The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-06-18
ZEPPELIN IS HIT.
 BY DEFENSE GUN; FILLED BY FLYER
Airship Raider Brought Down After Desperate Efforts
 to Escape.

&SOA4NO1A, JuA0 IO"L Wo pOI SoAAS were killed and 1S injured in Satur- day nights air raid. during which a Zeppelin was brought down. This official report of the raid was given out today:
 'The air raid was carried cut by two enemy airships. One airship crossed the Kentish coast at about a. m. and dropped six bombs on a coast town. According to the latest police reports, two persons were killed, 16 were injured and large number of houses were damaged.
 The second raider attacked the east coast town of West Anglia at about 2:30 a. m. She was heavily shelled by the guns of the anti-air- craft defense and driven off. It Is probable she was damaged by gunfire. Shortly afterward this raider, after dropping a number of bombs in open places, was engaged and brought down by a pilot of the Royal Flying Corps. The airship was destroyed. There were no casualties or damages in West Anglia"
 A dispatch from an east coast town says that thousands of persons wit messed the destruction of the Zeppe- lin. The attack by anti-aircraft guns on the dirigible lasted fully half an hour, and people ran from their houses half dressed to watch the fight When the black object, drift ing across the sky from the south- east to the northwest, was seen to burst into flames the spectators cheer ed tumultuously. Cyclists and many persons on foot dashed off in the dir ection of the fallen airship, but ow- ing to the unexpectedly long distance few succeeded in locating the Zeppe- lin, which fell a. few miles from the
 coast. It had been first winged by a land gun ,and was then finished by an airplane, which the Zeppelin fought to the last with her guns. The dirigible dropped in a field oi corn, far from any hab1tat1on, anc was entirely destroyed. All of the crew were killed and their bodies bad; ly charred. Some of the men ap'
 peared to have jumped from the air ship. Doctors hurried to the spot but their services were needless.
 l The British airrnan who attacked the Zeppelin descended near by un. hurt. According to the story of an in- spector who witnessed the affair searchltghts enabled him to fellow the
 movements of the Zeppelin and the attacking airman. The Zeppelic twisted and turnad in an attempt tc escape or beat off the airplane. and | the machine-gun fire of the diriglblf was heard distinctly. Presently an, other airInan came upon the scene and the Zeppelin continNed to zigzas l in an enIdeavor to head out to seq But the first airman held to his quarry and within a few minutes the ent came, zt-4
 | IA Southeast Coast Town, England Hume 18.-This town suffered mos from yesterday mornings visit O Herman air raiders Two Zeppelin,
 appeared over it shortly after tw,
 o'clock. Their presence was mad
 known through the hum of their en zines, and soon afterward by tn dropping of Bombs, which exploded il
 various parts of the town, brdngi1g majority of the populace into tn Iatreets in their might clothes. I Aerial torpedoes were dropped, bu the vaiders also employed high explo
 sive and incenddary bombs, whic tcaused a number of fires. A nurnbe of houses were reduced to ruins.
 Il was only a few moments after tn Il bombing that the people had thei ifrst glimpse of one of the raiders a lit turned seaward, evidently trying t tget home. It burst into flames whic
 lit up the black sky for miles. Eye-witnesses say they first saw ltiny, snake llike flame creep along tn , top of the Zeppelin, but that mo
 rnent later the entire airship was
 mass of flames. The airship remaine stationary g. few seconds and the Isomething gave way in the middle, a it's back was broken, and then it ar i peared to double up like a jack kndf and descend rapidly to the tarth.