The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-11-13
Devastation Wrought
By The Huns
lBy Associated Press.l

man areas back of Ostend and Zee.
lbruggee at the beginning of the great
Allied offensive on the Belgian coast,
Today the whole country in the rear
lof the German lines shows the scars
of more than seventeen tons of bombs
dropped upon the German reinforce
ment line centers by aviators Of the
Royal Air Forces. Every squadron
on and battery that returned to the
British lines reported great fires
burning where ammunition dumps
and stores of gasoline had been hit.
They told Of trains brought to a
standstill by great craters torn In
their lines by airplane bombs.
While British monitors lying off the
Belgian coast raked the German bat
teries at Ostend and Zeebruggee with
fifteen inch shells, the air attacks
concentrated on the reinforcement
lines behind the German front The
triangle OF railroad with Thourout,
Lichtervelde and Cortemarck at Its
corners was the center of the Brit.
ish airplane activities. These three
important railroad functions, but
5000 yards apart, were targets for the
Fifth Group Of British Air Forces.
Dawn breaks at this season and It
was still dark, with dash OF rain,
when the hour of starting arrived.
From the various aerodromes the
formations lifted into the drencned
air and were quickly lost in the low
hanging clouds. To the south Of
them, beyond Dixmude, the battle al
ready was in progress. Seven ma.
chimes were lost in the furry Of night
and bombs but the rest hurried on
and arrived over their targets.
The first bombs were falling by
seven O'Clock in the gray, rainy moru-
ing. The pilot who dived upon Ear
rem let 60 his bombs from height Of
only two hundred feet where he could
see them land and burst in the troop
congested town. Another pilot hap
pened upon large-calibre battery
emplaced to the north of Staden. He
Owed through the clouds to height
Of two hundred feet before he let 70
his bombs and then waited aloft un.
til ne was sure the battery had ceased
to fire.
Squadron after squadron Of air
planes all flying low reared over the
three functions at the angles of the
railway triangle" bombing them in
dustriously, Every road had Its
watchful sweeping airplane There
was no safe channel for the hurry
ing currents of German traffic. A
train going south from Thourout was
raided by an airplane pilot who came
down to within one hundred feet Of
the ground and few past the train,
his machine gun sweeping the troops
who spouted forth from 1t. Three
trains were set on fire and direct hits
were made ON four others.
Near Werchem, the road was occu.
pied for mile by transport column
Eighteen well directed bombs con.
verified the moving column into a.
horrible barricade of smashed wag.
ons and lorries, dead horses, dead and
wounded men, The survivors scat
tered to wide bitches on either side
of the road. With two machine.guns
firing together eighteen hundred
rounds a minute the airplane pilot
raked both bitches. MANY casual
ties among personnel" was the offii.
cial statement of the result.
AS daylight broadened and the
weather improved every railway and
very road behind the German lines
was river of vehicles and men but
the drplanes had laid line of dan
ger across the country which the
Germans had to travel from their
bases to the front where the British
and Belgians were driving the Hun
line backward
That night the great railway siding
near Client where twenty-five trains
can lie side by side was brightly lit
and feverish with activity. Trains
were shunting and pulling in and out
noisily for the German front was
before the Allied thrust and
risks had to be taken. Down came
the bombs and the pilots saw the
flash of their explosions In the train
jams and the sidings and forthwith
the lights flickered out and darkness
and terror added themselves to the
confusion and urgency below.
Thereafter the Germans, when thew
moved large bodies of troops. moved
them under cover of night and posi-.
bly, across the fields The air bar