CUXHAVEN RAID.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 222, 26 February 1915, Page 6

CUXHAVEN RAID.

ZEPPELINS HIT BY HIGH A.Y.ILE FIRE. AIRSHIP SHEDS KNOCKED ABOUT. The London Times of December -!), says: —"It is now possible to supplement this official account of the British raid on Cuxhaveii with some particulars of th.fi conditions under which the historic combat was fought." Christmas mc.rnh> 0 broke beautifully fine am! v'/VU'. J : i tin bight of Heligoland thorc'waa pr.*.;'' cally no wind and the surface of th.sea was bnttVv" ruff]'.! 1 !' Otir daring airmen soon Van Into a fog. It was dense oil' the. mouth of the Elbe, but lay only in shallow patches ever the iiarboV H-' town of Cuxhavcn.

"Flying very high, while Mifc lit si"' the seaplanes came as low as was Consistent with safety for dropping theii bombs. In spite of the German denial*, there is excellent reason to believe thai considerable damage was done by them and that a Parseval airship and nh-'d were destroyed, and a number of Zeppelin sheds and their contents badly knocked about.

"While our men were busy, the Germans discovered the presence of the escorting - cruisers and destroyers, anil two Zeppelins, with some seaplanes an,l submarines, act off to attack them. The Zeppelins were the first to go to work, but did not make good practice. 'Tor some moments they droppcbombs incessantly, without striking anv of our ships. High angle fire from our cruisers soon drove them off, and one was undoubtedly hit, and hit badlv. Both tlie Arethusa and the Undaunted managed to get in successful shots. "A far greater danger to our souadron was the enemy's submarines. They made constant attempts to reach r.uv cruisers, but were, baffled bv the masterly seamanship shown in the handling of our destroyers, which manoeuvred at high speed round tile larger vessels and successfully prevented every attempt to torpedo them. Meanwhile, our airmen were returning to our ships, and were soon engaged in conflict with the enemy aircraft, which had been groping for them in the fog nil' the coast.

"Full particulars of the fight, arc not available, but the fact that six out of our seven airpilots have been safely accounted for, speaks for itself. '•'The Orman account talks of the damage done to the British ships in this amazing conflict. Tt in undeniable, however, that every cruiser, destroyer and submarine has returned to its base w''iiout loss of lif ( , or material damage."