A Gotha G-IV
Thursday 14th June 1917
News has
reached us at the front of the bombing raid on London yesterday. The barbarism
of the enemy reached new proportions when German aircraft of the Gotha G IV
type dropped their bombs on the capital. Reports state that 162 have been
killed and 432 injured. The swinishness of this indiscriminate attack is seen
by the fate of Upper North Street Primary School in Poplar - hit by a bomb
eighteen of its little attendees were killed, most of them between the ages of
four and six. The outrage caused here is palpable with many men to whom I have
spoken vowing to make the “baby-killers” pay the highest price imaginable.
The 7th
Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment is in the front line near Chérisy. The
adjutant telephoned me with some satisfaction this afternoon reporting that 378
gas projectors had been discharged from Wood Trench, on the flank of their
unsuccessful attack on 3rd May, it may be remembered. Around two hundred
Germans were subsequently seen being stretchered away. “That’s for the children
in Poplar” he remarked with some vehemence.
