St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1915-12-15
UNDER ZEPPELIN RAID
Sergt. X. b. Jenckes Tells of Trying
Experience In Training Camp.

Sergt. X. b. Jenckes Tells OF Trying
Experience In Training Camp.
Following is an extract from a let
ter from Sergeant KEENAN, Brooks
Jenckes of the 9th Battery, Canadian
Field Artillery. now stationed in train
ing near Dover on the English coast.
His letter is dated Nov. 10, 1915. ana
is specially interesting as descriptive
of a recent Zeppelin air raid made on
his camp.
st got the enclosed clipping from
Jack, and he certainly put it pretty
plain, but nobody but those in our
camp, and the 5th Brigade, knows
what a Zeppelin raid really is, that
is among the Canadians,-of course
the London people have had the ex-
perience, but then guess few Of them
have been as close as we were.
1--WE were in our huts about eight
when, without warning lights OUT
sounded. There was considera BILE
hesitation as no one had their beds
made up in our hut, so everybody
started in to make them, when all of
a sudden there was an awful explosion.
in fact five in short succession, which
seemed but small distance away.
well, I didn't know whether to run
or what to do, but had sense enough
to get outside and lie down.
''All the time we could hear the
thing buzzing overhead. It's hard to
describe the sound but it's not like Oh
auto, nor an airship, it's more like a
high speed motor boat. Then we saw
a flame in the sky, and again five sue
cessive reports. and to tell you the
truth I thought it had struck our
camp sure, it broke some hundred ODD
panes of glass, so you can see it WAS
not very far away. I thought the
huts would fall but they held togeth-
er, tho the ground shook as If a
small earthquake, or rather a large
one was on. Then followed, / think.
the most miserable five minutes I ever
spent, that thing just seemed to hover
apparently over our heads, and tho
we couldn't see it we could hear it
very plainly. It's a hard feeling to
imagine, but you only have to exper-
fence it once to know what it is like,
and you never want to feel it again.
you hear people saying they wish
they had been in London, or some
where the raid was to experience it,
but none of our boys want to be in
one again, and 1 don't either, the feel
ing is one you never want to exper-
fence but once. You are so absolutely
helpless, with no gun or any means of
defence. absolutely at their mercy,
but if they ever come again they won't
get away without at least being shot
at, as the War Department have con-
cealed a number of air craft guns near
here.
I'VE had an alarm a few nights lat
er, and there was fall in later and
you can imagine how they took it, as
there was less than half the battery
on parade, the other half took to their
heels. We had to take all the horses
out of the stables and spend the rest
of the night in a big field freezing 10
death.
well, to go on, the first five bombs
hit square in the SIN Brigade, and TO
say the least it was an awful mess,
most of the horses that weren't hurt
or killed stampeded, and, WELL the
less said the better, as you know the
results.
Jim and I were up there till after
twelve picking up the boys and gen
orally helping out, and we were GER
tainly mighty thankful to be able to
go back to bed and know that our
boys and horses were all safe.
'"The next morning we found where
They strung out for a distance of
about 500 yards and just about rs to
100 yards to the right of us, so you
can see how close call we had. We
picked up pieces of shell all over the
camp, in fact, just in front of our hut
we picked up about Is pieces.
THE holes in the ground were about
Is to 20 feet in diameter and about
eight feet deep, and this was in hard
clay, so you can imagine the explosive
force they have.
Il would have told you this sooner
but didn't think it would get through
and it might worry mother, but this is
just what happened. and may give
you some idea of what they do
To-day we were inspected by Gen
eral Morrison, and some English Cen
eral, of which 1 haven't heard the re-
suits, except that they were entirely
satisfied with our showing, which is
enough to get out of those big fell
lows, so that very soon we may have
a chance to fire few live rounds.
Il see you are more than making
the shells these days. Well, good
work Well soon be firing them hope"