RAID ON HOBOKEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15930, 29 May 1915, Page 8

RAID ON HOBOKEN.

BRITISH AIRMAN'S -LETTER.

SENSATIONS UNDER EIRE. BREATHLESS AND DEAFENED. [BY TELECIUPS.-OWN COBBKSPONDKNT.] Paliieeston North, Friday. ■ A letter has been received by the Rev. H. G. Kosher, of Palmerrton North, from his nephew, Flight-Lieutenant Kosher. The letter contains a thrilling story ci the British airmen's'raid on Hoboken, a riverside suburb of Antwerp. His account is dated March 24. Five aviators were chosen to go* but only two reached the objective, the other three having to wme back owing to engine troubles and to losing their way in the clouds. Several German submarines were destroyed, and mucli damage done to the enemy's stores and works. V Lieutenant Rosher says:—"lhis morning we got up at about half-past three o'clock. The weather was warm. Breakfast followed, and it's very hard to get down to eggs and bread and butter at that hour. We cut for the order of starting, but decided to keep as near each other as possible. I went off last but one at 5.30 a.m., and streaked out straight across the sea. We were pretty heavily loaded, and my machine would not climb mu'.:h. I saw one machine go aheid of me, but lost it almost immediately in the clouds, which were very 2500 ft. It was also very misty. Our course was right up the coast past Zeebrugge, and then in across the land at the mouth of the Scheldt. "I got clear of some of the clouds, and saw one of my companions behind and 2000 ft abova me. He- rapidly overtook me, and from then on I followed him. Unfortunately, over Antwerp there were no clouds. He was about live or six minutes in front of me. I saw him volplane out of sight. I had to go on some little way before I spotted the yards myself. I next saw him very low down, flying away to the coast, 'with shrapnel bursting around him. He came down to under 500 ft, and dropped his bombs before he was fired on. "As the wind was dead against me I decided to come round in a semi-circle to cross the yards wfoh the wind so as to obtain a greater speed. / I was only 5500 ft up and they opened fire on me with shrapnel as soon as I got within range. ' It began to get a bit hot, so before I got quite round I shut off my petrol and came down with a steep volplane until I was 2500 ft, when I turned on my petrol again and continued my descent at a rate well over a hundred miles an hour. I passed over the yards at about 1000 ft and loosed. all my bombs over the place. The whole way down I was under, fire from two anti-aircraft, guns in the yard guns from Che forts off either side, rifle fire, mitrailleuses or machineguns, and the most weird of all—great bunches, 15 to 20, of what looked like green rockets. I think they were flaming bullets./ The excitement of the moment was terrific. I have never travelled so fast before in my life. "My chief impressions were*"the great speed, 'the flaming bullets streaking by, the incessant rattle of machine-guns and rifle-fire, and, one or -two shells bursting close by, knocking my machine all sideways and pretty nearly deafening me. On my return I found my machine had only been hit twice, one bullet-hole, through the tail and a piece of shrapnel - buried in the main spar of one wing. I have now got it out. I found myself across the yards and felt a mild sort of surprise. • "My eyes must have been sticking out of my head like shrimps. I know I was gasping for breath and ciouching down in the fusillade. > I was, however, by no means clear. Shrapne.l was still bursting around me. I jammed the rudder, first one way and then the other, and. banked first on to one wing-tip and then. on to the, other, now. clipping outwards, now up, and now down. I was literally hedged in by forts, and was only. loooft up, and 1 had to run the gauntlet before getting away.,; I was under rifle fire right up to the frontier and, even then, the Dutch potted at me. ' - •, s * ~s.. "My return journey was trying, as most of the time I had to fly at' under 500 ft, as I ran into thick clouds and miist. I pottered gaily right over Flushing and within a few hundred yards of a Dutch cruiser and two torpedo boate. I got back home about a quarter of an hour afterwards, having been very nearly four hours, in the air. My engine gave' me several anxious moments, for some . reason. It wis right out over the Scheldt, and "I had actually given up all hope, when it picked up again. It was pretty risky work flying several miles out to sea, only just in sight of land, too, but our surprise of the Germans was certainly complete."