The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1919-02-15

damaged Victoria Palace Music hall,
opposite Victoria station. and hit sew
eral mansions IN Brompton road. June
Is, 1917, a long stretch in the East
End suffered from a series of bombs
dropped by daylight raiders. falling
about o|ne-quarter of a mile apart. In
that raid ten children were killed and
fifty injured in a school in Poplar,
and there were several deaths in the
houses of working people along the
route. A train was struck outside the
Liverpool street station.
Twenty-four Gothas raided London
July Z, 1917, in daylight. One of the
bombs struck the general post Of
fee. It penetrated two of the upper
floors and deranged much telegraph
apparatus. The raiders sailed over
the city at attitudes of from 1000 to
$4,000 feet, keeping their regular for
nation to the end. This ended the
daylight raids, all subsequent ones
having been by moonlight, except the
last, which chose a dark night, and
another under of a mist.
First Night Visitor.
The first night visitor came Septem-
Der 4, 1917, and went away without
having done any mischief. Three
weeks later, when a squadron ad-
vanced to an attack, a barrage a in
action. Those that got through hit
the Bedford hotel in Southampton row
and wrecked a shop in Kings Cross
road.
There were five raids between Sep
TENDER % and October 1. One of the
craft, September 25, emptied its cargo
of bombs within a narrow area of
crowded streets abutting Old Kent
road, doing some damage to property
and causing several deaths. Officers
quarters in Chelsea hospital were
wrecked by a 500-pound bomb October
4, when damage was done to the GroS-
venor road railway bridge.
October 10, a misty night, a Zeppe-
lin fleet made a trip to England which
proved unhappy for itself. Only n
of the number reached London, on
which it dropped three heavy bombs,
one of them in Piccadilly Circus,
damaging the shop of Swan & Edgar
and causing casualties in a crowd
waiting there for an omnibus; another
damaging houses in Camberwell and
the third wrecking house property in
Hitler Green. Five of the fleet, hav-
ing accomplished nothing in England,
were brought down intact in France,
on the trip hOmeward. when others
were seriously damaged. There was
an early morning raid on Dullwich
September 6, with small results.
Try to Bomb Hospital.
RaHlers December 10, 1917. dropped
a bomb which narrowly missed Char
ing Cross hospital and demolished a
shop in Agar street. Another bomb
killed several persons IN the Thames
embankment and damaged Cleopatra's
Needle. A third set fire to a piano
factory in C%lerkenwell road.
A raid of January %, 1918, partially
wrecked the Oldhams printing estab-
lishment in Long Acre, in the base
ment of which many persons had
taken shelter. Machinery and debris
from the upper floors fell into the
basement, killing At persons and in
juring 1863. The same night a bomb
almost destroyed the old French flow
er market, Covent Garden, and anoth-
er fell in a side street neal the Savoy
hotel. February II the Midland Grand
hotel, st. Pancras, was damaged by
three bombs, one of which brought
down the tower spires.
Then came in swift succession a
series of raids, the most memorable
of which was on the moonless night
of March I, 1918. This was the "Au-
rora B%orealis." A compound bomb
that occasion proved very destruc-
tive to property in Mazda Vale, where
six houses were destroyed and ever
al hundred damaged. Mrs. Lena Ford,
an American, author of Keep the
Home Fires Burning" was among
those killed that night by the raiders.