Raids such as these increased in number as the year advanced. On 11th February thirty-four of our seaplanes and aeroplanes made another attack on Zeebrugge, under the leadership of Commander Samson, whose daring has already been mentioned in these pages.[78] Great damage was done, and five days later the visit was repeated. Forty machines, including eight belonging to the French, dropped bombs on various batteries and gun positions, on an aerodrome, and on mine-sweepers off the shore. During the Battle of Neuve Chapelle the railways in the rear of the German lines were bombarded, and the junction at Courtrai, seventeen miles east of Ypres, was destroyed. On a later page I shall tell you how Second Lieutenant W. B. Rhodes-Moorhouse won the Victoria Cross and lost his life during this raid. On 7th June two of our airmen destroyed an airshed and a Zeppelin north of Brussels.
It is impossible in these pages to describe all the air raids of the year. Each was much like the other, except for the number of the machines engaged and the extent of the damage done. As an illustration, I will give you a brief account of the great French raid on the German city of Karlsruhe on 3rd June. It was made in retaliation for Zeppelin raids on open French and British towns, and was the biggest enterprise of the kind so far undertaken. Twenty-three aeroplanes set out at the first flush of dawn. Mr. E. A. Powell in Vive la France thus describes the progress of the raid:—
"So rapid was the pace at which the aeroplanes were travelling that it was not yet six o'clock when the commander of the squadron, peering through his glasses, saw, far below him, the yellow gridiron which he knew to be the streets, the splotches of green which he knew to be the parks, and the squares of red and gray which he knew to be the buildings of Karlsruhe. The first warning that the townsfolk had was when a dynamite shell came plunging out of nowhere and exploded with a crash that rocked the city to its foundations. The people of Karlsruhe were being given a dose of the same medicine which the Zeppelins had given to Antwerp, to Paris, and to London. . . . For nearly an hour it rained bombs. Holes as large as cellars suddenly appeared in the stone-paved streets and squares; buildings of brick and stone and concrete crashed to the ground as though flattened by the hand of God; fires broke out in various quarters of the city and raged unchecked; the terrified inhabitants cowered in their cellars or ran in blind panic for the open country; the noise was terrific, for bombs were falling at the rate of a dozen to the minute; beneath that rain of death Karlsruhe rocked and reeled."
Of the four squadrons which set out for Karlsruhe only two machines failed to return. The Germans were furious, and the Kaiser telegraphed his "deep indignation at the wicked attack on beloved Karlsruhe." He had conveniently forgotten the murderous raids of his own Zeppelins.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
HEROES OF THE AIR.
Before I describe very briefly the Zeppelin raids upon England, let me set down the names and exploits of the five gallant airmen who were awarded the Victoria Cross during the year 1915.
Second Lieutenant William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse, Royal Flying Corps.
The first Victoria Cross ever conferred on an airman was won by Lieutenant Rhodes-Moorhouse, for extraordinary daring and endurance during the raid on Courtrai, which I mentioned on page [381]. While dropping his bombs he descended to 300 feet, and was furiously assailed by anti-aircraft guns, which seriously wounded him in the thigh. He determined to save his machine at all costs, and made for home, flying at a height of only 100 feet. Though again wounded, he did not lose control of his machine, but flew thirty-five miles to his base, where he landed and made his report as if nothing had happened. Shortly afterwards he died in hospital of his wounds.