t a standstill; and that
the British people was not ready at any moment to purchase indemnity
from the raids by concluding a German peace. When one method of
terrorism fails try another, was evidently the German motto. After the
Zeppelin the Gotha, and after that the submarine.

The next year--1917--brought in a very welcome change in the situation.
One Zeppelin after another met with its just deserts, the British navy
in particular scoring heavily against them. Nor must the skill and
enterprise of our French allies be forgotten. In March, 1917, they shot
down a Zeppelin at Compiegne, and seven months later dealt the blow
which finally rid these islands of the Zeppelin menace.

For nearly a year London, owing to its greatly increased defences, had
been free from attack. Then, on the night of October 19, Germany made
a colossal effort to make good their boast of laying London in ruins. A
fleet of eleven Zeppelins came over, five of which found the city. One,
drifting low and silently, was responsible for most of the casualties,
which totalled 34 killed and 56 injured.

The fleet got away from these shores without mishap. Then, at long last,
came retribution. Flying very high, they seem to have encountered an
aerial storm which drove them helplessly over French territory. Our
allies were swift to seize this golden opportunity. Their airmen and
anti-aircraft guns shot down no less than four of the Zeppelins in broad
daylight, one of which was captured whole. Of the remainder, one at
least drifted over the Mediterranean, and was not heard of again. That
was the last of the Zeppelin, so far as the civilian population was
concerned. But, for nearly a year, the work of killing citizens had been
undertaken by the big bomb-dropping Gotha aeroplanes.

The work of the Gotha belongs rightly to the second part of this book,
which deals with aeroplanes and airmen; but it would be convenient to
dispose here of the part played by the Gotha in the air raids upon this
country.

The reconnaissance took place on Tuesday, November 28, 1916, when in a
slight haze a German aeroplane suddenly appeared over London, dropped
six bombs, and flew off. The Gotha was intercepted off Dunkirk by the
French, and brought down. Pilot and observer-two naval lieutenants-were
found to have a large-scale map of London in their possession. The new
era of raids had commenced.

Very soon it became evident that the new squadron of Gothas were much
more des