The Washington herald., 1918-07-23
u. S. FLIERS JOIN BRITISH *
BOMBING ZEEBRUGGE >.
+ AND OTHER BASES NEAR

British Front, July 27.-Half a dozen
American naval officers are tenn
jorarily working with the British air
squadron in Flanders which special
ICES in bombing Zeebrugge, Ostend
and Bruges.
So far these Americans have not
participated in any Of the night raids
on the U-boat lairs, but they have
been up during the day in the giant
Handley-Paige machines which carry
enough explosives to blow a small
town completely of the map.
The American have sat in as pilots
on the huge biplanes; they have
handled the various machine guns on
board-and the Handley-Paige fairly
bristles with Lewis guns--and they
have practiced bomb dropping, not
with real projectiles. however, merely
with dummies until they become more
accurate in releasing the deadly
missiles.
Elite Squadron Used.
the royal air forces which has been
granted the coveted assignment of
] peppering Zeebrugge mole and the
heAAO AOOAg OSlCAHo CLAdHncA anu InC OdS-
/ in and the Bruges canals and dry
docks, continually since the British
! navy plugged the two entrances to
| the North Sea some weeks ago. The
raidiEg airplanes go out by night
and undo all the work that the pa
| tient Boches have accomplished dur
ing. the day toward reopening their
blocked exits to the sea.
| The hlo
fourteen large high speed destroy
ers which were trapped in the Bel
| gian ports when the Vindictive and
\ entrances are still there and al
| though whole regiments of German
| pioneers have been working like
: Trojans for nearly two months, the
| sea outlets are more effectually
blocked than ever, and the damage
| to the German naval station at
Bruges grows apace.
Just recently, a certain young man,
plotting a Handley-Paige machine, de-
scended to a very low altitude in the
man anti-aircraft guns of all calibers,
and in the vortex Of q score Of power
full searchlights, and dropped three
giant bombs on the lock gates at
Bruges. blowing them and the concrete
blocks to bits, as photographs taken
from an aeroplane next day proved
concfusfvely.
Munitions Plant Bombed.
Two nights later another youthful
pilot swooped to the feeblest alti-
tude and let fiy one of his largest
bombs fair and square on a large
factory which the Germans had con-
yerted into a munitions-making plant.
Photographs taken later showed the
place a wreck and the effect was
that 400 German workmen were killed
or injured and all Of the machinery
smashed to junk by the bomb.
The enemy has doubled. quadru-
pied and octupled his aerial defenses
at Zeebrugge, Ostend and Bruges,
during the last six weeks and has
eentered most of his heaviest anti
aircraft guns and searchlights at
Bruges, evidently hopeless Of ever
being able to free the two ports
again, but anxious to safeguard the
inland town. which is connected by
canals with both the ports.
In evaporation at the damage In
fiicted on Zebrugge, Ostend and Bru-
ges. the Boches tried to play havoc
at punkirk and Calais, but the Brit
ish aviators nipped that scheme in
the bud by the simplest tactics inn
aginabie. They merely concentrated
their attention on the aerodromes from
which the enemy raiders started and
smashed and disorganized the entire
German bombarding aviation service
in Flanders.
The huge British raiding machines
were Tot called OF their allotted task
of keeping the Belgian ports bottled
to break up the enemy's aFiation
plans. however. That job was con-
fded to other British sausdrons ef