RAID ON HOBOKEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 305, 3 June 1915, Page 2

RAID ON HOBOKEN.

BRITISH AIRMAN'S LETTER. SENSATIONS UNDER FIRE. BREATHLESS AND DEAFENED. A letter has been received by the Rev. H. G. Rosher, of Palmerston North, from his nephew, Flight-Lieutenant Rosher. The letter contains a thrilling story of the British airmen's raid on Hoboken, a rivarside suburb of Antwerp. His account is dated March 24. Five aviators were chosen to go, but only two reached the objective, the other three having to come back owing to engine troubles and to losing their way in the clouds. Several German submarines were destroyed, and much damage done to the enemy's stores and .works. Lieutenant Rosher says: "This morning we got up at about half-past threo o'clock. The weather was warm. Breakfast followed, and it's very hard to ge£ down to eggs and bread and butter at that hour. Wo cut for the order of starting, but decided to keep as near each other as possible. 1 went off last but one at 5.30 a.m., and streaked out straight across the sea. We were .pretty heavily loaded, and my machine would not climb much. I saw one machine go ahead of me, but lost it almost immediately in the clouds, which were very low—2sooft. It was also very misty. Our course was right up the coast past Zeebrugge, and then in across the land at the mouth of the Scheldt. "I got clear of some of the clouds, and saw one of my companions behind and 2000 ft above me. He rapidly overtook me, and from then on I followed him. Unfortunately-, over Antwerp there were no clouds. He was about five or six minutes in front" of me. I saw him rolplane out of sight. I had to go on some little way before I spotted the yards myself. I next saw him very low down, flying away to the coast, with shrapnel bursting around him. He came down to under 500 ft, and dropped his bombs before he was fired on. "As the wind was dead against me I decided to come round in a semi-circle to cross the yards with the wind so as to obtain a greater speed. I was only 5500 ft up and they opened Are on me with shrapnel as soon as I got within range. It began to get a bit hot, so before I got quite round I shut off my petrol and came down with a steep volplane,until I was within 2500 ft, when I turned on my petrol again and continued my descent at a rate well over a hundred miles an hour. I passed over tha yards at about 1000 ft and loosed all my bombs over the place. The whole way down I was under fire from two antiaircraft guns in the yard, guns from the forts on cither side, rifle fire, mitrailleuses or machine-guns, and, the most weird of all—great bunches, 15 to 28, of what looked like green rocsets. i think they were flaming bullets, the excitement of the moment was terrific. I have never travelled so fast before in my life. "My chief impressions were the great speed, the flaming bullets streaking by, the incessant rattle of machine-guns and rifle-fire, and one or two shells bursting close tiy, knocking my machine all sideways and pretty nearly deafening me. On my return I found mv machine Bad only been hit twice, one bullet-hole through the tale and a piece of shrapnel buried in the main spar of one wing. I have now got it out. I found myself across the yards and felt a mild sort of surprise. "My eyes must have been, sticking out of my head like shrimps'. I know I was gasping for breath and crouching down in the fusillade. I was, however, by no means clear. Shrapnel was still bursting around me. I jambed the rudder first one way and then the other, and banked first on to one wing-tip and then on to the other, now clipping outwards, now up, and now down. I was literally hedged in by forts, and was only 1000 ft up, and had to run the gauntlet before getting away. I was under rifle fire right up to the frontier, and even then the Dutch potted at me. "My return journey was trying, as most of the time T had to fly at under 5000 ft, as I ran into thick clouds and mist. I pottered gaily right over Hushing and within a few hundred yards' of a Dutch cruiser and two torpedo boats. I got back home about a quarter of an hour afterwards, having been very nearly four hours in tlie air. My engine gave me several anxious moments, for some reason. It Avas right out over the Scheldt, and I had actually given up all hope, when it picked up again. It was pretty risky work flying several miles out to sea, only just in sight of land, too, but our surprise of the Germans was certainly complete." ——— ™__ . .