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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 1065.PDF
OCTOBER 23, 1914. October 10th, Russian gunners brought down a couple which threw out-bombs. Cossacks slew the crew of one and captured the crew of the other." r Having been delayed in transmission apparently the following message, dated Nancy,' October 13th,'was published in the Times of the 17th inst. :— " This morning, for the second time since the beginning of the war, the inhabitants of Nancy had the fleeting excitement of a visit from a Taube monoplane, which was followed a few minutes later by a biplane, also a German. Flying over the centre of the town, from south-east to north-west, the leader dropped three bombs over the goods station of the Compagnie de l'Est from a height of about 1,500 yds. The first bomb fell on one of the station buildings, used for storing old barrels, the second on the footboard of a first-class carriage, and the third on the permanent way, where it did a certain amount of damage to one of the rails. There were also four human victims, though fortunately none of them was seriously hurt—a boy of 18, superficially wounded in the head, a railway employee, whose back was injured, and two children on their way to school, who were hardly hurt at all. "The aviators were men of humour. Besides the bombs they dropped a flag and a note. The note said that ' Nancy' would soon become a German town and would be destroyed by a hail of mitrailleuse bullets and by fire. Fastened to the flag was a second note, rather more explicit in its terms, which I had the pleasure of reading. It ran as follows :— " «We bid good-day to the inhabitants of Nancy, who will soon be Germans, and we apologise for this rather eccentric method of introduction by means of powder, but we shall soon become better acquainted. Signed, ' Lieutenants Wimmer and Schneider. ' Aviation Officers of Strassburg.' "I was only half-dressed when I heard the explosions, which followed each other at intervals of a few seconds at about half-past 8, and when I got down into the street the Taube was rapidly rising as it flew towards -, till it was considerably more than a mile up in the air. A squad of about 30 men fired at it from the end of our street, and others at the different military posts in the town had a go at it with their rifles, but as far as we could see without doing it any harm. Smoothly and rapidly it disappeared in the distance eventually followed by a French biplane. " I have just heard, though the report is not yet officially con firmed, that the Taube got separated from its companion and was brought down by the French at Custines, a few miles from here. The machine seems to have caught fire, and it is said that the bodies of the two officers were burnt—a grimly tragic answer to their grimly facetious notes. The particular place which they chose for the launching of their bombs rather points to the fact that there are still spies at work in the town. If that is so, the whole of the incident—the spies, the Taube, the bombs, the injury to civilians, the terrorism, the arrogance, and the fall—together forms a very complete little parable of the course of the war." t/UGMT] The way in which rumours start and grow is shown by the following incident recorded by the Daily Telegraph correspondent at Harwich :— " It was rumoured in Harwich this evening that a Zeppelin had been seen flying on the North Sea to-day, surrounded by British destroyers. The story was brought into this port by members of the crew of the Great Eastern Railway Company's steamer Colchester, which arrived late in the afternoon from Rotterdam. On enquiry I have ascertained that when within twenty-five miles of Harwich the crew of the Colchester saw a large object of a yellowish tint afloat on the water, with two destroyers near by. The weather was hazy, and it was difficult at a distance to determine precisely what the object was. One of the destroyers fired at it; the other steamed away. The true explanation of the incident is now stated in naval circles to be that the supposed Zeppelin was merely a dead whale, and that the carcase was fired at with the object of sinking it. " ' Did it look like a whale ?' I asked a member of the steamer's crew. " ' Oh, yes, it might have been,' he answered." An official statement said that in the forenoon of the 14th inst. a section of the naval squadron outside Tsingtau destroyed portions of the litis and Kaiser forts, whi'e simultaneously aeroplanes dropped bombs. On Oct. 16th, Mr. George Renwick sent the following message to the Daily Chronicle :— *' Vesterday afternoon a Taube appeared over Dunkirk and dropped two bombs. The first fell at Malo-les-Bains, beside the IO65 town. It is difficult to say what the airman was aiming at particu larly, and the bomb fell where it did little or no harm. The second shot might have had serious Consequences had the aim been good. It was dropped at Pte. Synthe, on the other side of the town, and it was evidently the intention of the aviator to wreck a train. The bomb fell, however, about a hundred yards from the line. The airman, in order to diop the second bomb, tiecame rather too daring and came down from a considerable height to plant his shot. That brought him within rifle range and he met with volley after volley from the troops below. Shots so damaged the machine that the airman had to descend, lit reached the earth unhurt and wag at once made prisoner." From other sources it was reported that shortly after another aeroplane appeared, and dropped a bomb in a field near Capellee, a village 3^ miles south of Dunkirk, also an obvious attempt on the railway from Dunkirk to Cassel. Writing from Petrograd on October 17th, the Daily Telegraph correspondent said :— '* The Russian foot soldier, too, though he has a great respect for the German aeroplanes and heavy artillery, is fully convinced of his own superiority to the enemy's infantry. .... " That city, it now appears, has, during the past couple of weeks, been several times visited by bomb-throwing aeroplanes, which directed their attention chiefly to the stations, gas works, and similar institutions. They seem to have done but little harm, and to have been regarded by the inhabitants rather with curiosity than dread. Thousands of people thronged the streets watching the white puffs from the Russian shrapnel, bellying out round the soaring aviators. While one of these aerial visitors was about *he roofs, bridges, and open spaces were manned with riflemen, whose shooting rang out in an unbroken rattle. One of the enemy's aeroplanes was compelled to descend beyond Novoegeorgijew&k." According to despatches from Berlin, received in Copenhagen on October 16th, Germans in the neighbour hood of Peronne shot down a British airman, and he and his passenger were captured. The following incident in the fighting on the Vistula was recorded by an Evening Standard correspondent :— " During the night Russian infantry with four quickfirers were hid in dense bushes near the river (by Yusevoff). Some distance back sixteen field guns were concealed. A German aeroplane flew over the spot next morning but perceived nothing. The Germans then began crossing the river in rafts. The Russians allowed two battalions to land, preceded by a detachment of sappers to prepare, the landing, who unknowingly came within 400 yards of the Russian telephonists, who were invisible in the bushes. The Russians then opened gun and rifle fire. It is said that every man who crossed the river was either shot or fell a victim to the bayonet charge with which the Russians finished their deadly work.'' According to a message sent from Cettinge on Satur day an Austrian aeroplane coming from Castelinova dropped several bombs, but did not succeed in doing any damage. According to the Daily Telegraph a German aeroplane is said to have passed over Amiens on Sunday dropping two*bombs on the way :— "One of these was thrown at midday and fell about 100 yards from the Station of Saint-Acheul, in a front garden. It landed without exploding. The other missile fell in the middle of the road way, where it immediately burst, injuring a tram-driver and a passer by. A gendarme standing quite near escaped with very slight injuries. French aviators chased the uninvited cuest, who is reported to have been brought down near Abbeville. Another Taube passed the same day over the town of Eu. No damage is reported from this place, however." A German machine was also reported from Compiegne as flying toward Paris. It, however, turned tail when chased by the French aeroplanes which were patrolling Paris in spite of the fog and rain. According to the Evening Standard, three German officers, two of whom are stated to be airmen, arrived at Kingstown on Sunday in charge of an escort. They were conveyed to Templemore. The impression made in the United States by the
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