In a raid on April 28, 1915, upon Friedrichshafen, so often the mark of airmen, several airship sheds and a Zeppelin were damaged. A nearly simultaneous bombardment of Leopoldshoehe, Loerrach, and the station at Haltinge resulted in the destruction of train sheds and two locomotives. Forty-two members of the Landsturm were killed or wounded at Loerrach and two aeroplanes put out of commission, service being cut on the railway line. This was the official French version. Geneva gave a different and more vivid account. According to the Swiss, the French airmen visited Friedrichshafen twice within thirty-six hours, destroying five airships, setting fire to several buildings, and causing at least $1,000,000 damage. The report said that they returned by way of Metz, dropping arrows and bombs, and wrecking the station at Loerrach. The east coast of England was the victim of an air raid on April 30, 1915. Hostile aircraft were sighted over Ipswich, about sixty-five miles from London, shortly after midnight. The alarm was spread westward, whence the craft were bound. Five bombs fell upon Ipswich, but no one was killed. A few dwellings and commercial buildings were struck, fires starting which the local department soon controlled. Only a few minutes after the machines shelled Ipswich, they were seen to approach Bury St. Edmunds, fourteen miles to the northwest of Ipswich. Three bombs failed to produce casualties, but fires were started. Little damage resulted. On the first day of May, 1915, announcement was made in Paris that experiments conducted at Issy les Molineaux over several months had brought about successful tests in firing a three-inch gun from an aeroplane. This had never been accomplished before, and had seemed a well-nigh impossible task. An entirely new piece was developed, firing a shell of about the same size as the regular 75-millimeter field gun. It was made lighter by half, with an effective range of 2,500 meters, considerably less than the standard gun. French skill in designing weapons, always a trait of the race, was evidenced here. The heavy steel breechblock of the seventy-five was replaced by a wooden block. When fired the explosion of the powder charge automatically blew the wooden breechblock backward, thus neutralizing the shock. But owing to the open breech much of the powder's driving force was lost. Nothing to equal the new arm had there been up to that time. The wooden breechblock completely did away with the heavy hydraulic recoil cylinders which were one of the distinguishing features of the seventy-five. These cylinders were esteemed by many authorities to be the finest in the world, absorbing maximum shock with a minimum of effort.