SHELLING OF LOWESTOTF.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7739, 22 June 1916, Page 1

SHELLING OF LOWESTOTF.

GERMAN FLEET’S BRIEF VISIT. HURRIED RETURN HOME. LONDON, May 4. At daybreak on 25th April a German squadron bombed Lowestoft and Yarmouth. At the latter place only little damage was done, most of the shells falling into the sea, but it was otherwise at Lowestoft. Here a number of houses were wrecked, and many people were injured. Some of the shells passed over the town and spent themselves harmlessly in the country around. A small British squadron appeared and plqskily put up a fight, but the Germans were able to disappear once more across the North Sea. Two Zeppelins led the way, and incidentally acted as scouts, making sure that no British warships lay in their path. The Zeppelins reached Yarmouth at midnight, hovering over the town for a little while, and then made off, the townspeople congratulating themselves on their escape. Three hours later—at 3.45 a.m.— they were again awakened by a fresh series of explosions. These were louder, more deliberate, and more regular than those of the anti-aircraft guns. Following the sound of the reports, people hurried to the promenade. A light mist hung over the sea, but away on the horizon they could see the flashes of the guns, and above them the smear of smoke. The shells were falling in the sea not far from the beach. The flashes seemed to move southwards, and presently the shells wrecked a building used as a storing and replacing place for fishing nets. It wrecked the building and set it on fire. The flames spread to the adjoining premises of a cartage contractor, and they, too, were damaged. Apart from these two buildings and the dislodging of some bricks on a chimney stack, Yarmouth suffered no damage from the bombardment. As on the earlier occasion, the sandbanks on the seaward side of Yarmouth saved the town. The enemy fleet of at least ten ships, four being battle-cruisers, then steered southward, and shelled Lowestoft. Most of the damage is along or near the sea front. Two large houses on the north side of the town, standing in their own grounds, were wrecked and set on fire, and on the south side upwards of thirty houses and shops were shattered. A group of cottages in a hollow had their upper floors blown to fragments, and the roof of one now lies in a tangle of timber and slates across the gardens. The front and roof of another house were crushed, and there, through gaping holes, the ornaments on the bedroom mantelpiece and the pictures on the bedroom walls were later to be seen untouched. A row of g dozen shops in one of the main streets had been battered—a gable missing here, a coping dislodged there, windows smashed everywhere; walls, roofs, and floors smashed into fragments lay in fantastic heaps of beams, brickwork, and plaster. When the small British squadron appeared the Germans gave up the bombardment of Lowestoft, and turned the full force of their guns on the newcomers. There was a naval engagement, in which we lost some men, and one of our ships seemed to be hit. Berlin says: “A section of our high sea forces bombarded with good success fortifications and important military buildings at Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, and afterwards opened fire on a detachment of enemy airmen, small cruisers, and torpedo-boat destroyers. A big fire was observable on one cruiser. One destroyer and enemy patrol boats were sunk. One of the latter was the trawler King Stephen, which refused some time ago to save the crew of the German airship LI 9 when in distress. The crew of the trawlers were taken prisoner. The remaining enemy naval forces withdrew. On our side there were no losses. All our ships returned undamaged.”