Sheerness. The barracks were fitted with hammocks for sleeping,
and no less than 108 bluejackets lost their lives, the number of
wounded amounting to 92. Although the raid lasted nearly an hour
and powerful searchlights were brought into play, neither guns
nor our airmen succeeded in causing any loss to the raiders.
Bombs were dropped at a number of other places, including Margate
and Southend, but without result.

No less than six raids took place on London before the end of the
month, but the greatest number of killed in any one of the raids
was eleven, while on September 28 the raiders were driven off
before they could claim any victims. The establishment of a
close barrage of aerial guns did much to discourage the raiders,
and gradually London, from being the most vulnerable spot in the
British Isles, began to enjoy comparative immunity from attack.

Paris, too, during the Great War has had to suffer bombardment
from the air, but not nearly to the same extent as London. The
comparative immunity of Paris from air raids is due partly to the
prompt measures which were taken to defend the capital. The
French did not wait, as did the British, until the populace was
goaded to the last point of exasperation, but quickly instituted
the barrage system, in which we afterwards followed their lead.
Moreover, the French were much more prompt in adopting
retaliatory tactics. They hit back without having to wade
through long moral and philosophical disquisitions upon the
ethics of "reprisals". On the other hand, it must be remembered
that Paris, from the aerial standpoint, is a much more difficult
objective than London. The enemy airman has to cross the French
lines, which, like his own, stretch for miles in the rear.