Shropshire Routes to Roots

Zeppelin raids: Damage report

The following was issued late on Friday Night by the Press Bureau:-
With respect to the official German statements relating to the recent raid in England, the war Office announces that the damage to industrial or commercial establishments was as follows:-
Serious damage was done to
Three breweries
Three railway sheds
One engine shed.
One tube factory.
One lamp factory.
One blacksmith's shop
Finer damage, such as the shattering of glass and doors, occurred at
A munition factory.
Ironworks in two places.
A crane factory.
A harness factory.
A railway grain shed.
A colliery.
A pumping station.
No docks, no granaries, munition factories, or industrial establishments of any sort other than those mentioned were damaged.
Some fifteen houses of working-class people were demolished, and a large of small shops and dwelling houses were injured, some seriously, and many slightly.
The latest returns of casualties show:-

	Killed	Injured
Men	26	48
Women	28	46
Children	7	7
	61	101

It is not proposed in future to issue detailed statements of this character, as it is inadvisable to give information to the enemy as to the results of their air attacks. On the occasion of this raid, however, in which the largest number, so far, of airships have been employed, this statement of damage done is given in order to show how unfounded is the claim that the economic life of Great Britain or its military preparations can be appreciably affected by promiecuous bomb-dropping from airships wandering over the county in the dark.
In the 29 raids, great and small, that have taken place over Great Britain since the war began, 133 men (of whom 17 were soldiers), 90 women, and 43 children have been killed: but when it is remembered that in the Lusitania alone 1,198 persons were drowned, the Zeppelin Raids as a means of murdering innocent civilians must be comparatively disappointing to their promoters.

[Shropshire Archive reference: Shrewsbury Chronicle, 11 February 1916]