'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' — the Tower of London poppies — each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies representing one serviceman of the British Empire killed in World War I. The installation was a collaboration of artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper. Since November, 2014 the poppies have been installed in other sites in the United Kingdom. Photographed October 3, 2014. © 2014 by John M. Shea
"'As to your defence of London by this infernal Barrage I do trust you will stop it, as it is a remedy worse than the disease. We have lived under showers of this odious shrapnel (purely home-made) and it is costly in life and property. A woman close to me was killed in bed thereby.'So had seven other people in the past week. Another sixty-seven had been injured. British fire during one raid alone had damaged nearly 300 houses, 'about half of them seriously.' Nineteen French 75-mm. guns, which fired only shrapnel, were moved from London to Birmingham and other places not as likely to be raided. Unlike explosive shells, the cases of shrapnel projectiles came down intact."
From Monday, September 24 to October 1, 1917, ninety-two German Gotha bombers took part in the Autumn Moon Offensive against England. Fifty-five of the two-engine planes reached England with twenty or fewer making it to London. A handful of Staaken Giant bombers also took part in the raids, with one reaching the capital. On six of the eight nights the bombers struck. A total of 69 people were killed and 260 wounded, some by shell casings from the British defensive barrage. Before the raids had ended, over 300,000 people had taken shelter in the London Underground.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 147, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
1917-09-30, 1917, September, London, Autumn Moon Offensive, barrage
