Another death of interest to this country and caused by aerial operations was that of H. E. M. Suckley of Rhinebeck, N. Y., who was in charge of a unit of the American Ambulance Field Service. He was wounded while on duty near Saloniki by an aeroplane bomb and died the following day. He was thirty years old and had been with the Ambulance Service almost from the beginning of the war, first in the Vosges, then at Pont-à-Mousson, and finally with General Sarrail's army.
Regarding the losses suffered by the various aerial forces, authentic information available is very scant and incomplete. Up to February 1, 1917, the Germans claimed to have destroyed 1,002 Allied aeroplanes and to have put out of commission a total of 1,700, valued at $12,500,000. During April, 1917, according to the London "Times," a total of 714 machines was brought down on the western front. These were distributed as follows: German machines, 366; British, 147; French and Belgian, 201. Of the 366 German aeroplanes brought down 269 fell to the British, ninety-five to the French, and two to the Belgians. British airmen accounted for 263 German aeroplanes and antiaircraft gunners for six. On the other hand the Germans admitted the loss of only seventy-four machines, but claimed to have brought down 362 Allied aeroplanes and twenty-nine captive balloons.
During May, 1917, according to London newspapers, 713 aeroplanes were brought down on the western front. Of these 442 were said to have been German and 271 French and British.[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER CII
AIR RAIDS
The second phase of aerial warfare was represented by the raids carried out by the various belligerents over enemy territory at a considerable distance from the actual theaters of war. In these operations the Germans, as in the past, were the most active and England was the greatest sufferer. But unlike their previous custom, the Germans, during the period from February to August, 1917, used aeroplanes more frequently than Zeppelins.
On February 25, 1917, British naval aeroplanes raided iron-works near Saarbrücken in Rhenish Prussia, about fifty miles beyond the border.
On March 1, 1917, one German plane bombed Broadstairs, an English watering place on the island of Thanet off the Kentish coast.
During the night of March 4-5, 1917, French aeroplanes bombed Freiburg-im-Breisgau (Black Forest) and Kehl near Strassburg.
German airships bombed the southeastern counties of England during the night of March 16-17, 1917. Margate was attacked by a German seaplane at the same time. One of the Zeppelins was brought down later by French antiaircraft guns near Compiègne, northeast of Paris, its entire crew being killed.