In the Air.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 78, 8 March 1916, Page 5

In the Air.

NINETY BOMBS DROPPED. NO MILITARY DAMAGE, ONLY CIVILIANS KILLED. Tim High Commissioner reports:— London March 7 (5.50 p.m.) At least ninety bombs acre dropped during Sunday night’s air raid indiscriminately over rural districts. No damage of military importance was caused. The casualties were confined to the civil population, thirteen being killed. A SCENE IN YORKSHIRE.

WATCHING THE ZEPPELIN. FIREWORKS IN THE SNOW. [ fiNiTV ” Pkw«i> Amooiation.j (Received 8.35 a.m.) London, March 7. There was an astonishing scene in one Yorkshire town. The police traversed the streets warning the inhabitants of the Zeppelin’s approach. There had been a heavy snowstorm. Most people were in bed, and the noise of the bombs roused the town. There was no panic, but a great exodus from the poorer quarters, followed, despite the heavy snowstorm, to the open spaces. Some were wearing their .night-clothes and a few had taken time to put their boots on. Some were carrying infants. Some had hastily snatched shawis or table cloths. All trudged in the snow and wind and witnessed the fascinating spectacle. tVhen the airship returned it poised overhead. I An eye-witness states that it was more like pre-arranged fireworks than a death raid. Blue fairy lights twinkled in the sky like stars, and the shells, like falling rockets, lit up the snow until the airship suddenly started to roar and went off at a tremendous speed. THE EAST COAST RAID'. STRANGE SCENES IN THE SNOW. ONE AIRSHIP DAMAGED. • London, March 0. The Zeppelins visited one county in a snowstorm. -Some of the, counties received warnings and precautions were taken, but no alarm was evinced. Rescue work was, carried out by lantern light while the snow was falling. A bedridden woman was dug out of the clehris unscathed. There were sixteen victims, three fatal, in one fine residential quarter. One or more of the Z ppelins remained in the neighbourhood for nearly an hour, then went inland, and returned and renewed the attack, when the V6Mlfi?r’cleared find Git became starlight. Another Zeppelin was sighted this morning over a south-east rn county, at a great height. It did not drop bombs, and soared towards Ostend. The Zeppelins apparently traversed Norfolk without dropping any bombs. About a dozen were droped in a field in Rutland, without doing any dam-

age. V When the Zeppelins appeared over Kentish waters searchlights picked them up, and nearly three hundied shots from rifles and shells were fired at the raiders. They kept in view for twenty minutes and dropped four bombs, and then disappeared in clouds of smoke, which, an eyewitness declares, a Zeppelin produced. The bombs fell in a field, excavating large cavities. One of our shells hurst close to a raider.

There were strange scenes when tne bombs were falling in the snow-clad streets. The sky was suddenly lighted with a flash of incendiary bombs, and then u ith a crash they were buried in drifts of fast-falling snow.

Spectators believed that the last one of the Zeppelins was hit. An eyewitness, who had powerful glasses, declared that he saw a big rent in the envelope, and the torn fa one was flapping in the wind. The snowstorms in Yorkshire on Sunday were heavy, and it is expect ■hl that the weight of snow upon the Envelope of the airship, which was ns long as St. Paul’s Cathedral, would press down the airship, hut apparently she was above the snow-clouds.

BERLIN’S REPORT. rr^:' . ' v ‘ The 'Berlin Admiralty states; Some of our airships on the night of the sth heavilv bombarded the naval base at Hull, the dock, and some buildings, with a number of good remits. The observed airships were rigorously hut unsuccessful fired on, uid returned safely. OFFICIAL BRITISH REPORT. (Received 11.5 a.mA London, March 7. Official. —Ninety bombs were dropped indiscriminately in rural districts on Sunday, which was possibly duo to the rough weather, lbs Zeppelins were uncertain of their "hereabouts, and ware anxious to get rid ol the bombs before escaping under cover of darkness. Thirteen persons were killed.