The British airmen dropped their bombs on points of military importance
at Cuxhaven, but their effect was kept secret by the German authorities.
Six of the seven returned to the squadron and were picked up by
submarines. Three of the seaplanes were wrecked and had to be abandoned.
Fog not only prevented the British airmen from doing their best
work, but it kept the marksmen on the German aircraft also from
hitting the ships on the waters beneath them. This raid had been
made in answer to a great outcry that had gone up from the British
public after German warships had raided the eastern coast of England.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXXIX
RAIDS ON THE ENGLISH COAST
During the first days of November, 1914, the Germans planned and
carried out a general surprise for the British navy. After the battle
in the Bight of Helgoland, back in August, the British thought that
Germany would continue to keep her navy within the protection of
her coast defenses, perhaps forever. But such was not her intention.
On the afternoon of November 2,1914, there gathered off some part
of Germany's northern shore a squadron consisting of the battle
cruisers _Von der Tann, Seydlitz_, and _Moltke_, the protected
cruisers _Kolberg, Strassburg_, and _Graudenz_, the armored cruisers
_Yorck_ and _Bluecher_, together with some destroyers. The slowest
of these vessels could make a speed of 25 knots, and the fastest,
the _Graudenz_ and _Moltke_, could make 28 knots.
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