My Diary in Serbia: April 1, 1915-Nov. 1, 1915Stanley, Monica M.
History
My Diary in Serbia: April 1, 1915-Nov. 1, 1915
Stanley, Monica M.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
This morning at 7 o'clock we had an air raid; six German aeroplanes
came over dropping thirty bombs on Kragujevatz. Most of the bombs
dropped near the arsenal and at the station; they tried to get the
magazine, but did not succeed. The bombs did little damage, but six
people were killed and several wounded. We brought one aeroplane
down; we saw quite plainly and the bombs seemed to drop right on the
aeroplane--a great blaze of fire we could see--and the aeroplane fell
to the ground only a few minutes' walk from this camp in the main
street, just near the cathedral. It came down quite gently, and as it
got to the ground there was a great crash; the men were both Germans;
they were smashed to pieces. I have taken two photographs; all the
woodwork was burnt away. I have several interesting pieces of the
aeroplane. The Germans had their diaries on them; these of course were
taken to the Government office. An officer was killed at the arsenal,
so they had a military funeral for him this afternoon. The other
portion of our unit may go to the front any time now; they are only
waiting for orders.
Friday, _October 1, 1915._
This morning at 6.45 we had another air raid. We soon cleared the camp
of the patients. Three aeroplanes came over in all, and dropped about
fifteen bombs on Kragujevatz. Five fell in the arsenal, but little
damage was done; several fell round about the station. Several of the
station men got into a truck for shelter. One shell fell just outside
smashing up the pavement along the line. A piece of the shell went
through the truck; no one was injured, and it was given to me
afterwards. The air raid lasted about one hour. When all was over Dr.
May and Dr. Berry asked me to take them to see the aircraft guns.
These were about seven minutes' walk from the camp on the top of a
hill; two of the Serbian camps were also near by. I knew several of
the officers at the camp. On arriving we were met by some of them;
they took us round and showed us the guns and the shells, explaining
and describing all about them. There are three very large guns, and
these took the 12 inch shells; they were of French make, and two
smaller ones which were captured from the Turks in the last war.
We had only been up on the firing ground about five minutes when the
signal was given that enemy aeroplanes were sighted. All men were at
their posts in a second, and it was splendid to see the order and
discipline.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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