. They lad inscribed upon them : 'Inventedin Franco and us>ed in Germany ' "