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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 0543.PDF
JULY Z3, 1915. 1/felCHTj AIRCRAFT AND THE WAR. FROM its Milan correspondent the PETIT PARISIEN received the following information on the 13th inst. :— " Austrian aeroplanes have shown fresh activity during the past few days. On Thursday morning last a biplane bombarded Boquette, in the region of San Giorgio Nogaro, where several persons were injured. Another biplane attacked Schio, an industrial town, which, despite its vicinity to the theatre of opera tions, has continued work as usual. " Venice was bombarded on Sunday for the fourth time. At eight o'clock in the morning an aeroplane, flying at a height of 2,000 metres, threw the first bomb. It succeeded in demolishing a small dwelling-house, while another bomb fell on a working man's dwelling, and two women and a child who were in the house were injured. Two bombs fell in the lagoon only a few yards away from the Palace of the Doges. At the first alarm the population rushed out into the streets, where they followed the fight carried on by the sentries firing from the house tops at the aeroplane. " The aviator succeeded in escaping from the projectiles, which exploded all round him, but before disappearing he dropped a shower of small arrows, one of which literally pinned a woman's foot to the pavement in the street." Mr. Gerald Morgan, writing last week to the DAILY TELEGRAPH regarding the fighting in the Vosges, said :— " Then we climbed down the mountain, stopping to watch the Germans shell a position captured from them the day before by the French, a position in the region of the valley of the Fecht. Over head a French aeroplane reconnoitred, while shells from the German anti-aircraft guns burst round it, sometimes so close that one held one's breath, sometimes half a mile away. At length it returned in safety to its lines." The DAILY MAIL correspondent in Rotterdam, writing on the 14th, said :— "Twelve Allied aeroplanes scouted over the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal, along which there are many fortifications. Bombs were dropped and much damage was caused. The Germans opened a heavy fire, but with great pluck and skill the airmen discharged all their bombs and escaped without serious injury. In order to prevent the full extent of the damage from becoming known the enemy placed a strong guard round the damaged area." In the communique issued in Berlin on the 15 th inst., there was the following :— " A French aeroplane was hit while flying over our lines, and came down within the enemy's lines on fire. Another machine was shot down near Heneinhetard. The pilot and the observer, who were both wounded, were captured." An Exchange correspondent at Rotterdam reported the following on the 15th inst.:— " A telegram from the Hook of Holland states that a Dutch trawler has picked up in the North Sea four large glass tubes containing asphyxiating gas, apparently dropped from German aircraft. The tubes have been confiscated by the military authorities at the Hook for examination." The DAILY TELEGRAPH correspondent at Rotterdam, writing on the 15th inst., said: — " In the last few days several daring raids have been carried out by the Allies' airmen on various important points behind the German front. In one attack an ammunition depot between Roulers and Courtrai was destroyed ; in another, great damage was done to the harbour works at Ghent, known as Port Arthur, where the Germans have established an important base. Yesterday a succession of aviators dropped bombs on the seawall at Zeebrugge." A Reuter message from Amsterdam on the 15th stated .-— " Last Monday four aeroplanes bombed the Cenakel at Meenen, which was formerly a girls' school. It is now used as a casino by officers, several of whom were killed and wounded. " Early yesterday bombs were dropped on the breakwater at Zeebrugge, and for twenty minutes a fierce cannonade from anti aircraft guns was audible." An Exchange message from Athens on the 15th inst. stated:— " On Sunday an Allied cruiser, aided by torpedo boats and aeroplanes, bombarded the Turkish right wing near Aribournu." In the NEUES WIENER JOURNAL of the 15th it was reported that a squadron of Serbian aviators had on the previous day again bombarded the fortress of Peter- wardein. One of the aviators was shot down. Details as to the damage resulting from the raid were not given, possibly, therefore, it was serious. In the German communique of the 16th there was the following :— " Our airmen dropped bombs on enemy troops at Gerardmer." The MORNING POST correspondent at Petrograd, writing on the 16th inst., said :— *' At Olkeniki, thirty miles south of Wilna, and a couple of miles east of the railway, a German Albatros with a pilot and an observation officer were captured by the Russians. Bombs have been thrown from aeroplanes on Ostrolenka." Writing from Paris on the 18th inst., the TIMES correspondent said:— " Twice during the past week German aeroplanes attempted to reach Dunkirk. On Tuesday, five enemy aircraft made desperate efforts for about half-an-hour to fly above the town, but they were eventually driven seawards by the fire of the French batteries. " Another squadron, heading for Dunkirk, was signalled at 7 o'clock next morning, but only one of its number succeeded in getting near the outskirts of the town, and the anti-aircraft guns of the entrenched camp quickly compelled that one to retire. " Bombs are said to have been dropped on the dunes without occasioning any damage." Mr. A. Beaumont, writing from Milan to the DAILY TELEGRAPH on Monday, said :— " The Italian dirigibles continue to show great activity round Gorizia, where they are perpetually menacing the enemy's lines of communication. An attack of three Austrian aeroplanes on the undefended town of Bari, where they dropped eight bombs and killed six persons outright, has caused violent indignation, and happened, curiously enough, on the same day on which the letter of Cardinal Gasparri to the Bishop of Rimini was published, saying that the Pope had written specially to the Austrian Emperor asking him to conduct the war on humane lines and respect undefended towns on the Adriatic. But it seems that nothing short of the fearless and vigorous action of Hildebrand, who, as Gregory VII., brought German Emperors to terms, would have any effect to-day." The DAILY MAIL correspondent in Paris on Monday wrote as follows :— " * We were chasing him, two of us,' said a French flying officer the other day, describing a Taube hunt. ' It promised to be a fine run. Clear sky except for one great white cumulus cloud. Up and up on him we came. The gunner in the leading aeroplane of our two was just getting ready to open fire, when—bang into the cloud went the German. Disappeared utterly. Swallowed up like a pill. " ' All right,' we thought. ' He's got to come out some time.' So we began making great circles round the cloud. We went on waiting. 1 had begun to wonder if the aeroplane hadn't been dis solved inside when suddenly my gunner by my side simply screamed with rage. Out of the cloud below us, falling head downwards, shot the German plane for a thousand feet, and then, righting itself, went off at 100 miles an hour for the German lines. He had us fairly.'" The following account of how a French aviator silenced the big gun which bombarded Dunkirk was sent from Boulogne on Monday by the DAILY TELEGRAPH correspondent, who obtained it from the pilot, now in hospital at Boulogne :— "Sergeant Mennerat, for such is the hero's name, passed a very psrilous time in destroying the German long distance battery. The enemy had installed all around the dug-out, that had been specially thrown up and fortified for the reception of the colossal gun, a number of powerful anti-aircraft cannon. As soon as the French aviator made his appearance above the gun the antiaircraft cannon started to open a long and fierce fire on the machine. At the commencement the shells exploded far from their mark. "Mennerat rose to a height of 2,200 ft., and from here his passenger dropped a number of bombs that completely put the German ' Kolossal' gun out of action. Suddenly, however, a missile fired from one of the anti-aircraft guns hit the Frenchman's machine, causing a part of the tail of the aeroplane completely to snap off. The machine rocked about from side to side, little by little it was sinking to earth. The sergeant had been hit slightly, whilst 543
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