ZEPPELIN SEASON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17279, 21 September 1916, Page 9

ZEPPELIN SEASON.

FOUR VISITS IN TWELVE DAYS.

WHAT GERMANS ARE TOLD.

[From Our Correspondent.]

LONDON, August 10.

During the past twelve days there have been four Zeppelin raids on the British coast. In the first three, though the raiders dropped sorao hundieds of explosive and incendiary bombs, they achieved no military object whatever, did very little material damage indeed, and beyond a few horses, a oow, a calf, a few head of poultry, and a family of thrushes, did not succeed in killing anything. The fourth raid, wiiich took place on the night of the eight and ninth of August, unhappily did produce a dutoner's bill, out it was a very small one. An oid man of eigiity-six died a', the result of shock, two women and three cnndren wore killed, and. seventeen people woro more or less seriously injured. • Eignteen of these three and twenty casualties occuned in one north-eastern town, and tne rest in a place not far away. As regards material damage, so far as is Known tho raiders only succeeded in partly demolishing four houses, smashing a large number of windows, killing a horse, disturbing some lit L-y feet of railway track, and doing insignificant damage to growing crops. In military ahievements they couiu claim nothing, and the total of tho damage done—-apart from the loss of life and injury to human beings—would probably represent a mere fraction of the prime cost of the raid. No fewer than ten Zeppelins, it is said, took part in the raid, and they are known to have dropped between them on land at least one hundred high exnlosive bombs and sixty of incendiary typo. None of tho airships ventured more than a few miles inland, except one in the extreme north, and a large proportion of the bombs dropped found rest in the sea. In four or five places our anti-aircraft guns, though apparently failing to obtain damaging hits, made such good practice that tho Zcopelin commanders though discretion the better part of valour, and turned tail ero their craft was fairly over the land. Tho results of recent raids certainly do not smrgcst that tho Germans have succeeded in greatly increasing tlv efficiency of tho Zeppelin either as a war-craft or as a menns of “ frisrhtfulnoss.” Their commanders to-day evidently hold pur anti-aircraft equipment in much greater respect than they did twelve months ago, for they flv at oxtremo altitudes, and evince a disnosition to clear off as soon as they find themselves over a zone where antiaircraft cuns are at all numerous.. During 1915 the Germans raided us by air twenty-three times, killed 181 ncople, and injured 450; this year, to date, they have made twenty-two raids —Zcr>r>elin and seaplane—and have t-nied 188 people and have injured 424. Bv far the greater proportion of these '■nsualties occurred prior to the advent of April. Since then there have been fifteen raids which have fortvt.hree deaths, p”d have inflicted injuries upon 167 persons. “ LONDON RAIDED.” So far as we who live in and around London are aware, no Zeppelin has been anywhere near the metropolis since last October, but the Germans know better. Here is a choice account of a raid on London last week, extracted from the “ Hamburg Frerndenblatt,” one of the leading journals of that city:— “ By Indirect Wireless." “Tho alarm and consternation in London was indescribable. The entire fire brigade was stationed with its engines and rescuing apparatus* in the various streets ana squares. The Nelson Memorial in Trafalgar Square was hastily surrounded with mountainous stacks of sandbags, and tho valuable exhibits in the British and Kensington Museums were conveyed into the vaults beneath those buildings- “ Red Cross banners were hoisted on the roofs of Buckingham Palace and St ,lames’s Palace, while gigantic flags of the respective nationalities waved from the foreign Embassies and Consulates.

“ Tho population was for the most part hiding in cellars and underground railway tunnols. Numerous bodies of troops hurried through tho streets to their respective stations. Every railway station in London, as well as. tho city generally, was stooped in inky darkness, which was only lit up now and again by the searchlight project tions and the fire of the anti-aircraft guns. “ The damage inflicted, as aseerta.lied up to August '3, was very serious. _ “ On the Thames several br.uges, including the Towor Bridge, sustained grave injury. They have now been temporarily closed to traffic. Nunwrjjs destructive fires were caused in tho West India Docks, as well as in Huntingdon Street and in Woolwich, many persons being killed in the latter distriot. „ ' , „ ", “On the morning of August 3 the streets loading to the various hospitals wore rendered for a time impassable to ordinary traffic, in order to permit the hundreds of ambulances to make their way with their loads of injured people. “As raav be imagined, 4 he indignation against the Government has assumed dangerous dimensions.’’ It is, bv the way, rather peculiar that tho Zeppelins—according to the German accounts —always contrive to make a bull’s-eye in the West - India Docks and on Tower Bridge whenever they pay an alleged visit to the London area. Tho only other comment one has to make upon the “ Fremdenblatt’s ” tale is that for unadulterated fiotion it “ takes the cake.” “OUR DEAR ZEPPS.” The “ Fremdenblatt’s ” grotesqueries are indirectly backed up by its great rival the “ Nachricliten,” which joyfully bursts forth tlras:— '“lmmeasurable and infinite is the joy with which all Germany follows the raids of our dear Zeppelins on England, thus again carrying the dread gravity of the war into the very j hearts' of the audacious islanders. “This people of traitors and pirates

makes a. boast of the fact that all its countries, its towns, and villages, have been ransfonned into munition factories, shipbuilding wharves, and arsenals. Therefore, let us industriously utilise the moaus we have at hand and tear as many holes as we can in their armour as fast as they construct it. “This is tho one lesson that the English population needs, for even tho most snobbish ‘ gentleman ’ will eventually arrive at the conviction that Zeppelin bombs are moro effective than tho important tirades of the moralist Asquith, who would push us out of tho ranks of the nations, becausej forsooth, a pirate and assassin* (Captain Fryatt is meant) has received his just reward at the-hands of a German court of justice. “ Anyway, wo are onco again talking rvith England in good, sound German bomb languago, and that is a step in the direction of peace.. This is a case in which may be applied the wonderful words: ‘ The moro destructive. tho more merciful.’ ” NOT SAUCE FOR THE GANDER. The one thing that irresistibly appeals to British readers of German newspapers is the absolute inability of Hun writers on war topics to grasp the fact that the old saying “sauce for the goose, is sauce for tne gander” is applicable to warfare. The recent Zeppelin raids on our coasts provide at least one excellent illustration of this peculiarity of German writers. | Commenting upon tho British claim that the Zeppelins had done “ no military damage,” one German organ observed : * 1 Even if that bo true, we have at least the satisfaction Of knowing that they have created havoc with the crops.” Against this utterance may be set an extract from the “ Deutscho Tageszeitung ” “The Acting-General in Command of the 7th German Army Corps announces that a Franco-British flynig corps is in course of formation which, as soon as the Harvest lm come to maturity, is to hurl a special kind of incendiary bomb on the fields in ordei to destroy the .crops. “ This plan, devilish though it be, is a truly English one. It arises from tho infatliomably evil depths .of the character of the English Huckster people which has so long deceived the whole world with its hypocritical m When Zeppelins drop incendiary bombs promiscuously into peaceiu agricultural areas in Great Britain there is, of course, nothing devihsn about it. Tho sum and substance o\. the German c-ed to-day seems, infeed to be accurately set forth thus. “ Germany can do nothing wrong; vhe Allies nothing right.”