London, Aug. 22.
ERMAN guns mounted on the French coast shelled a convoy passing through the Straits of Dover today.
It was the first, ime since the war began that coast batteries have been used against British shipping in the English Channel.
Watchers on the English shore saw flashes of the guns which fired in batteries of four. Guns along the French coast all the way from Calais to Boulogne appeared to be taking part in the bombardment, The convoy consisted of ships with their escort vessels, Just before 10 a.m. when the leading ship was nearing a Channel port, there was a terrific roar of gunfire from the French coast, and four great columns of water leapt up from the sea. The thunder of the guns shook towns on the English side of the Channel. Flashes appeared in rows through the haze over the sea and the air was shattered by the din.
A. Reuter reporter standing on a li? overlooking the convoy counted about a minute between gun flashes and the appearance of shells hitting the sea near the convey. -Spirals of smoke coiled up into the alr from the guns after each salvo. The bombardment increased in intensity. and. ung continued firing at half-minute, member of Reuter's stof?
who received this message by telephone, heard the thunder of the ung as they fired from the French As the convoy was passing near a harbour, German heavy batteries beween Calais and Boulogne intensified their furious bombardment, Shells were coming a distance' of about twenty miles from the French coast, Escorking. vessels raced round, thro ing great "smoke-screens, The ear= shattering roar of the guns echoed up and down the Channel coast and the Screaming of shells could be distinctly heard, After half an hous, the bombardment appeared to be a waste of ammunition, Thd convoy sailed on running the gauntlet of the terrific cannonade, Only one enemy plane appeared the clouds over the sunlit Channel.
believe '2 reconnaissance artillery, but it was quickly chased away by British fighters protecting Then, with a roar, fighters of the Royal Air Force streaked eross the As the convoy steamed slowly up the Channel, guns on the French coast near Calais opened fire and the bombardment was still as flereo tus ever an hour after the first shell had been fired. The bombardment urew less intense after the convoy had passed Dover and was steaming towards Deal, Eighty minutes after the Germans' had opened fire, the convoy had passed safely through the Straits.
Not one vessel appeared to have been hit, The bombardment was apparently 9 complete failure and the flashes had given away the positions of quns-—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.