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.