Practically he is in hostile country all the time, and he has to
get back across the same dangerous air zones. It is a far easier
task to dodge a few sea-planes over the wide seas en route to
London. And on reaching the coast the airman has to evade or
fight scattered local defences, instead of penetrating the close
barriers which confront him all the way to Paris.

Since the first Zeppelin attack on Paris on March 21, 1915, when
two of the air-ships reached the suburbs, killing 23 persons and
injuring 30, there have been many raids and attempted raids, but
mostly by single machines. The first air raid in force upon the
French capital took place on January 31, 1918, when a squadron of
Gothas crossed the lines north of Compiegne. Two hospitals were
hit, and the casualties from the raid amounted to 20 killed and
50 wounded.

After the Italian set-back in the winter of 1917, the Venetian
plain lay open to aerial bombardment by the Germans, who had
given substantial military aid to their Austrian allies. This
was an opportunity not to be lost by Germany, and Venice and
other towns of the plain were subject to systematic bombardment.

At the time of writing, Germany is beginning to suffer some of
the annoyances she is so ready to inflict upon others. The
recently constituted Air Ministry have just published figures
relating to the air raids into Germany from December 1, 1917, to
February 19, 1918 inclusive. During these eleven weeks no fewer
than thirty-five raids have taken place upon a variety of towns,
railways, works, and barracks. In the list figure such important
towns as Mannheim (pop. 20,000) and Metz (pop. 100,000). The