Postcard view of the county of Kent, England, bounded by the River Thames on the north and the English Channel and Dover Strait to the east. The city and White Cliffs of Dover are in Kent. In November 1914, British naval and military authorities feared Germany was preparing to invade England.
Kent: the Doorway of England.I had rather be a doorkeeper in the County of Kent than dwell in the Tents of the Huns.'Invicta' - undefeated, the motto of KentCities and towns of KentOn the door: No Germans AdmittedReverse:Postmarked Chatham (Kent) January 25, 1915Designed and Printed in Faversham, Kent, at Voile & Robertson's Library (copyright)
"The British coast was looming ahead, and only ten of the original fifteen Gothas remained.Within minutes, the sky before them was smeared with the black smoke of exploding shells. The fire was coming from picket ships stationed off shore. Even more disturbing, aircraft were flying in small clusters just beyond the coast. The fighters, fifteen in all, were incoming bombers. They were British naval machines which had come up from air stations at Manston, Eastchurch, Walmer, and Dover on the Kent coast."
Fifteen Gotha bombers set out on August 22, 1917 to bomb Dover, Chatham, and either Southend or Sheerness on the United Kingdom's English Channel coast. Five soon turned back with engine or other problems leaving ten that quickly encountered antiaircraft fire and fighter planes coming to challenge them. Two of the bombers were shot down near Margate, a third near Dover. Bombs fell on Margate, Ramsgate, and Dover, with two killed and thirty-five wounded, one fatally. The attack was the last daylight raid of the war by the Gotha bombers.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 107, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
1917-08-22, 1917, August, Gotha, Gotha raid, Kent, County of Kent
