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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 1104.PDF
i/y§E3 NOVEMBER 6, I914. AIRCRAFT AND THE WAR. the 20th ult. contained the following item, of which there confirmation from the Russian side :— WRITING to the Daily Mail on Wednesday of last week regarding the bombardment of the German right, Mr. G. Ward Price, said :— " On their right the British naval flotilla is pounding them with heavy guns—and airmen who have flown over their lines tell us that the German positions during the bombardment are a tolerable imitation of hell, all flames and smoke." In a message from Hazebrouck on the same date, Mr. John Prioleau said : — "A German aeroplane buzzed and hovered in the dusk over the camp. At once the air was rent with the spluttering crackle of rifle fire. Every rifle was emptied again and again at the spidery thing hanging overhead, with death and destruction poised in its talons. Eye-witnesses were wondering whether any of the shots had taken effect when with a fierce whirr two British biplanes swooped up and gave chase to the enemy. A thrilling quarter of an hour followed, when all eyes were gluid to the three elusive mosquito-like craft as they circled, rose and sank around one another in the crystal even ing air. Then the fir»t of ours drew ahead and closed up slowly but surely with the fleeing German. Suddenly a tiny ripping sound, rather like a child's rattle heard a long way off, came down and the German machine dipped exactly as a hit partridge swerves. He kept gamely on, but there could be only one end. Lower and lower he dropped, the Englishman poised above him. Lower and lower— that was the last my informants saw of them, two little specks sharply pencilled against the rosy dusk, one above the over, dropping, dropping earthwards as they faded out of sight behind the little hillocks to the north. " ' Winged the beggar all right,' said a Tommy with as much emotion as if he were watching covert shooting. It was the third Taube that had made its appearance in twenty-four hours. Yester day one dropped his bomb but missed his mark (a railway station) by a generous margin, and this morning another managed to do an insignificant amount of harm." Another Daily Mail correspondent, writing from Copenhagen, said :— " I learn from DiUseldorf that the British aerial bomb recently dropped on the Zeppelin shed set fire to it and that an airship was totally destroyed. One airman was killed and three were seriously burned." Mr. George Renwick, the Daily Chronicle correspon dent, on the 28th ult. wired from Hazebrouck:— " The enemy's aeroplanes are active in this neighbourhood. Yesterday and to-day ' Taubes' have paid visits to Hazebrouck, and have been dropping bombs. The first two instalments—three in all—did not kill or injure anyone and achieved no great material damage. The airmen's efforts were evidently directed against the railway line, but their attempts to interrupt communication failed. All the bombs fell ' wide.' A little more than an hour ago I saw a third German aeroplane pass over the town, flying at a considerable height. No bombs were thrown from it, and for more than five minutes it had to ' run the gauntlet,' hundreds of shots being sent up after it. It was, however, too high up for the fire to be effective. Some time previously it had been observed by British airman, and an aeroplane had started in pursuit. As they passed over the town both were going full speed ahead, and in the gathering twilight it was possible to note that the British craft was gaining. "As I watched through my glasses I heard a faint rattle ; the pursuer had got within range of the ' Taube' and was firing upon it. The German airship seemed to shudder for a moment, slacken speed and, like a winged bird, skim downwards. But then the twilight and the distance swallowed up pursuer and pursued, though I think that there could be no doubt as to the result of the encounter. No sooner had the two aircraft disappeared than a bomb fell about a hundred yards from where I was standing. The ' Taube ' from which it was thrown was travelling above the clouds and could not be seen. Again no damage was done." German aviators made unsuccessful attempts to approach Paris on the 28th ult. The raid was prevented through the vigilance of the French pilots policing the Paris area, who headed them off. It is stated that the raiders, using Taube and Aviatik machines, came from the regions of Compiegne and Senlis, and bombs were thrown at the former place. The German "wireless " news sent out from Berlin on has been no "German airships flew over Warsaw and dropped bombs on the railway station there, which was destroyed by fire. From the North of France, Mr. Ernest Macfarren telegraphed on the 29th ult. to the Daily Mail:— " Two German aeroplanes flew over the north of France yester day and dropped two bombs at Bethune. The first did not explode, but the second fell among a group of women in the market place, 19 being killed and 40 injured." The following extract is from a letter written to his brother at Doncaster by Mr. Harold Blackburn, who is now on active service :— " My two chases after the German aeroplanes were quite exciting, and I'm just longing for another chance. I was very lucky in getting a long reconnaissance on Wednesday—three hours and five minutes, and covering about 140 miles—locating the German reserves. A Taube machine came over a few minutes ago—the second one I have seen near the camp—but he disappeared without coming nearer than about four miles, and it was just dusk. Last night, after writing the above, another Taube came over, and we witnessed a splendid running fight for several miles. You should have seen the circling and daring and manoeuvring for firing positions. It was awfully exciting. We could hear the shots, and expected one of the craft to come down any minute, but they disappeared, still fighting. The captain returned in about twenty minutes with three of his wing spars shot through, saying, 'The Geiman escaped,' but we heard late last night that a German machine had come down in flames a few miles away— doubtless the same one. " I flew over yesterday during a two hours' flight, and the town seems to be evacuated and partly on fire. It's a big manu facturing town, and the strangest sight on earth to see a place like that deserted." Writing to the Daily Mail from the " North of France " on Friday last, Mr. Basil Clarke, said :— " The French airmen from their base near Dunkirk have made reprisals on the German bomb-throwers. An air team of six biplanes and two monoplanes soared into the sky at midday and disappeared south and east. They had located the house (near Dixmude) wherein the German headquarters staff had established themselves after being driven pell mell by our naval gunfire from a big house near the coast. This new headquarters was a chateau lying in pleasantly wooded grounds—and the German staff, it is whispered, have been ' doing themselves very well' there. The aeroplane team between them carried 240 bombs. They did not seek out women and children or let fall their missiles in public market places—the German aeroplanists' favourite form of murder. They flew one after another over the chateau and let fall bomb after bomb. Before half a dozen had fallen on the place the chateau roof was split, slates and masonry were hurled about, and the place was in flames. The ' staff'pelted out of doors and hid in the woods. The remaining aeroplanis;s therefore let fall their bombs among the woods. The whole team returned safe to Dunkirk in the evening." On the same day a Daily Telegraph correspondent wrote from Boulogne :— " As I travel in the train en route for London I learn from a gentleman who has just left Dunkirk that a German aeroplane flew over that town laje last evening. The Taube threw two bombs: the first fell on a house in the Rue du College, and the second in the Rue Faulconnier. In the first case the bomb fell right through the roof and two top floors, and exploded on the ground floor, causing all the windows of the district to be smashed. The other fell in the Rue Faulconnier, a few yards from an ambulance. Two persons were killed and three injured. The same gentleman informs me that a Taube—presumably the same—flew over St. Omer this morning at midday. It came from the direction of Bethune and Aire-sur-la-Lys. The machine was flying very low, and threw no missile on the town of St. Omer. Two English aeroplanes immediately went up and gave chase to the enemy's Taube. Shots were exchanged, and my informant—who is an official—informs me that one of the occupants of the Taube was injured. The machine made off towards Calais, followed by one of the Englishmen. Calais was given the alarm, and the Taube was brought down near Andruick by the aeroplane that had left Calais. The inhabitants of St. Omer were exceedingly interested in the proceedings, and showed no sign of panic." Ad vices from Amsterdam give the information that on the 29th ult. British aviators dropped bombs into the 1104
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