Zeppelin Blitz

by Neil Storey

  The Zeppelin then dropped an HE bomb in Dunton Road, badly damaging a house and breaking the windows of many others. This was followed by an HE bomb in Parmer Road, south of the railway, which also severely affected a house. L-10 dropped four HE bombs on and around the railway station at Leyton, wrecking the station booking office and a billiard saloon, as well as seriously damaging one house and breaking windows in a large number of others, and a Wesleyan Chapel. It also badly damaged a steam roller. Three men and one woman were killed; seven men, four women and three children were injured.

  Two incendiary bombs were dropped in Grosvenor Road, to very little effect, while a single HE bomb fell in Claude Road, wrecking one house and breaking glass in 175 others in the neighbourhood. A man, a woman and a child were killed.

  An incendiary in Murchison Road did scarcely any damage, but the HE bomb and two incendiaries which fell in Albert Road badly damaged one house and caused small fires. A woman and a child were slightly hurt. Another incendiary in Twickenham Road also caused a fire but no casualties.

  There were two HE bombs in Oakdale and Ashville Roads respectively, which did a great deal of damage, badly wrecking thirty houses and breaking the windows of 123 others, besides killing two men and injuring four men, eleven women and six children.

  The Zeppelin was now ¼ mile south of the railway line which she had been following, and bore eastward in order to regain it. Crossing the Great Eastern Railway line to Chingford, between Grove Green and Norman Roads, she dropped an incendiary bomb on the permanent way with no destruction. Serious damage was now done by a couple of incendiary bombs which fell on St Augustine’s Church, Lincoln Street, in Leytonstone, gutting the building.

  Another incendiary bomb in Mayville Road caused a fire in a kitchen, and an HE bomb in Southwell Grove Road demolished the backs of two houses and broke windows in 132 others, and a man was killed. Another HE and two incendiary bombs, dropped on Wanstead Flats just north of the Midland Railway and east of Montague Road, broke the windows of seventy-three houses.

  The last HE bomb dropped on London by L-10 fell near the model yachting lake in Wanstead Flats. The concussion broke windows in seventy-five private houses in the neighbourhood, but caused no other damage. Four incendiaries followed on the Flats, one near the Woodford Road, two close to the bandstand and one at the head of Tylney Road, all having no effect. Two more incendiary bombs then fell, one in Aldersbrook Road and one in a pond near the terminus at the junction of that road with Wanstead Park Avenue. The former broke a fence, the latter blew all the water out of the pond but did no further damage. These bombs, which fell about 10.45 p.m., were the last of those dropped by the Zeppelin in the London district, but it seems that the airship was not seen when she was over Leyton by any gun crew, except one near Waltham.

  She now went off parallel to, and on the north side of, the Great Eastern main line, passing between Ongar and Brentwood at 11 p.m. and reaching Chelmsford at 11.15 p.m. Here, two HE bombs were dropped, one exploding in a field west of the town without doing any damage, the other passing through a house in Glebe Road near the Marconi Works and embedding itself in the earth beneath the basement without exploding.

  The airship, having passed north of Chelmsford, now crossed to the south of the railway and was south of Tiptree about 11.30 p.m., and ten minutes later, after passing north of Mersea Island, reached Wivenhoe, where she turned northward, passed to the east of Colchester and dropped a flare, which lit up the whole country with an intense glare, at Ardleigh about 11.43 p.m. At 11.50 p.m. she turned north-east near Stratford St Mary.

  At midnight she was near Holbrook, and reached the Orwell at Wherstead five minutes later. She turned down the river towards Harwich, but at Trimley bend went off directly south-east to Felixstowe, thus again avoiding the guns of the fortress. She passed Felixstowe at 12.12 a.m., crossed the mouth of the Deben and went out to sea at 12.20 a.m. at Shingle Street, at the same spot where she had crossed the coast on her inward journey and under the fire of the same Maxim gun cars of the RNAS, again without detriment to herself.

  On her return to Germany she appeared over the Dutch island of Vlieland early in the morning and was received by the Dutch with both gun and rifle fire. L-10 returned to base after this raid, but was destroyed in a storm three weeks later on 7 September 1915, when she was struck by lightning and burnt with all hands on board.

  L-11, under the command of Oberleutnant zur See von Buttlar, passed the Gunfleet light vessel shortly before 9 p.m. and crossed the coast at Herne Bay about 9.30 p.m. She came in low over the pier from the sea, but rose to 7,000ft immediately on being fired at with rifles by men of the 42nd Provisional Battalion. She went directly over Herne to Canterbury, and at 9.35 p.m. crossed the city from east to west towards Chartham, following the railway to Ashford. At Chartham, she diverged from the line southward, and proceeded parallel with the straight line of Stone Street, which goes directly south from Canterbury with woods on either side and, from the air, would probably look like the straight line of a railway.

  She passed over Hastingleigh about 9.45 p.m. and at Smeeth turned west along the railway. On approaching Ashford at 9.55 p.m. she first made a half circle round the town to the north, and went off directly overhead until she reached the Canterbury road where she turned north-west, dropping bombs. Eight incendiary bombs fell in gardens on the east side of the road and in a cemetery close by. No damage resulted, beyond killing a couple of fowls. These missiles were followed by ten incendiary and two HE Bombs which fell on fields near the sanatorium in the Maidstone road. A sheep was killed, but no other damage done.

  L-11 then went away at about 10.15 p.m. in the direction of Faversham, turned north and when 2–3 miles east of Faversham, turned south again and retraced her course as far as Molash. Here, she circled in various directions, evidently seeking an objective and finally at about 11 p.m. dropped sixteen HE and twenty-five incendiary bombs in open country in the parishes of Badlesmere and Sheldwick near the Leeds Press VAD Hospital. Some injury was done to windows in Badlesmere Church and a few fruit trees, but otherwise no damage was reported and there were no casualties.

  The AA gun at Faversham was unable to come into action owing to the electricity for the searchlight having been cut off from the Powder Works, since the managing director considered that the light was too near the works and betrayed their position.

  At about 11.15 p.m. the Zeppelin went away in a north-east direction, passed over Hernhill and out over the River Swale at Graveney. She was heard over the Swale from the Isle of Sheppey at 11.30 p.m., then passed over the coast again and south of Whitstable, over the Blean Woods and north-west of Herne, where she was again subjected to rifle fire at about 11.40 p.m. by the 57th (West Lancashire) Divisional Cyclist Company. On being fired upon she veered off to the northward and finally passed out to sea about 11.45 p.m. at Herne Bay, being last heard from Shellness, going away into the Thames estuary.

  The speed of L-11 varied greatly. From the Gunfleet to Ashford she flew at 60mph with the favourable wind, but when working northward to Faversham she went very slowly with many tacks and much circling.

  The commander’s orders were no doubt to attack London. The load of incendiary bombs carried can leave no doubt that the raider’s intention had been to attack London in concert with L-10. On making land he abandoned the attempt, and it is not improbable that he next made up his mind to attack Dover from the land side. His courage failed him; doubtless the memory of the destruction of L-12 on 10 August, when attacking the same town, contributed to his pusillanimous behaviour. After circling over Ashford it would seem he made an attempt to find Faversham munition factories or Chatham, and failed to locate his objectives. On his return to Germany, von Buttlar claimed to have bombed London as he had been expected to do.

  The total estimated value of the damage caused by this raid was £35,750.

  7/8 September 1915

  Three Imperial German Army airships set out from their sheds in Belgium to bo
mb London on 7 September.

  LZ-77, under the command of Hauptmann Horn, was first seen from the Kentish Knock lightship going west at 10.05 p.m., and was next sighted over Clacton-on-Sea at 10.40 p.m. going due west. The coast-watching troops at Clacton fired a few rounds of small arms ammunition as she passed. She was over Brightlingsea about 10.50 p.m. and, changing course slightly to the north-west, passed south of Wivenhoe at 10.55 p.m. to Coggeshall which was reached at 11.10 p.m. She then turned south, was west of Kelvedon about 11.15 p.m. and over Witham at 11.20 p.m. Thence she went west to Great Walsham at 11.30 p.m. and, following the River Chelmer, north-west to Felsted at 11.40 p.m., then south-west again to Leaden Roding, where she was at 11.57 p.m. At about 12.15 a.m. she was over Hatfield Broad Oak, the most westerly point to which she penetrated.

  The airship seemed to be wandering slowly, being perhaps in search of a suitable target or in a quest for some navigational marks. Her commander may either have realised that he had lost his way, or he may have thought that he had ventured far enough inland. The former supposition is rendered improbable by the fact that the glare of London was assuredly visible to him at this moment. It is not unlikely that he actually saw the searchlights sweeping the sky for LZ-74 and SL-2; this spectacle may have caused him to hang back.

  He sharply turned his ship east-north-east and passed at a moderate speed over Dunmow at 12.25 a.m. and on to Bocking where, at around 12.35 a.m., he turned north-east passing between Cavendish and Sudbury at 12.50 a.m. and between Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket about 1.05 a.m., arriving in the neighbourhood of Walsham-le-Willows at 1.15 a.m. Here, he altered his course again east and slightly south and dropped his first bomb, an incendiary, at Monk Soham at 1.30 a.m. The bomb failed to ignite and no damage was done.

  Persisting on the same course, LZ-77 deposited its first HE bomb on Framlingham at 1.35 a.m. The bomb fell on farmland covered in wheat stubble and failed to act. The next bomb fell on Great Glemham at 1.40 a.m., where two incendiary bombs dropped among some farm buildings. Here a reaper and a self-binder were destroyed, the total loss being estimated at £7.

  Passing over Benhall and circling over Saxmundham between 1.45 a.m. and 1.50 a.m., the airship followed the railway for about 2 miles in the direction of Leiston, turned north-north-east and passed over Theberton at 1.53 a.m. It was south of Southwold at 2.05 a.m.

  LZ-77 followed the coast to Lowestoft and went out to sea there, in a north-east direction at 2.20 a.m. At 4.05 a.m., explosions were heard out to sea from the direction the airship had been taking. These were believed to be LZ-77 dropping its bombs in the sea, possibly directed at shipping.

  SL-2, commanded by Hauptmann von Wobeser, was first heard at 10.15 p.m. north of the Tongue light vessel, going due west. At 10.50 p.m. she struck the coast at the mouth of the Crouch. She was flying very low, and was fired at with rifles from the lookout post at Holliwell Point. She immediately rose and went on westward, following the river to Burnham.

  Going thence south-west, she reached Rochford soon after 11 p.m. and Wickford at 11.10 p.m., Billericay at 11.24 p.m., Brentwood at 11.27 p.m., Harold Wood three minutes later, Romford at 11.36 p.m. and finally Leytonstone at 11.40 p.m. Here, she turned south following the left bank of the River Lea and making straight for the Isle of Dogs.

  Now she began to release her bombs, seven incendiary and one HE bomb falling at 11.45 p.m. in a line between Havannah Street and Gaverick Street, Millwall. The first failed to ignite. Eleven people were injured by the HE bomb which fell in Gaverick Street, demolishing three houses and severely damaging two others. She then dropped an incendiary bomb which hit a barge in the river off Snowden’s Wharf, damaging it and severely burning two men. This was followed by an HE bomb which fell in the Thames mud above low-water mark on the Millwall side, and three incendiary bombs at Deptford at 11.50 p.m. The first fell in the Royal Victualing Yard, destroying a number of barrels of wine; the second fell on the Supply Reserve Depot, Army Service Corps, breaking the glass roof of a store but otherwise doing no damage; while the third fell in Hughes Fields, setting fire to a small dwelling house and killing the occupants, two adults and three children.

  The airship then followed the Thames in the direction of Woolwich. She crossed Deptford Creek and dropped two incendiary bombs in Norman Road, one doing slight damage, and one in Greenwich Road, which caused none. Another bomb was dropped on South Street and one in Brand Street, neither of which ignited, and one on Royal Hill, which did no harm. A further bomb followed in Greenwich Park close to the Observatory, doing only slight damage to a fence, and three more in the park, one of which did not ignite. A bomb at Woodlands, Beaconsfield Road also did no damage.

  A HE bomb that fell in the garden of Mr Justice Scrutton’s residence at Mycenae Road did not explode, and was followed by an incendiary in Glenluce Road, and one incendiary and one HE bomb in fields near Victoria Road; the explosion of the latter broke a few windows but did no other damage. An incendiary bomb then fell in Charlton Lane, near the Gorse & Groom pub, slightly damaging a fence, followed by another in Pett Street, Woolwich. Finally, an HE bomb fell in Kingsman Street, Woolwich, which broke a number of windows, three people being slightly injured by fragments of glass.

  Then the airship crossed the river. Observed in Woolwich, a 6-pdr gun in the arsenal opened fire at 11.52 p.m. with three rounds of common shell without effect. The airship was reported as flying very high (over 8,000ft) and fast. When across the river, she turned west again, appearing at 12.05 a.m. over Southwark, where she dropped two HE bombs in Keetons Road, damaging two houses and wrecking a greenhouse, followed by one HE in Ilderton Road, where a house was wrecked and six people killed.

  Crossing the Surrey Canal, the airship dropped her next bomb, an HE, in Sharratt Street, where a house was badly damaged and five people seriously injured. Another HE bomb fell in Hunsdon Road, New Cross, injuring a policeman, followed by another in Monson Road, which damaged a school but caused no casualties. Two HE bombs then landed on sidings of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway at New Cross, causing slight damage and injuring a policeman, followed immediately by another HE in Monson Road, which damaged a school but caused no casualties. Two more HE bombs again fell on sidings of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway, this time damaging the permanent way and some rolling stock.

  Two HE bombs destroyed a house and severely damaged two others in Childeric Road, killing a man, a woman and one child, and injuring two women and four children. These were followed by two more HE bombs, which fell on Cliften Hill, demolishing one house and damaging two others and a school in Angus Street. Two adults were killed, three adults and three children injured. The last bomb, also HE, fell in Edward Street, damaging 100 houses but causing no casualties.

  The SL-2 then passed on between Brockley and Lewisham at 12.27 a.m. and apparently followed the railway to Chislehurst, where two airships were seen at 12.33 a.m. The other was LZ-74, which was now following SL-2. The latter ship passed over Bexley Heath and reached Erith at 12.40 a.m. Having found the Thames again, she followed it to Purfleet, where she crossed to Essex at 12.45 a.m. and steered a steady north-east course for the coast via Pitsea, Rayleigh at 1.05 a.m. and Mundon about 1.20 a.m. to Maldon at 1.25 a.m., past Thorrington at 1.50 a.m., Walton-on-the-Naze about 2 a.m. and Harwich at 2.10 a.m. Here she was fired at by pom-poms on Beacon Hill and Landguard, without result. At 2.15 a.m. she passed Felixstowe, and at 2.20 a.m. was out at sea, flying at an estimated height of 5,000–6,000ft and at a speed of 40–50mph.

  Unfortunately the searchlights of Harwich could not be used as a naval aeroplane went up in pursuit from Felixstowe and it was considered that the light would have dazzled pilot Lieutenant Commander Hope Vere. The aircraft subsequently landed at Trimley and was wrecked, Hope Vere escaping unhurt.

  SL-2 came to grief on her return to Belgium. After suffering a failure to one of her engines and being low on fuel she attempted to land and, whilst descending, went out of control and fell, striking a house
and severely damaging herself. It was supposed, at the time, that she had been damaged by gunfire as a large hole was observed in one of the gondolas, but it is probable that this was a result of her accident since nothing seemed to be wrong with her until she reached Belgium.

  LZ-74, commanded by Hauptmann George, came in over Bradwell-juxta-Mare at 10.55 p.m. and followed the course of the River Blackwater to Maldon, where she was heard at about 11.10 p.m. She was at Danbury at 11.15 p.m., was seen at Great Baddow at 11.20 p.m. and was near Chelmsford five minutes later. She then set her course for the valley of the Lea, via Ongar at 11.35 p.m., North Weald Bassett at 11.40 p.m. and Broxbourse at 11.55 p.m. There she turned south along the river and railway, and reached Cheshunt at about midnight, flying at an estimated height of 9,000ft.

  Here, she threw her first bombs. Eighteen HE Bombs (one of which failed to explode) and twenty-seven incendiaries fell between Windmill Lane and Turkey Street. Astonishingly, no casualties were caused. Minor damage to property resulted in Windmill Lane, where the first HE bomb fell, wrecking six houses and slightly damaging five; while at the rear of Turner’s Hill, nine HE and five incendiary bombs fell, seriously damaging a coach house and garage and breaking the windows of a large number of cottages.

  On the Great Eastern Railway, Cheshunt and Edmonton branch, two HE bombs damaged the permanent way; and glass greenhouses were wrecked at nurseries in Park Lane and Bullsmoor Lane by six HE bombs, with three small fires caused by a further twenty-one incendiaries. No damage was caused by the last bomb, an incendiary, which fell in a field near Turkey Street, on the north side of the New River.

  The airship was now engaged by AA guns at Waltham Abbey, which fired one round from a 3in gun and two from a 6-pdr without result. She followed the right bank of the River Lea towards London. Edmonton was passed at about 12.10 a.m. and Finsbury Park at around 12.15 a.m.