The Story of the Great War, Volume 3: History of the European War from Official Sources
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume 3: History of the European War from Official Sources
World War, 1914-1918
Aviators of the Allies, too, were busy. One of their aerial squadrons
proceeded along the coast on March 16 and attacked the military posts
at Ostend and Knocke. These aviators had as one of their main
objective points the German coast batteries at the latter place. But
the squadron was seen from a German observation balloon at Zeebrugge,
and a flock of "Taubes" made a dash for their enemy's craft. The
Germans were not as skillful airmen, however, and they found it
necessary to retire. Five British aviators made an attack on the
German submarine base at Hoboken, southwest of Antwerp, and destroyed
a submarine and wrecked two others. This raid was made without injury
to the aviators, the only accident being the necessity of one of the
aircraft to descend, which it did, only to find it had landed on Dutch
territory and must be interned. The excellence of the Allies' flying
was not confined to the English. Belgian and French airmen, as well as
British, flew almost constantly over Ostend, Zeebrugge, Roulers,
Aubers, and such other places as German soldiers and their supplies
were in evidence. The Belgian airmen dropped bombs on the aviation
field at Ghistelles on March 27, and on the following day a Zeppelin
hangar was destroyed at Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, near Brussels. On March
30, 1915, ten British and some French aviators flew along the coast
from Nieuport to Zeebrugge and dropped bombs on magazines and
submarine bases. The last day of the month saw the destruction of the
German captive balloon at Zeebrugge and the death of its two
observers. The Belgian aviators on the same day threw bombs on the
aviation field at Handzaeme and the railroad junction at Cortemarck,
and, south of Dixmude, the famous birdman, Garros, fought a successful
duel in the air with a German aviator.
An aviator of the Allies flew over the aerodrome at Lille on April 1,
1915, and dropped a football. The Germans hastened to cover. When the
ball bounced prodigiously as a result of being dropped from such a
height, the Teutons thought it was some new kind of death dealer, and
remained in their places of safety. In fact, they remained there quite
a few minutes after the football had ceased to bounce. When they
finally emerged most cautiously and approached the object of their
terror, they read this inscription on it: "April Fool--Gott strafe
England."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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