AIR RAID IN ENGLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17091, 24 August 1917, Page 5

AIR RAID IN ENGLAND

A FEW PEOPLE KILLED. TWO RAIDERS BROUGHT DOWN. Australian und N.Z. Cable Association and Router. August 22. Tho Press Bureau reports that enemy airships appeared off the -Yorkshire ooast last night. One attacked the mouth of the H umber, dropped some bombs, and went seaward when our anti-aircraft guns opened fire. Slight damage was done and one man was injured. The Press Bureau reports : Ten enemy aeroplanes approached the Kent coast near Ramsgate at 10 a.m. today. The Royal Flying Corps and our Naval Air Service met and heavily engaged the raiders, preventing them from penetrating inland. A small party of raiders flew to Margate and then turned homeward, while the remainder skirted the coast southward to Dover. Some bombs were dropped at Dover and Margate, three persons being killed and two injured, while slight material damage was done. Our anti-aircraft guns' fire brought down, two of the raiders. BATTLE IN THE AIR. FIGHTING FOR HALF AN HOUR. Australian and N.Z. Cablo Association. LONDON, August 23. (Received Aug. 23, at 11.5 p.m.) When the raiders were approaching Margate at a great altitude gunfire was opened upon them, and two fell headlong. An incessant battle in the air continued for half an hour. In connection with the raid on the Yorkshire coast last night, searchlights along the Humber caught a Zeppelin at a height of two miles. Our gunfire. prevented the visitor from reaching its objective, but it dropped a number of bombs before disappearing. OFFICIAL STATEMENTS. ELEVEN PEOPLE KILLED. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association and ' < Reut'or. LONDON, August P3. (Received Aug. 23. at 11.5 p.m.) It is officially stated that the raiders dropped bombs on Dover, Margate, and Ramsgate. ' Eleven people were killed and 13 were injured in Dover, tand in Ramsgate a number of houses and a hospital were damaged. One enemy pilot was rescued in an injured condition. Another official message states that one or at most two of the airships which were raiding the Yorkshire coast last night ventured overland and dropped shells on three villages near the coast, wrecking a chapel ana damaging houses. One man was injtired.

ANOTHER ENEMY MACHINE' BROUGHT DOWN. /T - LONDON. August 23. (Received Aug. 23, at 11.45 p.m.) The Admiralty reports that naval aeroplanes attacked 10 Gotbas in the vicinity of Ramsgate at a height of 11,000 feet, rhey shot down one in addition to the two already reported, and chased the remainder oversea. 'RAIDERS ATTACKED. SEVERAL BROUGHT DOWN. . , LONDON, August 23. (Received Aug. 24, at 0.5 a.m.) J. he Admiralty reports that three machines from indecisively engaged 12 Gcthas 35 miles northward of Nieuport and chased them to Zeebrugge. Another patrol of 10 machines engaged 25 enemy escorting scouts which Vere awaiting the raiders from England, and drove down at least' five completely uncontrollable. Accurate counting is impossible owing to the close fightincr 41 ours returned.

GERMAN STATEMENT. Admiralty, t>er Wireless Press. ,-p . LONDON, August 23. (Received , Aug. 24, at 0.5 a.m.) Out aviators successfully bombed fortified towns on the English coast.'