Part 20

The raid of March 11 was preceded on March 8 by an almost equally formidable attack on Paris, the casualties being 13 killed and 50 injured. One of the raiding machines, an airplane of the Gotha type, was found in the Forest of Compiègne, where it had fallen while returning from the raid. All four of its occupants were killed. They included Captain Fritz Eckstein, the commander of the raiding squadrons, and an officer of the Kaiser's White Cuirassiers from Potsdam. Three other machines were brought down. Altogether, fifteen trained aviators, mechanics, and pilots were either killed or made prisoner.

BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH

Bombardment in 1917 played a more and more important part in aerial operations. The Germans had for some time expended their principal efforts upon aviation on the battlefield; besides, up to 1916 they were averse to night flying. But by the beginning of 1918 they had brought into existence a system of aerial bombardment supplied with powerful machines, and had developed an increasing series of attacks on the French troops, on the camps at the rear, and, alas! on the cities of France. Nancy and Dunkirk are sad examples of their work.

The German squadrons known as Kampfgeschwader, furnished with special trains that transport them to any desired point and placed under the direct authority of the Quartermaster General, make use of great triplanes armed with machine guns and supplied with automatic bomb throwers; the Gothas, which, with their two Mercedes motors of 260 horse power each, can carry 1,200 pounds of explosives and gasoline for five hours, and the Friedrichshafens, whose two Benz motors of 225 horse power each can carry enough gasoline for four hours and twelve bombs totaling half a ton in weight.

It was with these machines--employed in mass formation--that the Germans attempted their great bombing operations in the Autumn of 1917, notably the expedition in November, when in a single night seven groups of airplanes made successive attacks on English cities; also the raid of Dec. 19 on London, when twenty machines took part in the attack on London and caused serious damage, including the work of an incendiary bomb that set fire to a factory and burned it to the ground. It is with these machines which they are still improving, and which they are multiplying by the bold creation of series, that the Germans have vainly sought to hold command of the air during their offensive in Picardy.

The example and threat of the enemy had their effect in France. The French bombarding groups, which, born at the end of 1914, had in 1915 achieved famous flights into the heart of Germany, were compelled, with the advent of aerial combats, to renounce daylight operations, as these had become impossible or too uncertain for their slow and heavy machines, insufficiently armed, and had turned their attention to perilous night expeditions. But, despite successful raids and effective destruction, the French bombing operations remained more or less unsatisfactory.

In the course of 1917 the use of the flying squadrons was finally adapted to the diverse needs of the battle front. In the French offensive at Verdun, while tactical aviation guided the waves of assault, regulated the artillery fire, and furnished information to the General Staff, while the swift airplane chasers, by a vigilant barrage, prevented all observation by enemy machines, the bombarding groups daily took part also in the action by hurling flames and destruction on railway stations, munition depots, storehouses at the rear, and sowing panic among the troops that were preparing to attack.

Equipped at length with machines that combined the indispensable characteristics of speed, power, and armament, enabling them to hold the air in daytime, the French bombardiers attacked arsenals in the interior of Germany, and the British war dispatches of Dec. 25 mentioned a daylight raid of allied air squadrons upon Mannheim, where several fires followed, with heavy explosions at the central railway station and in the factories.

The night groups, which had long made their raids only by moonlight, at length grew accustomed to flying in complete darkness. They multiplied their expeditions against enemy cantonments, railways, aviation fields, factories, and military and industrial centres. The task that remained at the opening of the Spring of 1918 was the fuller co-ordination of the groups of bombardiers.

By that time the French had an excellent daylight airplane as well as successful night machines, and announced the early completion of still better ones. Their projectiles were not inferior to those of the Germans, and their supply was up to the demand. Thus they faced the German offensive fully equipped to hold their own so far as air supremacy was concerned.

RAIDS ON LONDON

London, as well as Paris, received frequent visits from enemy airplanes in February and March, 1918. On the three successive nights of Feb. 16, 17, and 18 German raiders attacked the British metropolis. Twenty-seven persons were killed and forty-one were injured. Many of the German machines failed to reach the city owing to the great improvement which had been effected in the aerial defenses both on the coast and around London itself. Both the anti-aircraft guns and the airmen helped to diminish the casualties. The third night's raid resulted in an entire absence of both casualties and damage to property.

Seven or eight German airplanes made a raid over England on the night of March 7. Two of them reached London and dropped bombs in various districts. Eleven persons were killed and forty-six injured in the metropolitan area. In addition a certain amount of damage was done to dwellings and some people buried under the wreckage.

Zeppelins were again employed by the Germans in a raid on the east coast of England on March 12. One of them dropped bombs on Hull, while the two others wandered for some hours over remote country districts at great altitudes, unloading their bombs in open country before proceeding out to sea again. This was the first Zeppelin raid on England since Oct. 19, 1917. The Germans had sustained such heavy losses in Zeppelins that they had substituted airplanes. [An account of the fate of the Zeppelins is included elsewhere in this issue.]

BRITISH REPRISALS

Reprisals by British aviators have been frequent and drastic. The British Air Ministry, in one of the detailed statements which it issues from time to time, presented the following list of raids into Germany from Dec. 1, 1917, and Feb. 19, 1918, a period of eleven weeks:

Date. Wt. of 1917. b'mbs Dec. Objective. Locality. Population. in lbs. 5 Rly. sidings. Zweibrucken. 14,700 1,344 5 Works [B]Burbach 1,096 6 Works [B]Burbach 2,216 11 Boot factory Pirmasens 34,000 1,594 24 Factories Mannheim 290,000 2,252 1918. Jan. 3-4 Railways Nr. Metz 100,000 760 4-5 Railways Nr. Metz 100,000 2,940 5-6 Town [A]Courcelles 1,344 5-6 Town & rlys. [A]Conflans 2,180 14 Munition factory & rlys. Karlsruhe 140,000 2,800 14-15 Steelworks Thionville 13,000 2,105 14-15 Railways Metz 100,000 524 14-15 Railways [A]Eringen 280 16-17 Railways Benadorf 280 16-17 Town Ormy 255 16-17 Searchlight Vigny 26 21-22 Steelworks Thionville 13,000 1,220 21-22 Rly. sidings Bensdorf 2,210 " Rly. junction Arnaville 1,344 24-25 Steelworks, rlys. and barracks. Thionville 13,000 1,120 " Treves 48,000 809 24-25 Railway Oberbilig 280 24-25 Factory Mannheim 290,000 672 24-25 Railway Saarburg 9,800 280 24-25 Steelworks Thionville 13,000 1,344 25 Barracks and station Treves 48,000 1,350 27 Barracks and station Treves 48,000 230 Feb. 9-10 Railway [A]Courcelles 1,844 12 Town Offenburg 15,400 2,838 16-17 Rly. station [A]Conflans 1,488 17-18 Rly. sidings [A]Conflans 2,240 18 Steelworks Thionville 13,000 936 18 Barracks and station Treves 48,000 1,250 18-19 Barracks and station Treves 48,000 2,206 18-19 Rly. and gas works Thionville 13,000 650 19 Station Treves 48,000 2,400

A See Metz. B See Saarbrucken.

James I. Macpherson, Parliamentary Secretary of the War Office, stated in the House of Commons on March 19 that British airmen had made 255 flights into German territory since October, 1917. The 255 flights constituted 38 raids, and only 10 machines were lost. The aviators dropped 48 tons of bombs.

According to a dispatch from The Hague dated April 3, the damage caused by raids in the Rhenish cities was much more extensive than had been admitted. Places where bombs actually fell were described as "unrecognizable." Of the bombs dropped at Coblenz in the most recent raid, eight did considerable damage. One fell upon a station, one fell amid a company of soldiers going to get food, and others practically destroyed half of the barracks where French prisoners were confined in 1870. In Cologne a branch factory of the Baden Aniline Works was partly destroyed and a number of people were killed and wounded. Great damage also was done at Mainz. It was also reported that much damage was done at Düsseldorf. After the raids the authorities made every effort to clear up the wreckage as rapidly as possible, and the town was made to resume normal life immediately.

In connection with military operations on the western front, official reports showed that the Allies had gained great successes in destroying enemy airplanes. The enemy losses in January, 1918, were 292; in February, 273, and in the first seventeen days of March 278. For the week ended March 17 the British Royal Flying Corps alone destroyed 99 German airplanes and drove down 42, losing 23 of its own machines.

One of the most surprising air raids was that of March 11 on Naples, in Southern Italy, far from enemy lines, when a dirigible dropped bombs on the city. Private houses, asylums, and churches were damaged or destroyed and 16 persons killed and 40 injured.

Among the most savage attacks on Paris by aircraft was that in the night of April 12, when two hostile machines got through the anti-aircraft barrage and succeeded in killing 26 persons and injuring 72. One of the torpedoes burst a gas main in the street where it fell, but firemen promptly extinguished the fire that ensued. The American Red Cross was first on the scene of the explosion, and in a very short time had the victims safely removed to a hospital.

The Tale of Zeppelin Disasters

What has become of the German airship fleet initiated by the late Count Zeppelin is now known to the Intelligence Department of the French Army, which has given out a complete list of the 100 or more dirigibles constructed since the first one was launched over Lake Constance.

Up to August, 1914, the total of Zeppelin airships built numbered twenty-five, while since the war the two great works at Friedrichshafen and Staaken have produced between seventy-five and eighty. As the mean period for the building of a Zeppelin is known with certainty to be two months, there must always have been four new airships on the stocks at the same time.

Most of the Zeppelins launched into the air before the war came to grief, thus leaving in the service of the German Army and Navy a fleet of less than a dozen when fighting began. Since then nearly all the dirigibles, old and new, have been handed over to the German Navy, which has used them for many kinds of work, such as bombing expeditions, protection of mine layers and small torpedo boats at sea, chasing submarines, searching for mine fields, and, last and most important, reconnoitring for the High Seas Fleet.

Disaster has attended the flight of an overwhelming majority of these air monsters, no fewer than thirty of which are known to have been destroyed in one way or another, as is shown by the following list:

L-1--Destroyed just before the war, when it fell in the North Sea near Heligoland.

L-2--Burned at Buhlsbuettel just before the war.

L-3--Descended at Famoe in Denmark at beginning of the war, and was burned by its crew.

L-4--Descended at Blaavands Huk, Denmark, at beginning of the war, and was burned by its crew.

L-5--Brought down on the Belgian front in 1915; part of crew saved.

L-6--Burned at Buhlsbuettel in its hangar in September, 1916.

L-7--Brought down by British destroyers off Portland, crew being drowned, in 1915.

L-8--Brought down by machine guns in Belgium, part of crew being killed, in 1915.

L-9--Burned at Buhlfriettel in its hangar at same time as L-6.

L-10--Struck by lightning near Cuxhaven during its initial flights, and lost with its crew.

L-12--Destroyed at Ostend in 1915 when returning from a raid on England.

L-15--Brought down in the Thames, England, in 1916.

L-16--Destroyed on Oct. 19, 1917.

L-18--Burned in a hangar at Tondern in 1916.

L-19--Fell in the Baltic while returning from a raid on England.

L-22--Burned accidentally while coming out of its hangar at Tondern.

L-23--Fell on the English coast.

L-25--Destroyed while being employed as a training balloon at Wildpark.

L-31--Fell in London in 1916.

L-32--Brought down in London in 1916, (Sept. 23-24.)

L-33--Brought down in England, Sept. 23, 1916, and crew interned.

L-35--Brought down in England.

L-39--Brought down at Compiègne, France, March, 1917.

L-40--Fell in the woods near Emden.

L-43--Brought down in July, 1917, at Terscheling.

L-44--Brought down afire at Saint-Clement, Oct. 20, 1917.

L-45--Brought down and burned at Silteron, Oct. 20, 1917.

L-48--Brought down in England, June, 1917.

L-49--Brought down at Bourbonne-les-Bains, Oct. 20, 1917.

L-50--Fell at Dommartin, Oct. 20, 1917.

L-57--Broke up on its first voyage.

The last named is the highest number believed to have been in the service. Missing numbers in the list given above are accounted for as follows:

L-11--Put out of service in 1917 and believed to be in shed at Hage.

L-13--In the shed at Hage since May, 1917.

L-14--School airship at Northolz.

L-17--Believed to have been destroyed at sea.

L-20--Dismantled.

L-21--Dismantled; believed burned at Tondern.

L-24--Dismantled.

L-26--Planned, but never constructed.

L-27, L-28, L-29, and L-30--Planned, but never constructed.

L-34--Believed destroyed off England.

L-37--Attached to Baltic squadron, but believed destroyed.

L-38--Whereabout unknown.

L-41, L-42, L-46, L-47, L-51, L-52, L-53, L-54, L-55, and L-56--In service in the North Sea.

No information is obtainable as to the fate of the remainder of the Zeppelins, nor as to whether their construction was ever completed, but the few other types of dirigible airships used by the Germans have not been better served by fate than their more renowned sisters.

The Schuette-Lanz dirigible is something like a Zeppelin, but with a framework of bamboo instead of aluminium. There have been eight of these in use since the beginning of the war, and their fate or present condition is shown in the following list:

S L-3--Long since out of service.

S L-4--Struck by lightning in the Baltic.

S L-6--Believed to have fallen into the Baltic.

S L-8--In service in the Baltic.

S L-9--Burned at Stolp.

S L-14--In service in the Baltic.

S L-16--Believed to be still in service.

S L-20--In service.

There was also one Gross semi-rigid dirigible, which was put out of service at the end of February, 1915, and three Parseval non-rigid airships, one of which was destroyed in Russia, the second used as a schoolship, and the third understood to be still in service.

Paris Bombarded by Long-Range Guns

The Disaster on Good Friday

Paris, though accustomed to the perils of German air raids, was amazed on the morning of March 23, 1918, to find itself bombarded by one or more guns of unprecedented range, which were dropping 9-inch shells into the city and its suburbs at intervals of twenty minutes. The nearest German line was more than sixty-two miles away, and the possibility of artillery bombardment at such a range was at first doubted in all the allied countries, but by the following day the fact was established that the shells were actually coming from the region of the Forest of St. Gobain, seven miles back of the French trenches near Laon, and about seventy-five miles from Paris. The French artillery at the front at once took measures to locate and destroy the guns, but without immediate results.

The first day's casualties from the long-distance shells were stated to be ten killed and fifteen wounded. The second day, which was Palm Sunday, was ushered in by loud explosions from the new missiles, but by church time the Parisians had already discounted the new sensation and thronged the streets on their way to the churches. The women who sell palm leaves on that day did their usual thriving business. During the early morning hours the street traffic was partly suspended, but by noon both the subway and the tramway cars were running again.

The shells were found to be doing comparatively little damage in proportion to their size. The municipal authorities announced on the second day that the German bombardment should not be allowed to interrupt the normal life of the city, and that the people would be warned by special signals, differing from those for air raids, and consisting of the beating of drums and blowing of whistles by the policemen. On Monday, when the police began to use the new system of alarm, they were the object of much good-natured chaffing on account of their awkwardness with the drumsticks.

Twenty-four shells reached Paris the first day, twenty-seven the second, fewer the third, and thus the bombardment went on daily, with occasional casualties and little effect on the habitual life of the city. The famous palace of the Tuileries was damaged by one of the shells, and other public buildings were struck. The damage was largely confined to the Montmartre district, the amusement centre of Paris, and nearly all the shells fell within a section about a mile square, indicating that the gun was immovable. One shell dropped in front of the Gare de l'Oest, a railway terminal, killing six men.

The casualties, however, were comparatively few until March 29, when a shell struck the Church of St. Gervais at the hour of the Good Friday service, killing seventy-five persons and wounding ninety, some of whom died later. Fifty-four of those killed were women, five being Americans. The shell had struck the church in such a way as to cause a portion of it to collapse and fall upon the worshippers at the moment of the elevation of the Host.

PROTEST FROM THE POPE

The intense indignation of all France at this new outrage on noncombatants was voiced at once through the press and in speeches in the Chamber of Deputies. The authorities of the Catholic Church were deeply stirred, and Pope Benedict sent a protest to Berlin against the bombardment of Paris, and especially against the destruction of churches and the wholesale massacre of civilians. Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of Paris, arriving at the scene of the catastrophe a few moments after the explosion, expressed the general feeling when he exclaimed: "The beasts! To have chosen the day of our Lord's death for committing such a crime!" The Vatican sent Cardinal Amette the following dispatch:

The Holy Father, deploring the fact that the bloody conflict, which already has caused everywhere so much suffering, has again, on the very day of the Saviour's Passion, found more innocent victims, who are still dearer to his heart owing to their faith and piety, expresses his deepest sympathy. He sends the apostolic blessing to all the faithful in Paris, and desires to know if it is necessary to send material aid to the families in mourning.

The Cardinal also received the following letter from Grand Rabbi Israel Levi on behalf of those of the Jewish faith:

Your Eminence, I am the interpreter of the feelings of all my French co-religionists in saying that I share in the mourning which has come to so many families devastated by sacrilegious barbarism. We are one in pious indignation at the crime, which seems to have been intended as an insult to what humanity holds most sacred.

Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, voiced the sentiments of New York Catholics in this message to the Archbishop of Paris:

Shocked by the brutal killing of innocent victims gathered at religious services to commemorate the passing of our blessed Saviour on Good Friday, the Catholics of New York join your noble protest against this outrage of the sanctuary on such a day and at such an hour and, expressing their sympathy to the bereaved relatives of the dead and injured, pledge their unfaltering allegiance in support of the common cause that unites our two great republics. May God bless the brave officers and men of the allied armies in their splendid defense of liberty and justice!

Among those killed in this disaster was H. Stroehlin, Secretary of the Swiss Legation. The German Foreign Office later made an indirect expression of regret to Switzerland for this act, but sought to justify the bombardment on the ground that Paris is a fortress. The Kaiser sent a special note of congratulation to the managers of the Krupp works regarding the success of the weapon.

AMBASSADOR SHARP'S REPORT

William G. Sharp, the American Ambassador to France, visited the wrecked church shortly after the disaster and sent a detailed report to Secretary Lansing at Washington. The State Department, on April 3, issued the following:

The Secretary of State has received from Ambassador Sharp in Paris a graphic report of his visit to the scene of the horrible tragedy which occurred on the afternoon of Good Friday in a church by the explosion of a German shell projected from far back of the enemy lines a distance of more than seventy miles. The appalling destruction wrought by this shell is, as the Ambassador remarked, probably not equaled by any single discharge of any hostile gun in the cruelty and horrors of its results.

In no other one spot in Paris, even where poverty had gathered on that holy day to worship, could destruction of life have been so great. Nearly a hundred mangled corpses lying in the morgues, with almost as many seriously wounded, attested to the measure of the toll exacted. Far up to the high, vaulted arches, between the flying buttresses well to the front of the church, is a great gap in the wall, from which fell upon the heads of the devoted worshippers many tons of solid masonry. It was this that caused such a great loss of life.