BOMBING RAIDS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18900, 30 December 1935, Page 10

BOMBING RAIDS

EFFECTIVE RESULTS C A MP’AIG N A G AINST' 11 ONDON (From a Special Correspondent) LONDON, Nov. 5. Those who study the latest volume of the qllicial history of the air war, which has just been published, will see therein a complete case made out for cited.l veuess ol the German strategical bombing of London during the Great War. Although only 270 tons of bombs were dropped during the entire period, .1414 people were killed and 3416 injured and, what was'more serious from the purely military point of view, the commanders in Franco were continually harassed -by requests that squadrons of lighting aeroplanes should be released from the .main buttlefront to be sent back to England for defence purposes. Much of the bombing was indiscriminate and if was all done with equipment which was relatively undeveloped. Yet Mr 11. A. Jones, the official historian of the war in the air, writes: “On military grounds, the air attacks were overwhelmingly justified by t.he results, and lie goes on to point out the effect of the raids upon the output of munitions unj of factories. “We have seen,” he continues, “that the German daylight aeroplane ‘ campaign against London created profound disquiet and led to demands being made on Sir Douglas Haig to send fighting squadrons home at the moment when he was about Go begin his summer offensive in Flanders.” The volume deals with both the airship and the aeroplane raids and it is noteworthy that, although fewer bombs were dropped by the aeroplanes than by the airships, they inflicted heavier casualties and more damage.