AVIATORS BUSY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3196, 16 June 1915, Page 23

AVIATORS BUSY.

GERMAN HANGAR DESTROYED. LONDON, June 7. British airmen bombed and ignited an airship shed north of Brussels. Another British airman bombed a Zeppelin between Ghent and Brussels. The Zeppelin exploded and was destroyed. The Admiralty states that Naval Flightlieutenants Wilson and Mills bombed the airship shed at Evere (? Etterbruck) at 2.30 this morning, but it is not known whether there was a Zeppelin inside. The flames reached a great height, issuing from both sides of the shed. The pilots returned safely. Naval Flight-sub-lieutenant Warneford, at three o’clock, attacked a Zeppelin in the air, between Ghent and Brussels, at a height of 6Dooft. He dropped six bombs on the airship, which exploded, fell to the ground, and burned for a considerable time. The force of the explosion turned the Englishman, in a Mora no monoplane, upside down, but he succeeded in righting his machine. He landed in the enemy’s country, but was able to restart his engine, and he returned to the "aerodrome safely. Sub-lieutenant Warneford is a Canadian. He obtained his pilot’s certificate only three months ago. EAST COAST OF ENGLAND VISITED. LONDON, June 7. The Zeppelins dropped incendiary and explosive bombs on the east coast of England, causing two fires and five deaths, while 40 people were injured. A THRILLING ENCOUNTER. LONDON, June 8. The Daily Telegraph’s Rotterdam correspondent slates that one British and one French aeroplane attacked the Zeppelin at 3 a.m., as it was returning from a scouting exhibition on the Belgian coast, which is part of the nightly training for the London raid. The Zeppelin first rose to a tremendous height in an attempt to evade its pursuers. Then speeding towards the airship station of control, approaching Ghent, it was necessary to descend to a lower altitude. The aeroplanes kept up a continued rifle fire, to which the Zeppelin replied .with a machine gun and many round shells from a small cannon, but both without result.

As the airship was dropping to reach the shed, both aeroplanes got. above it and dropped bombs. There was an explosion, and the fire spread until the whole air ship was enveloped in flame and smoke; then it crashed down to the ground at the Reguinage de St. Lisobeth, which includes 700 members devoted to charity. The nunnery is at present filled with refugee Belgian women and children. The burning mass set fire to the build-

ings, and there were terrible scenes. Many of the crew were already dead, and their bodies were flung in all directions. Not a man survived. Two of the nuns were killed. A fireman, in attempting to rescue a child, leaped from a burning room, and both were killed. AMSTERDAM, June 7. The Ttdegraaf states that a Zeppelin’s crew of 28 have been killed. Their airship dropped on an orphanage, killing two nuns and two children, and wounding many. RECORD HEIGHT REACHED. LONDON, June 7. Hawker, an aviator, while Jbiplaning at Hendon, reached the record height of 20,000 ft. He was invisible for an hour, and suffered from cold. His descent from the highest point was an unbroken glide for 20 minutes.