DAMAGE IN OSTEND.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 14 August 1917, Page 2

DAMAGE IN OSTEND.

EFFECT OF BEITISH BOMBS. PHOTOGKAPHI EVIDENCE. A series of photographic plates, of the bombardment of Ostend which have arrived in London afford a remarkable example of of the development of photographic observations and record of airplanes. There show in undeniable fashion that the British bombardment of Ostend on June 5 was the most successful yet accomplished, ensuring that Ostend will be crippled as a useful German base for weeks, if not permanently. There are several series of these Ostend plates in the little photographic record-room of the Admiralty building at Whitehall, says a writer in a, London newspaper. The first group was taken before the bombardment, and shows the town in panoramic squares. With a small reading-glass it is easy to distinguish the essential features of docks factories, and harbour works in their normal condition and to trace railroad tracks, streets and storeyards. A second group of plates shows Ostend after the bombardment. At first sight the pictures are disappointing. Taken from airplanes a mile or more above the town, the pictures show no great general devastation. There are no large general changes in the outline of the town, but careful comparisons with the pictures taken before the bombardment reveal some striking changes here and there, which grew in importance as they arc studied under a magnifying glass First of all there is the harbour One is immediately istruck bjy a slight change in the appearance of the great lock gates, on which all the activity of the harbour depends. The magnifying glass reveals some of the reasons for this change. The breaking down of the locks prevents the retention o£ water, in the basin, and the canals which feed it, incapacitating the enItire port machinery. Equally effective in crippling the harbour is a hit on the operating machinery, jamming the locks so that ingress or egress -is impossible until elaborate repairs are made.

The plates taken the day before the bombardment show a number of ships at anchor in the harbour or tied, up in the inner basin. In the succeeding plates some of the ships have disappeared, and others are apparently halfsubmerged. The long wharf looks like a caricature of its former self, and two or three buildings in the dockyards, whose usefulness was indicated by the early pictures by the presence of new additions or alterations have suffered badly.