Zeppelin Blitz

by Neil Storey

  Zeppelin L-4 continued its flight south, reaching Snettisham at about 10.45 p.m. The Reverend Ilsley W. Charlton, Vicar of Snettisham, wrote his account of what happened next, published in the News and County Press:

  Supposing that the distant noise was the hum of an ordinary aeroplane, and that some lights would be visible, my wife and I and a lady friend were walking about in the garden, trying to penetrate the darkness and discover the aircraft. The drone of the engine was so much louder than usual that we were quite prepared to descry at length, exactly overhead, the outline of a Zeppelin hovering over the church and Vicarage at a great height, appearing at the distance, to be only about fifteen or twenty yards long.

  No sooner had we identified it as probably a German airship, that suddenly all doubt was dispelled by a long, loud hissing sound; a confused streak of light; and a tremendous crash. The next moment was made up of apprehension, relief and mutual enquiries, and then all was dark and still, as the sound of the retiring Zeppelin speedily died away.

  The Zeppelin had circled the village and was so low that the lights revealed by the opening of the trapdoor for the release of the bomb were clearly seen. L-4 then dropped its eighth bomb, an HE, which landed about 4 yards from the Sedgeford Road in Mr Coleridge’s meadows, causing an explosion that was felt across the village. The houses in the immediate vicinity suffered a number of broken windows, but the worst of the blast was received by St Mary’s Church. Reverend Charlton concluded: ‘That there was no loss of life, and that the church (with the exception of twenty-two windows) escaped damage, we owe, humanely speaking to the fact that the bomb fell on a soft, rain soaked meadow, with a hedge and a wall between it and the church.’ After the war the windows were repaired, and the east window replaced with a stained glass, ‘as a thank offering for preservation and in memory of the men of this parish who fell in the Great War’.

  The Zeppelin then passed over Ingoldisthorpe, Dersingham, Sandringham (Wolferton), Babingley, Castle Rising, South Wootton and Gaywood, but dropped no bombs. However, the News and Country Press were keen to point out the ‘peculiar gusto’ and ‘special pleasure’ of the reportage in the Hamburger Nachrichten, which claimed:

  On the way to King’s Lynn, Sandringham, the present residence of King George was not overlooked. Bombs fell in the neighbourhood of Sandringham and a loud crash notified the King of England that the Germans were not far off … Our Zeppelins have shown that they could find the hidden royal residence. In any case, they did not intend to hit it, and only gave audible notification of their presence in the immediate neighbourhood.

  As he approached King’s Lynn, von Platen saw many lights and was actually (wrongly) convinced that he was north of the Humber when he spotted what he thought to be ‘a big city’ and, claiming he had been fired upon by both ‘heavy artillery and infantry fire’, he proceeded to bomb King’s Lynn. He steered L-4 towards the town from the Gaywood district, and appeared to take the railway lines as his guide.

  Boarding up the shattered windows of St Mary’s Church after the blast damage from the Zeppelin bomb that exploded in Mr Coleridge’s meadow near the Sedgeford road, Snettisham.

  King’s Lynn’s chief constable, Charles Hunt, had received an unofficial report of a Zeppelin raider dropping bombs on Yarmouth and Sheringham. In his report of 5 February 1915 he stated that upon hearing the explosion:

  I immediately communicated with the Electrical Engineer of this Borough and asked him to put the street lights out as soon as possible. He stated that his men had started putting them out and he would put further men on and get them out as soon as he could … I at once communicated with Major Astley who is in charge of the National Guard in this town, also the Officer Commanding the Worcestershire Yeomanry who are billeted here … About 10.45 p.m. when I was trying to get through to Dersingham the Superintendent there rang me up and stated that a Zeppelin had passed over Dersingham and had dropped bombs in that neighbourhood. Before a message was complete I heard bombs being dropped close to this Borough. Immediately on hearing these explosions the Electrical Engineer put out all lights by switching off at the main, not only putting out lights in the streets but also in private residences as well. The aircraft was soon over our building and several bomb explosions were heard almost immediately.

  On the commencement of the bombardment, the members of the fire brigade assembled at the station to be ready if needed. Mr G.E. Kendrick and the engineer were the first to arrive, and they made the appliances ready. The Intelligence Report commented, however: ‘Lynn seems to have had a considerable amount of light showing and probably presented a very clear target.’

  The airship picked up the railway at Gaywood and passed over the station at King’s Lynn. In all, eight bombs (seven HE and one incendiary) were dropped on the town.

  The experiences of Inspector R. Woodbine at King’s Lynn Station were recorded in a letter published in the Lynn News:

  I had arrived in our junction signal box just before the first bomb fell. The signalman had told me he noticed a distant report which had shaken his windows and looking out of his box windows I heard a noise resembling an aeroplane. I remarked, as the noise grew in volume, that is no Britisher and told him to put his lights down as the visitor was evidently coming for us. He also told Exton’s Road signalman to do the same. The noise seemed in a direct line with the signal box coming from the direction of the Ship Inn on Gaywood Road. I could distinctly see the movement of the propeller but not the body of the machine owing to it being straight in front of me. I called the signalman to have a look but before he reached the window the first crash came. You may imagine, if you can, our feelings. I cannot describe them and never wish to experience such another fright. I remained in the signal box until three bombs had fallen; they appeared to fall all over the station and I thought from the sound that the royal carriage shed and the station were struck by the second and third bombs. I was anxious to get back to the station to see what was done but found no damage to either building of course.

  The first bomb had landed on a field adjoining the railway, at the junction of the Hunstanton and Norwich lines near Tennyson Avenue; a number of houses in the area had their windows smashed by the blast. This was followed, soon after, by a second bomb which exploded ‘with a grey-blue flash’ on allotments that ran along the Walks side of the railway at the Tennyson Road end, making a crater some 16ft across and 7ft deep and blowing in the windows of the carriages standing close to nearby railway sheds.

  After droning its way menacingly over St John’s Church and St James’s Park, the carnage began when the third bomb was dropped on Bentinck Street – a typical Victorian street, lined with poor-quality terraced housing built for working folk. It was also one of the most densely populated parts of the town, and it was nothing short of a miracle that the casualties were as few thery were. The home of fitter’s mate John Goate and his family at 12 Bentinck Street received a direct hit; 14-year-old Percy was killed outright, his father and mother were crushed and wounded and his 4-year-old sister Ethel was stunned. Mrs Goate’s testimony at the inquest revealed what happened on that fateful night:

  We were all upstairs in bed, me and my husband, and the baby and Percy, when I heard a buzzing noise. My husband put out the lamp and I saw a bomb drop through the skylight and strike the pillow where Percy was lying. I tried to wake him, but he was dead. Then the house fell in. I don’t remember any more.

  PC John Fisher also gave evidence that, just after the bombardment, a message was received at the police station stating that an ambulance was required at Bentinck Street. He and other constables rushed there with two ambulances. On arrival they were informed that young Percy Goate had been pulled out of the ruins, but he was dead and his body had been taken to a house in Clough Lane. When one of the ambulances returned after their first run to the hospital, the boy’s body was removed to the mortuary.

  The wreckage of the homes of the Goate and Fayers families, where Percy Goate and Alice Gazley were kil
led.

  Mrs Alice Maud Gazley, killed in the Zeppelin air raid on King’s Lynn, 19 January 1915.

  The other King’s Lynn fatality was Mrs Alice Maud Gazley, a widow at just 26 – her husband, Percy, had been a porter at South Lynn Station, but as a Reservist had been called up and sent to France with the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) and had been killed in action on 27 October 1914 while serving with the 3rd Battalion, Rifle Brigade. Mrs Gazley lived at Rose Cottage on Bentinck Street, but she had gone to the Fayers family, about four doors away, for supper. Giving her account of the events on that fateful night at the inquest, Mrs Fayers recalled they had just finished their meal together when Mrs Gazley remarked, ‘There’s a dreadful noise!’ Shortly after there was ‘a terrible bang’, which frightened both of them. Mrs Gazley said, ‘Oh, good God, what is it?’ and made to rush out into the street.

  Tragically, the Fayers were neighbours of the Goate’s and their house collapsed moments after the direct hit upon their neighbours’ house. The Fayers all sustained minor injuries. Shortly after the raid, Mr Henry Rowe (Mrs Alice Gazley’s father) went to check on his daughter at Rose Cottage. He found the windows shattered but there was so sign of her. He spent the rest of the night searching for her. At about 6.30 a.m. Mr Rowe went to the police office to let them know that he had not found his daughter and stated, ‘I think she is under the ruins of Mr Fayers’ house.’ Police Sergeant Beaumont asked Rowe to wait until daylight then, between the hours of 7 and 8 a.m., Sergeant Beaumont, Mr Rowe and others began to search the wreckage of Mr Fayers’ house. It was there they found the body of Mrs Gazley, which was then recovered from the wreckage and removed to the mortuary by police ambulance.

  A stable close to the two wrecked houses on Bentinck Street contained a horse belonging to Mr Cork the baker, of Blackfriars Street. Incredibly, despite the stable being badly damaged the horse was released safely and unscathed the day after the raid.

  At the inquest, Dr G.R. Chadwick stated he had examined both victims of the air raid at the mortuary. He found that Percy Goate had suffered wounds on his face and one on his chest. Mrs Gazley suffered bruising to her face and abrasions on the front of the right thigh. Dr Chadwick was very much of the opinion that the injuries suffered by both victims had not been sufficient to be life threatening and that both had died as a result of shock. Their death certificates both recorded their cause of deaths, as suggested by Dr H.C. Allinson, the deputy Borough Coroner, as ‘from the effects of the acts of the King’s Enemies’, although the foreman of the inquest jury was compelled to state that some of the jury felt it should be recorded as murder.

  The fourth bomb exploded at the junction of Albert Avenue and East Street, at the back of the property owned by vet and blacksmith Mr T.H. Walden, causing extensive damage to the terraced houses in the area. Several people were trapped and required assistance to get out of the rubble of their former homes.

  The fifth bomb, an incendiary, fell on 63 Cresswell Street, the home of Mr J.C. Savage and his family. They all had a lucky escape; the bomb fell through the roof, crashed through the floor in the back bedroom, through a tin box and into a basket of linen in the kitchen. It had caused a fire to the bedroom on the way through. The fire brigade were summoned but, by the time they arrived, it had been extinguished by neighbours.

  The sixth bomb fell on Mr Wyatt’s allotment, at the end of Sir Lewis Street near Cresswell Street. Causing a crater 15ft across, it wrecked fences, trees and shattered windows, but luckily no one was hurt.

  The seventh device buried itself in a garden at the back of a house in the occupation of Mr Kerner Greenwood near the docks, also causing minimal damage.

  The eighth hit the power station for the King’s Lynn Docks & Railway Co., causing extensive damage to the engine house, destroying its two boilers and the hydraulic gear that operated the Alexandra Dock gates, and caused considerable damage to surrounding buildings.

  Mr Fayers and neighbours look at a part of the Zeppelin bomb from the wreckage of his home, as a sentry from the Worcestershire Yeomanry looks on.

  Just as in Yarmouth, the Zeppelin had been over King’s Lynn for about ten minutes before it steered off into the darkness again. Many were treated for shock as a result of the raid on King’s Lynn, a total of thirteen people received treatment in the West Norfolk & Lynn Hospital, and many others suffered minor injuries caused by the flying debris and were treated at home. A list of those who required hospital treatment was published in the Lynn Advertiser:

  Zeppelin bomb damage on East Street, King’s Lynn, after the Zeppelin raid of 19 January 1915.

  G.W. Clarke – cut lips

  Mr Goate – cut face and swollen ankle

  Mrs Goate – leg damaged

  Ethel Goate, aged 4 years – stunned

  Mr Fayers – cut on head

  Mrs Fayers – cut on face

  G. Hanson – back of hand cut by glass

  R. Howard – face cut in two places

  G. Parlett – forehead cut and head wound

  D. Skipper – face and head cut

  Mrs Skipper – injured leg

  R. Wykes – cut head

  W. Anderson – wrist lacerated

  L-4 droned over Grimston Road Station at 11.15 p.m., then turned south-east over Gayton and Westacre, then east again, passing north of East Dereham at 11.35 p.m., flying over Mousehold Heath near Norwich at 11.50, then over Acle at about midnight and finally passed out to sea north of Great Yarmouth before 12.30 a.m.

  Aftermath

  Francis Perrott, reporter on the Manchester Guardian (until his death in 1926 regarded as one of the finest reporters of his day), visited Great Yarmouth the day after the air raid occurred and recorded his impressions of what he saw in the town:

  Yarmouth has taken the visitation with remarkable calm and cheerfulness. I found people even pleasantly excited by what has happened and willing to make the most of it as a winter’s tale. When first the threatening hum of the propellers was heard in the starless sky, people seem to have obeyed the powerful human instinct of curiosity and ran out into the street to see what was going on but in a short time they remembered the official instructions and made for cover. The authorities turned off all the lights and Yarmouth spent the rest of the evening in dead darkness. Towards midnight the throbbing of engines was heard again over the town but if this really was the noise of Zeppelins returning home no one saw them. [This was L-4 taking its circuitous route across the county after bombing King’s Lynn.]

  I could find no one in Yarmouth who actually saw the aircraft, although there are vague stories of ‘long black shapes’ and things in the sky ‘like a big black cigar.’ The best evidence on the point of whether they were airships or aeroplanes is the size of the bombs dropped. Two unexploded bombs were on view in the Drill Hall this afternoon, where an interested crowd inspected them. They are bulky pear-shaped things two feet long, forty inches round the base and weigh about sixty pounds. Yarmouth is convinced that only a Zeppelin could throw bombs of that size about wholesale.

  The first sign of interest seen in the streets was a group of sightseers round a shop window where bits of bomb were shown as relics. Down on the South Quay the publican of the ‘First and Last’ tavern showed me a handful of fragments picked up in his bar just after a bomb had burst outside his doorstep. ‘There was some nasty, sticky, yellow stuff inside it,’ he said. I came nearest the reality of the raid in the little open space behind St Peter’s Church where people were collected staring hard at a mess of ravaged houses, broken windows and littered roadway. Here the bomb fell which killed old Miss Taylor and Samuel Smith the cobbler. It dropped on the pavement across from the St Peter’s church and outside a modest villa. It stripped half the wall of the villa and made mincemeat of the content. The man inside escaped with a cut head. I found him hovering about the hole in the road as if he could not leave it twenty hours later … The dwellers in the houses round the church that had been torn open to daylight, like doll’s houses w
ith the front opened, were standing about looking as if they felt the importance conferred by the calamity. They gladly took you over what was left of their homes and related marvellous escapes. A queer sight was the furniture of the villa piled in the street, with a forlorn doll holding out its arms in horror at the ruin wrought by the bomb.

  From St Peter’s church the raiders steered along the quay. Following in the track, I found the deep bruise in the roadway, where the Germans tried to destroy the tavern, only to give the innkeeper a grievance because the War Office had claimed his cherished bits of shell and also the ruin caused on the Fish Quay. Here the bomb fell in a heap of empty basket nets close to the salt water tank. It burrowed a hole in which you could stand up to your knees, knocked a warehouse about and damaged an eating house. On the wall of a wrecked office the only thing left untouched was the barometer at ‘set fair.’

  The last call of the Germans before quitting Yarmouth was the race course, where the grand stand was splintered. In some parts of the town men were filling carts with tons of broken glass. The fishermen on the quay were chiefly interested in a steam drifter which was riddled with shell fragments. ‘Looks as if she’d been taking on the German Navy all by herself’ said one.

  The relics of the air raid also drew considerable interest in King’s Lynn, as the Lynn News reported:

  The bomb shell in the possession of the Lynn police, with portions of other bombs discovered in the borough, was placed in the Stone Hall on Tuesday afternoon for public inspection. Sixpence per head was charged for admission and the proceeds, nearly £3, were in aid of those who have suffered damage. Mr William Fayers, one of those injured by the falling house in Bentinck Street was present and two members of the National Guard, through the kindness of Major Astley, were on duty.