The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-05-05
HURL SHELLS 23 MILES
GERMAN BIG GUNS HIT DLAMlDE
FROM POSITIONS AFiR.
French at First Thought Teutonic
Fleet Had Attacked Town-Shells
Hurtle Over Trenches of Armies.

London reports: Two war sensa-
tions excited London Friday. The
first, due to a misunderstanding Of a
French official report, was caused by
the news that the German -eet was
out, having come down almost to the
Straits of Dover and bombarded the
town Of Dunkirk. This was speedily
corrected, only to give place to an
other and in some respects greater
sensation, for both British and Ger
man official statement agreed that
Dunkirk had been bombarded by ar
tilelry from land.
All official reports in the posses
sion OF the British public put Dun
kirk, which has long been the princi-
pal British advanced base, at least
fifteen miles back of the firing line,
at the nearest point held by the Ger
mans. Consequently two theories
are being hotly agitated by the peo-
pie. The first and most generally
credited is that the unwelcome news
of a further advance by the Germans,
putting Dunkirk within range of the
42-centimetre howitZers, may soon be
expected.
The other theory has no better
basis than the many reports from
Germany that the Krupp works were
busy manufacturing guns Of .55 cen
timeter, or 2l-inch, caGbre. designed
to mount on the heights near Calais
when the Germans succeeded in
mreaking through-and command
the Straits Of Dover. These guns
would have a range OF twenty-one
mills, and the theory is that some OF
them have been completed, brought
up to. the firing line, and fred at Dun
kirk for experimental purposes.
The fact remains, whichever the
ory accounts for it, that nineteen
shells of enormous calibre fell into
Dunkirk to-day, and that twenty per-
sons were killed and forty-fve in1ur-
ed by them.
FoIkestone, England. reports:
Reugees arriving from Dunkirk re-
port that six shells from the German
17-inch guns fell in Dunkirk at inter
walls of ten minutes. Considerable
damage was done to the town. The
women and children of Dunkirk are
leaving in large numbers.
London reports: The bombardment
of Dunkirk, which was repeated Sat-
urday and which has resulted IN con-
siderable loss of life, has caused
many women and children to leave
the town. The Germans can repeat
the bcmbardment wheneved they de-
sire with the big guns which former
" were posted on the coast to ward
off attacks from the allied fleet and
which have been moved toward Nieu-
port
Paris reports: Information receiv-
ed from a deserted is to the effect
that for about two months engineers
of the .,rupp gun works have been
directing in the suburbs Of Dixmude,
a sector where there has been DO
fighting, the installation of machine
gun capable of firing shell over a
very long range. It is this gun which
may have bombarded DunkiTk. The
gun is believed to have range OF
23.5 miles.
only nine shells were fred on the
second and last bombardment of the
French seaport. There is reason to
believe that the gun either has been
damaged by a method Of fire which
the most powerful pieces do not re-
sist a long time or that the continual
presenre of our aeroplanes has had
the effect of stopping its ire.