THE AIR RAID ON SOUTHEND.

DAMAGE AND DESTRUCTION.

BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. SOUTHEND, MONDAY NIGHT. In brutal uselessness, Sunday’s raid on Southend may take rank among the enemy’s most wanton acts. Death and sorrow and lifelong injury it inflicted on harmless holiday-makers, and it achieved serious damage to one of the most notable buildings of the town: it destroyed shop fronts; and it has deprived the proprietors of humble little apartment houses of their summer harvest. Yet if the Kaiser and the ruffians who did the vile work think that they have struck any terror into the hearts of Southend’s population or alarmed its visitors they can be emphatically assured that they have failed. Yesterday’s trains carried down full loads of family parties intent on their week or fortnight at their favourite playground. Perhaps the outstanding impression to be gleaned from those who could give a connected narrative of all that happened was its unexpected suddenness. The streets and the sea front were thronged, for the second Sunday in August in probably one of the most crowded days of the year there. Just at six o’clock there loomed into view at least twenty – some say twenty-three – aeroplanes. Southend is not unaccustomed to seeing various types of machine, and the first idea was that of a most imposing display of aircraft of a new pattern. But in a very few seconds a gun barked out, and our own machines of well-known lines were soon to be approaching. There was then no room for any doubt, and swiftly the bombs began to fall. “Aerial torpedoes” were said to have been used, and the presence in several places of thick yellow dust showed that some at least were intended to do mischief beyond that which would be caused by explosions. It was a short, fast, furious experience, crowded into about five minutes, and covering an area which included Southchurch and Rochford, as well as Southend itself and Westcliff.