ALLIED AIR ATTACKS ON UNDEFENDED GERMAN CITIES AND TOWNS—The first aerial bomb thrown in the war was on Augsburg, Germany, by a French aviator, before war had been declared. All attacks by German aviators in which civilians were killed or wounded were in retaliation for attacks on undefended places. It was not until the Germans served notice that a repetition of the offense would be answered by a Zeppelin attack on Paris that there was a modification of the murderous policy of the Allies. Following is an incomplete list of Allied air attacks on undefended German places :
April 18, 1915— Bombs thrown on Freiburg, Baden; killed many, including seven children between the ages of six and sixteen, who were in the midst of play. One woman was killed and another had her arm torn off in her home.
Tune 15, 1915— Twenty-three French aviators dropped 130 bombs on Karlsruhe. Nineteen persons killed, 14 seriously and others lightly wounded, all in civil life, women and children going to their work, a total of 84 casualties. Bombs were thrown on the palace where the Queen of Sweden was at the time a guest of her parents.
August 10, 1915— From 15 to 20 bombs were dropped on Zweibrücken and Sankt Ingbert, Bavaria, and 8 persons were killed.
Sept. 13, 1915— French aviators dropped bombs on a passenger train at Dov.auschwingen, Baden, and killed several civilians.
Sept., 1915— French aviators dropped bombs on Stuttgart and damaged the American consulate.
Oct., 1915— Allied aviators drop bombs on the city of Luxembourg.
Oct. 10, 1915— Allied bombs dropped on a German hospital at Grandpré, France, killing French wounded under treatment.
Jan. 27, 1916— Freiburg again bombarded by a French dirigible, dropping 38 shells. (French official report).
April 24, 1916: Seven Italian aeroplanes dropped twenty five bombs on Trieste, killing nine civilians, five of them children, and injuring 50, also destroying the Franz von Sales monastery, where 400 children were at divine service.
May 20, 1916— Official German army report: "In April the enemy's artillery and flyers caused the following deaths among the civil population of those parts of Belgium and France held by the Germans : Killed, 8 men, 10 women and 7 children ; wounded, 23 men, 29 women and 3 children. Total number of victims since September, 1915, 1,313 persons."
June 22, 1916: French aeronauts threw 40 bombs on Karlsruhe, killing ifo, including five women and 75 children, and wounding 147, including twenty women and 79 children. All were celebrating Corpus Christi-day in the open air. Some died later from their injuries.
(Associated Press.)
AMERICAN AVIATORS WITH THE ALLIES—Among the American aviators who were mentioned in dispatches as serving with the Allies and throwing bombs on German soldiers are the following: William K. Thaw of Pittsburg; J. M. McConnell of Carthage, N. C. ; Victor Chapman; Norman Prince of Pride's Crossing, Mass. ; Sergeant Hall of Galveston, Texas ; Elliott Cowden of New York, and Kiffen Rockwell of Atlanta, Ga. Chapman was killed in an aerial duel by Capt. Boelke in June 1916.