Salt Lake Telegram | 1915-11-11 | Page 11 | Salt Lake Boy at Oxford Tells of Air Raid

SALT ALT LAKE BOY AT OXFORD OXFORD- TELLS OF AIR RAID W W. W. W Stratton Rhodes t 5 S Scholar holar Sees Lo London do doj Bomb Shower j f Dr Dr Grace Stratton Stratton-Airey received a letter yesterday from her son W W. W. W Stratton a student at Oxford In which he tells of a recent air raid by Zeppelins on London The letter is dated October 17 at Oxford where Stratton had just returned from a a. visit to London and other English cities He arrived In London about three hours before the raid and was in a theatre when the German Gennan aircraft aircraft air air- craft sailed over the city dropping bombs as they went One bomb he said dropped near a crowded theatre but some of the house had heard the raider coming and the or orchestra orchestra orchestra or- or chestra struck up a a. lively and loud tune which drowned the noise of the tha airships airship's engines and the e ex explosions losi of f the bombs The bombs of the raider he wrote were dropped right in th the heart of the great city but so far as asI asI asI I snow know were not near any points of military or strategic importance so I dont don't see see the tho object of the raid ex except except except ex- ex perhaps as a sort of f reprisal Continuing the letter says The he bombs dropped by the Germans In London seem lighter than those used at Antwerp at-Antwerp and probably are re for in incendiary incendiary in- in purposes only But even at that one of them tore a hole hol five feet t tin in diameter by three or four feet deep in the the pavement Windows were sh shattered for a distance of yards or more and scars scars scars' are to be seen in inmany Inmany inmany many of the buildings in the neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neigh neigh- much like Uke those to be seen everywhere in Antwerp Though three of the th bombs landed in the streets and so did little landed damage damage dam dam- age to passersby another landed a Strand In a building not far l from n the Strand Police kept curious crowds back but butone had one could see that the place been pretty badly torn up and partially par par- partially partially par par- gutted by flames One One bomb struck just outside the Lyceum theatre the the- noise of the noise atre but as aa soon as t the raiders raiders' engines was heard the or orchestra orchestra orchestra or- or chestra hit up a thunderous piece a aso and so made what was going on outside inaudible probably thus averting a pan panic Stratton says that the railroad systems of England are badly dis disorganized r- r probably due to conditions t brought about by the war H He also says that the students at Oxford are greatly reduced in number as practically practically all of the English are off to the front