The sun., 1916-02-03
Speciai Cobn Despatch to Tur suS.

Monday nights Zeppelin RAID, denying
the accuracy of the Berlin official state
ment on the raid. and giving the revised
casualty total az SO killed and 1Oi in
jured. Yesterdays statement said 50
were killed and 81 wounded.
The German official statement. the
war Ofhce declares. shows that the
raiders were unable to ascertain their
position or to shape their course with
any certainty. IL was in this statement
that bombs were reported to have been
dropped on Liverpool. Birkenhead and
Manchester. none Of which was men
toned as having been approached in the
British report
The damage is declared to be very
slight and none OF 1t OF military inn
portance
The statement follows:
The Berlin official account of Mon
days air raid is inaccurate. II is
proof that the raiders were unable to
ascertain their position or shape their
course with any degree of certainty.
The revised casualty figures of the
raid show 80 men. 20 women and
children killed and 81 men. iS women
and children injured. a total of 100.
A Congregational chapel was badly
damaged and the parish room
wrecked. Fourteen houses were de-
molished and great number dam
aged. In two places railway prop
erty was damaged and two factories,
neither OF military Importance. and a
brewery were badly damaged. There
was slight damage to two or three
factories.
The number of bombs dropped was
discovered to he over 900. Many OF
these fell in rural places, causing no
damage
The newspapers we're allowed to-day
to print some details about the Latest
raid. The press reports support the Of
iicial contention that the raiders were
often ignorant Of their wherea bouts
Some of the inland towns which had re-
garded themselves immune from ai'
raids experienced rough disilusion-
ment.
The Daily Mai says that in one town
five raiders were seen passing inland he
tween 4: 30 and o'clock in the evening
flying few miles apart. The last one
Was dying low and calmly took its beaS'
ings. 1t Is stated that II was impos-
sible to distinguish the occupants OF the
air cruisers About an hour after thess
Ave machines had gone inland abou,
thirty detonations were heard.
At 3 o'clock in the morning. accordins
to the Datiy Mails account. Zeppelins
"VAt 'ul S'hN'lhs Wv
of them flew eastward as late as
O'Clock.
Places in the midland counties had the
greatest surprise of their lives. Ninety.
nine persons out of hundred would
have prior to the raid, scorned the sug-
gestion OF Zeppelin attack.
Killed at Religious service.
The Zeppelins. with the speed and
Of ral fi
travel backward and forward over one
town, dropping bombs all the time. At
least nineteen explosions were hea I'd a,
a mission room, where a woman was
conducting service. attended by 200
women and girls, an explosive bomb was
dropped. Fragments went through til.
window and struck a woman mission
worker on the head. killing her instantly.
She was struck while she was reading
from the Bible.
Two clergymen at this woman's side
were injured. but not very seriously. The
sister of well known government Of
fcial was struck on the head and Killed.
Her sister vas also struck on the head,
but not fatally injured The gable oC
the mission room sas broken and the
vicaraSe windows we're all smashed. The
interior OF an adjacent church was
partly wrecked. Another bomb was
dropped beside a billiard room and pub
lie house. The wall OF the building was
smashed and a man was killed in the
act of cuing a billiard ball
In one portion Of the town ten houses
were wrecked and In another three per-
opns were killed. A young woman was
buried and protected somewhat under a
beam which the rescuers sawed through.
She Was released. but her limbs had been
h1Hly crushed Two children
were found beneath her.
In one place in Staffordshire bomb
hit the roof of house and killed the
grandfather, grandmother. married
daughter and two children Of one
family Altogether thirteen we're killed
and thirty hurt in this town. The raider
went away to the northeast, but re-
turned some hours later. dropping thirty
more bombs. this time hurting no one
and dong little damage. One aerial tor
pedo was found and bombs weighing l6S
pounds.
Warning signals Obryed.
At another town the Zcppelins were
much handicapped by the fog and the
obscured lights. The consensus Of opin-
ion is that such successes as were scored
by the raiders were due to exceptions tC
the foregoing conditions OF which III,
ISHIIs N''N iuIi htN ie III
official warning that the raiders were
expected came at o'clock. when the
public was notified 10y "A chorus Of hoot-
ers and buzzers.
The hint was promptly olnyed by
,xtlnguishlng the lights in the work
shops and streets, shops and houses. A
s O'Clock a series OF explosions oc-
CURED east of the town row of
workmcn's cottages, Offices and a ChurCt
were hit. Fifteen minutes later "A Zep'
pclin passed over the town, but thanks
10 the fog and the darkened buildings
and thorouShfares not a bomb was
dropped.
The Zeppelin went west. where later
detonatl ions resounded. A large estab-
lishment owned by a Arm bearing a vel
known name was greatly damaged
though 1t had nothing to do with muni-
tiuns. For an hour and half eXplo'
sions were heard at a distance Of twelve
and twenty miles from the town.
by 10 o'clock the danger seemed over
and the people began To 60 to bed
Official precautions. however, were not
relaxed until midnight. A good many
factories had resumed their activity ano
one end OF the town was almost as light
as usual. Whether this attracted tho
attention of some stray Zeppelin Is not
known hut AT l2:lO o'clock the tbwr