AIR RAID.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7918, 14 August 1917, Page 3

AIR RAID.

CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE AT SOUTHEND.

LARGE NUMBER OF CASUALTIES. Australian and N.Z. Ca'il j Association. LONDON, August 13. The Press Bureau states that raiders caused considerable damage at Southend, where they dropped 40 bombs. The casualties at present reported include 8 men, 9 women, and 6 children killed; and about 50 injured. Two men were injured at Rochford.

An uninhabited house at Margate was demolished, but no casualties resulted.

The enemy aeroplanes were seen approaching at a great height. Numbers of airmen ascended at Clacton and Margate and met them, when sharp fighting followed. The anti-aircraft guns were also busy from Margate. The enemy was driven seaward after dropping four bombs on the eastern part of the town. TWO HOSTILE CRAFT DESTROYED. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. Reuter Message. (Received This Day, 2 p.m.) LONDON, August 13. The Admiralty reports:—A hostile aeroplane of the Gotha type was destroyed during the return to the Belgian coast, and a hostile seaplane was destroyed off the Flanders coast. A large number of naval machines indecisively engaged the raiders over the sea.

The pilot who destroyed the Gotha machine first pursued the enemy at an altitude of twelve thousand feet from North Foreland to fifteen miles off Zeebrugge, where the enemy was lost. Returning over the Thames mouth the pilot observed the anti-aircraft fire at Southend and flew there. In climbing he observed eight Gothas, followed by four British machines. Steering north-east he climbed to eighteen thousand feet and attacked resultlessly thirty miles out seawards. Simultaneously he observed a hostile machine four thousand feet below the enemy formation. He attacked and drove the enemy into the water.