Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 237, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1918 — BOMBING ENEMY’S DUMPS [ARTICLE]

BOMBING ENEMY’S DUMPS

Behind the British Lines in France. —The British aviation communique frequently contains a brief line to record that “direct hits were obtained upon an enemy dump" at some point behind the German lines. This colorless announcement may seem to the reader in America nothing more than the record of a dull piece of routine, but the deed itself is different from its record. 'X-#*. A British airman, Lieut. Wi A. Barnes, has given the Associated Press the following account of a recent 58minute raid on a German dump as characteristic of this form of activity: “On this particular night there was not enough .moonlight for a long raid, co the target given us was a German ammunition dump. * - ' 5 “Dumps are by no means easy tar- ' gets to find at night, for they are seldom situated near amr definite landmarks and are usually well camouflaged. By the study of maps and pho--1 ;

tographs, however, we had pretty well located the position of this one, and started out on the raid with high hopes of success. . “We flew almost due east from the airdrome. At the end of the 50 minutes we could just make out the outline of sheds. This was good, but we let out a parachute flare to light up the ground, and make sure we were over the target This promptly dispelled all doubts, for the Hun searchlights opened up at once, and a hail of machine gun bullets leaped up from the ground. Anti-aircraft guns had been firing for some time, but the shells were bursting well above us, and giving no trouble. “The parachute flare proved a real friend, because both searchlights and machine guns concentrated upon it giving us just sufficient time to dive swiftly, release our bombs, switch on the engine and start climbing. “When we turned to observe results,]

we witnessed the finest fireworks dis play I ever saw. Ammunition was cracking off at record speed, dense clouds of Smoke were rising and high-ly-colored flames were leaping a hundred feet and mor x e from' the ground. “We watched this pleasing exhibition for some minutes, until the cougt of an ‘Archie’ burst near by to remind us that we - were still over Hunland. and so turned and steered for home. “The whole job occupied 58 minutes but it must have cost Germany hundreds of man-power hours in munitions works.”