Some hundreds of the personnel and patients of British hospitals behind
the battlelines were killed and wounded on May 19 in the heavy attack
by German bombing planes. Among those on the casualty list were several
nurses, some of whom were killed, and several medical officers who were
wounded. A large American hospital in the neighborhood escaped. A great
number of the bombs were of extraordinary size, digging vast craters
in the hospital grounds, while others were high-explosive shrapnel
bombs, which scattered bullets through the crowded hospital tents and
buildings. A three-seated airplane was brought down by gunfire while
flying at a low altitude, and the occupants were made prisoner. The
German Captain and the pilot sustained comparatively light shrapnel
wounds, while the observer was not hurt. When questioned why he had
directed his men against hospitals, the Captain asserted that he did
not see the Red Cross signs. He said that he was seeking military
objectives and had no desire to molest hospitals. With a shrug
shoulders, the Captain added that if the British chose to build their
hospitals near railways, they must expect to get them bombed.
The same group of hospitals was attacked again on the night of May
31. Several of them were hit and the casualty list among patients and
workers was considerable. One hospital was almost demolished when an
enemy aviator dropped an explosive on it after getting his bearings by
letting fall a brilliant flare which lighted up the whole district. The
raid lasted two hours. In one hospital one ward was destroyed and two
other wards were damaged. Several attendants were killed in this place,
and there were other casualties. The operating theatre of still another
hospital was wrecked.
Altogether between May 15 and June 1 German airmen bombed British
hospitals in France seven times, causing casualties totaling 991, as
follows: Killed--Officers, 11; other ranks, 318; nursing sisters, 5;
Women's Auxiliary Corps, 8; civilians, 6. Wounded--Officers, 18; other
ranks, 534; nursing sisters, 11; Women's Auxiliary Corps, 7; civilians,
73.
On the night of May 28 German airmen deliberately dropped bombs on
hospitals many miles in the rear of the front, in which there were
scores of American and hundreds of French sick and wounded. A number of
Americans were slightly injured by flying glass. One French nurse was
killed and another injured. Several civilians died of wounds.
In addition to their operations against the Germans in France and
Belgium, the Allies continued to carry the war into Germany. In a raid
during the night of May 27 British long-distance bombing machines
dropped between four and five tons of bombs on chemical works at
Mannheim, the Landau railroad station, an electric power station
at Kreuzwald, and on the Metz-Sablons railroad station. Very large
explosions were caused and much damage done. The same night the
important railway triangle at Liége in Belgium was bombarded. In spite
of determined opposition by German airplanes, British aviators on May
dropped bombs on factories and the railroad station at Saarbrücken in
Rhenish Prussia.
Cologne, the sixth largest city of Germany, was raided by British
bombing planes on May 18. Bombs were dropped on railroad stations,
factories, and barracks. Eighty-eight of the persons who were
killed were buried in the same grave. The people of the city became
panic-stricken. Aix-la-Chapelle was also attacked and factories set on
fire.