The Benson signal., 1916-11-04

New York.-So vast has been the ex-
tent and so rapid the progress of the
European war that public which sees
in the papers the news of greater
things than the world has seen in
centuries has little attention for the
minor incidents. Behind the great
campaigns and the national movements
and sentiments which make up the
bulk of the war news there is whole
wilderness of dramatic and picturesque
and mysterious happenings, which pass
by unremarked in the rush OF larger
things simply because the mind can
not follow them all.
Yet there is much reason to think
that the literature and the legends or
the war will hundred years from now
cluster for the most part around Incl
dents of which little has been heard
as yet, and that little forgotten. Many
things which have been passed over
by governments and press and people
with the barest notice, because more
immediate things were occupying the
attention, will be taken up later by stu
dents and found to possess all the
qualities that make for stories and
dramas and legends-and it is to be
feared that by the time students get
down to the minutiae Of the war,
legends will have all but crowded out
the truth on everything except the ma
jor events, and good many Of those.
Besides these incidents, there are
other matters the entire truth about
which is known to one or more chan
cellories or war ministries, but has so
far been kept secret by the censorship,
for fear of exciting popular turmoil.
And there is still a third class Of in
cidents that have never been adequate
ly explained-the truth about which is
perhaps known to no one and for
which perhaps no explanation ever
will come to light.
First AeropIane Raid.
In this latter class is what was re-
garded as the first aeroplane raid of
the war. On August 2, 1914, the day
after Germany's declaration of war on
Russia, but before war had been de-
clared or hOstilities commenced be-
tween Germany and France-the news
came from Berlin that a French aero
plane had dropped bombs on Nurn-
berg. Now, aerial warfare was still
novelty at that time-the ItalO-
Turkish war and the Balkan conflicts
had seen the barest beginning of bomb
dropping and air-scOuting, and the
news Of this raid on a Bavarian city
aroused considerable interest. But
there was so much news from every
where in those first days that it got
only few lines, with no detailed ex-
planatiOn except that the machine had
appeared, dropped bombs, which did no
damage, and had been driven off by
tions of war right and left, the inva-
sion of Belgium, fighting before Liege;
and the air attack on Nurnberg was
no longer a matter of interest.
The recollection Of it persisted in
Germany. 1t became part of the his
tory of the first week of the war; so
there was some surprise when Ger
man semiofficial sources, in passing
reference to the incident months later,
called it Russian aerOplane. Evi-
dently the Germans themselves didn't
know where the mysterious f1ier came
from. Now, the point of all this lies
in the location of Nurnberg-in north
ern Bavaria, some 200 miles from the
nearest point of the French frontier
and nearly twice as far from the bOr-
der of Russian Poland. Flights of
greater length than this have been
made during the war; to. attack
Nurnberg from either Verdun or
Warsaw was not a physical impossi-
bility. But why Nurnberg? 1t was
the only city attacked; the next day
French f1ier was shot down near the
German-Dutch frontier, west of Co
lOgne, but there were no more raids
into Germany for more than year.
And Nurnberg, this city far in the in
terror, is known principally for the
beauties of it's medieval streets. 1t
is no military center of Importance
or was not before the war.
Between Nurnberg and the French
frontier, or Nurnberg and the Russian
frontier, lie railroad centers, mObili-
zation depOts, munitiOn arsenals, base
fortresses innumerable; why should
single aeroplane pass all these by and
fly to the very center of Germany to
drop bombs on monuments of art?
Even the Germans had not begun to de-
Btroy historic monuments in those days
So strange did the incident appear
that British and French authorities
have been inclined to accuse the Ger
mans of deliberately inventing the
whole thing to arouse feeling against
France. But apparently many per-
sons saw bombs dropped, and the Ger
mans would hardly have gone so far
as this to build up fictitious story.
SO the worlds first aeroplane raid is
still mystery, and perhaps it will
never be known who was the solitary
a. l,o