r
a time in Holland. The Cuxhaven sheds were not located, but the German
naval ports were pretty thoroughly surveyed, and a good deal of damage
was done by bomb-dropping. Seaplane No. 136, piloted by Flight Commander
C. F. Kilner, with Lieutenant Erskine Childers as observer, flew over
the Schillig Roads, and reported, lying at anchor there, seven
battleships of the _Deutschland_ and _Braunschweig_ classes, three
battle cruisers, apparently the _Seydlitz_, _Moltke_, and _Von der
Tann_, one four-funnelled cruiser, probably the _Roon_, two old light
cruisers of the _Frauenlob_ and _Bremen_ classes, ten destroyers, one
large two-funnelled merchantman or liner, and three ships which appeared
to be colliers. Anti-aircraft guns, firing shrapnel, were used against
the seaplane and very nearly scored a direct hit. On issuing from the
Roads the officers in the seaplane saw a large number of ships in the
northern part of the fairway of the Weser, and two destroyers east of
Wangeroog. As a result of this reconnaissance a part of the German fleet
was moved from Cuxhaven to various places farther up the Kiel canal.

The day before the Cuxhaven raid the Germans made their first raid over
England, and dropped their first bomb on English soil. The air raids
over England during the war were many and serious; they were an
important and characteristic part of the German plan of campaign, and
their story must be told separately. They began with a curious timid
little adventure. On the 21st of December a German aeroplane made its
appearance above Dover; it dropped a bomb which was aimed, no doubt, at
some part of the harbour, but fell harmlessly in the sea. The aeroplane
then went home. Three days later, on the 24th, a single aeroplane again
dropped a bomb, this time on English soil near Dover. This was the
prelude to a formidable series of air raids, which, however, were not
made in strength till well on in the following year.

The close of the year 1914, and of the first five months of the war, saw
the German assault on the European commonwealth held, though not
vanquished. If the German plans had succeeded, the war would have been
over before the coming of the new year. The failure of these plans was
inevitably a longer business. The best-informed judges, from Lord
Kitchener downwards, recognized that this was not a war which could be
ended at a blow. A great nation does not so readily give up the dreams
on which it has been fed for the