Last Sunday afternoon an enemy squadron of twenty aeroplanes came
over the Essex coast, making for London. The main body flew inland from Clacton to Wickford. There, being confronted by a large number of our aeroplanes, they gave up the main design and, turning south-cast, dropped their bombs on Southend before making for home. Thirty-two people were killed and forty-three injured. The rest of the raiders flew due south to Margate and dropped a few bombs without killing or injuring any one. The Royal Naval Air Service engaged the invaders promptly. One enemy aeroplane was destroyed when thirty miles out to sea. Our pilot, though flying a land machine, threw his lifebelt to the German clinging to the wreckage. If his engine had failed on the return journey, he himself, without the belt, would have been drowned. but his chivalrous instinct compelled the act of mercy. Another enemy machine, which may or may not have been one of the raiders, was destroyed off the Flanders coast at about the same time.
