A History of the First World War in 100 Moments: Ordeal by shellfire - a giant gun rains death on Parisians from 80 miles away

A shock artillery attack on the French capital marked the start of an offensive that nearly broke the Allies

At 7.18am on 21 March 1918, a German shell landed on the Quai de la Seine in central Paris. Similar shells continued to explode in the French capital at 15-minute intervals. They resumed sporadically the next day and the next.

Over the next five months, there were 183 explosions in the city, never more than 20 in one day. The damage was relatively small but 250 Parisians were killed.

At first, the effect on nerves, after almost four years of mostly distant warfare, was devastating. The front line was 80 miles away. Surely these could not be artillery shells. They must be bombs dropped from invisible, high-flying aircraft or Zeppelins, or acts of sabotage.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/history-of-the-first-world-war-in-100-moments/a-history-of-the-first-world-war-in-100-moments-ordeal-by-shellfire--a-giant-gun-rains-death-on-parisians-from-80-miles-away-9569485.html