THE OSTEND RAID.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1917, Page 7

THE OSTEND RAID.

DAMAGE DONE BY BRITISH BOMBS. WHAT THE AIRMEN'S PHOTOGRAPHS SHOW.

A series of photographic plates of the bombardment of Ostend which have arrived in London afford a remarkable example of the development of photographic observation and record by the aeroplanes. They show in undeniable fashion that the British bombardment of Ostend on sth June was the most Ruccessful thing of its kind yet accomplished, ensuring that Ostend will be crippled as a useful German base for 'weeks, if not permanently. There are several scries of these Ostend plates in the little photographic record room of the Admiralty building at Whitehall, and they must be seen together to understand'the result of that night's work. The first group of those was taken before the bombardment, and shows the town in panoramic squares. With a small reading-glass it is easy, even for an untrained eye, to distinguish the essential features of clocks, factories and harbor works in their normal condition and to trace railroad tracks, Btreets and storeyards. A second group of plates shows Ostend after the bombardment. At first sight the pictures are disappointing. Taken from aeroplanes 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 when one gets down to careful comparisons with the pictures taken before the bombardment there are some striking changes here and there, which grow in importance as they are studied under a magnifying glass.

PORT MACHINERY CRIPPLED. First of all there is the harbor. One is immediately struck by a slight change. The breaking down of the locks prevents the retention of tbe water in the basins and canals which feed it, incapacitating the entire port machinery. Equally effective in crippling the harbor is a hit on the operating machinery, jamming tho locks so that ingress or egress is impossible until elaborate re> pairs are made.

The plates taken on the day before the bombardment show a number of ships at anchqr in the harbor 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 in the early pictures by the presence of new additions or alterations, have suffered badly. The pictures confirm the statement in the official communique that more than half of the buildings in the factory section of the town, which is of military importance, have either been destroyed or badly damaged. It is easy to see that there may have been ,a heavy loss of life, although the residential section was apparently untouched. Some of the ruined factories necessarily operate night and day, while men aro employed at night on the nhipping and docks. British shells, dropped from a height* of miles by tho high-angle fire of the British monitors, located at a point far; below the horizon, frequently fellr straight through the roof of a shed or; factory, blowing out great sections of the sides and roof, and hurling a shrap- ;i nel-like ehower of splintered wood, steel;., and rock into the adjacent buildings,